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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Kinkead Ridge: These are NOT your grandma’s Ohio wines
Ron Barrett and Nancy Bentley of Kinkead Ridge winery (photo courtesy of Kinkead Ridge)
RIPLEY, Oh. — Nancy Bentley just laughs and rolls her eyes when a visitor suggests her Kinkead Ridge winery partner Ron Barrett is more the “glass-half-empty” half of their relationship.
“With him, the glass wouldn’t even be half-empty. It would be three-quarters empty,” Bentley says.
It’s true.
I’ve seen Ron and Nancy in action before, at wine festivals and other venues, where Bentley - the sunny, marketing-savvy member of this duo - will pour a sample of a newly released Kinkead Ridge wine and begin to extol its virtues, only to have Ron interrupt and begin to explain everything that’s wrong with the wine, everything that was wrong with the growing season that produced it, the vines, the diseases, etc. Then, more often than not, the wine turns out to be delicious, and occasionally spectacular — especially given that it was grown and produced on a hilltop in southern Ohio.
So when Ron Barrett actually begins to wax eloquent about the quality of his 2005 red wines — which are set for release this weekend (Labor Day weekend) at the winery in Ripley - I nearly fall out of my chair in shock. Who are you really, and what did the aliens do with the real Ron Barrett?
Turns out it’s really Ron - and turns out he’s right about his 2005s. Earlier this month, I got a sneak peak at ’05 Cabernet Sauvignon ($17.95), Cabernet Franc ($17.95) and Syrah ($19.95). All are excellent - not just excellent “for an Ohio wine,” but excellent, period.
Although I haven’t tasted through every Ohio winery’s portfolio, for my money, no one in the Buckeye state is producing as consistently high-quality red wines across the board as Ron Barrett is from his tiny hilltop north of Ripley, Ohio. These wines - particularly the cab franc and the cabernet sauvignon - are world-class wines, well-priced, and they show what Ohio-grown vinifera grapes can do if they’re planted at the right site, and are produced and bottled with care. (The ’04 reds, some of which are still on local wine retailers’ shelves, are also impressive, as are the 2006 whites, released earlier this year.)
Now mind you, Barrett - a former engineer who grew pinot noir in Oregon before returning to his native Ohio — can still talk about things that aren’t going so well. He’s disappointed more of his neighbors along the Ohio River east of Cincinnati haven’t followed his lead and planted high-quality European grape varietals in their vineyards. The folks in charge of Ohio agricultural and wine marketing and support groups focus attention on the northeast corner of the state rather than nurturing areas such as the Ohio River Valley, he says. And the last two vintages have brought their challenges.
Most of his 2006 reds didn’t match the quality of his 2005s, courtesy of a cool, wet autumn (“My 2006 syrah tastes like it was grown in the Finger Lakes,” Barrett says. Ahh, there’s the Ron I recognize.).
His 2007 crop, still on the vine, was hit hard by the “Easter Weekend Massacre,” the deep freeze that followed close on the heels of some unseasonably warm temperatures and wreaked havoc with the vines and blooms of some grape varietals. There will be very little white wine bottled in 2007, he says, and some of his red varietals, including cab franc, also were adversely affected.
But then Barrett offers an uncharacteristic glimmer of hope. His 2007 cabernet sauvignon grapes appear to be the best he has ever grown, he says. He can’t wait to get them into the winery to see what he can do with them.
Suddenly, the glass seems half full. Maybe Nancy was wrong, after all.
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
There’s still hope for the 2007 crop at Kinkead Ridge, at least from some vines. (Photo by Mark Fisher)Tweet
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