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Sunday, January 20, 2008
Life after tobacco: the Meranda-Nixon Winery
Transitioning away from tobacco as a cash crop can be a wrenching experience, as many farm families across southern Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and other states can attest.
Seth Meranda found an alternative to tobacco for his great-grandfather’s farm, which is located north of Ripley in southern Ohio, near the banks of the Ohio River.
He planted wine grapes and launched the Meranda-Nixon Winery (his wife Tina brought the “Nixon” half of the name).
This very young enterprise somehow escaped my attention when I was driving through the back roads of Brown County last year, but its wines have started showing up on the shelves of Dayton-area wine shops, and yesterday (1-19-08), Seth and Tina poured four of their wines at the Arrow Wine & Spirits regular Saturday tasting.
There were some pleasant surprises in the lineup, starting with Meranda-Nixon’s Catawba ($8.99), made from grapes Seth brings in from the Lake Erie growing region in northern Ohio (he’ll have his own estate-grown Catawba a couple of years down the road). It was simply the best version of this wine I’ve tasted from Ohio. This pink wine is not cloyingly sweet, nor overtly foxy, but is instead a clean, refreshing sipper. Meranda credits some advice and guidance from Nick Ferrante of Ferrante Vineyards, who suggested early picking to preserve acidity and hold down the foxiness quotient. The advice worked like a charm.
Who knew Catawba could produce wine like this? (Answer: I should have known, but didn’t.)
Meranda-Nixon’s estate-grown Traminette ($12.99), a fruity white wine with zesty acidity, also impressed, as did the red wine made from DeChaunac grapes and labeled Red Oak Creek ($9.99).
The winery is still a work in progress, with new vineyards coming on line within the next few years. Located not far from the high-achieving Kinkead Ridge winery, which we profiled last August, Meranda-Nixon will be one Ohio winery to keep an eye on.
Because the world could probably use a few less cigarettes — and a few more bottles of wine.
Mark Fisher
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