According to the label, it’s a “semi-sweet wine made with aromatic Concord grapes from the rich Ohio Valley. A tart beginning is followed by a polished body.”
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The arrival of wine at Carillon Brewing Company continues a Dayton legacy that goes back further than a century.
In the 1850s, there was a vast winery where the Dayton Country Club is now located. Kramer's Winery and Pleasure Gardens was a massive vineyard that was a part of what was then called the “American Winelands”.
“We’re doing it the historic way to give people a taste of what it was like,” said Brady Kress, Dayton History President and CEO.
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Using both recipes and techniques modeled after those used in Dayton in the 1850s, Carillon fermented and aged the Ohio Valley grapes in American Oak. Not cutting any corners, the brewery is sticking to their word and using a tradition ‘corking bench’ and finally, sealing the bottles with a wax drip.
“We tasted this barrel this morning and it’s good. It certainly smells like a fruity, concord grape but when you taste it, it really is a semi-sweet. It’s much drier than what people would normally expect a concord to be,” Kress said.
The brewery estimates that they’ll be able to produce 1,200 bottles with the barrels they have for this year. You can taste Dayton’s wine history for yourself by grabbing a bottle at Carillon Brewing Co. for $10.
“We’re getting to work, it’s a fun experiment,” Kress said.
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