A local winery that suffered serious crop damage held a grand re-opening last weekend under new management.
Kinkead Ridge Winery is back in business and held a grand re-opening over Labor Day weekend, featuring a number of new wines for visitors to peruse. Last June, Cleveland-based couple Don and Anne-Marie Bowers completed a purchase of Kinkead Ridge from Ron Barrett and Nancy Bentley, after the pair put the winery up for sale. The winery held a soft re-opening on July 25, before getting the word out for a Labor Day weekend opening on a larger scale.
During their Labor Day event, the winery sold wines under two new labels, River Village Cellars and Lowell Marie. Despite not having any Kinkead Ridge Estate wines available for purchase, due to a need for the wine to spend more time in their bottles, Anne-Marie Bowers said that Kinkead Ridge did well on their first big weekend.
“The grand opening went very well,” Anne-Marie Bowers said in a phone interview. “We were very pleased and had a lot of new customers who didn’t know that we even existed so that was nice, and we had a lot of regular customers who were pleased with the wines. They seemed to be pleased with the new brand and traffic was pretty steady. It was a beautiful weekend and it was nice to have that many people stop in.”
The new Lowell Marie brand features three white wines and one red wine. The white wines feature a Pinot Gris, a Roussanne – Viognier blend, and a Sauvignon Blanc – Semillon. The red wine features a Merlot. The grapes from the Lowell Marie brand are from California and Washington state, but the grapes are crushed and the wine is made on site in Ripley.
“We did sell a lot of those,” Anne-Marie Bowers said. “People were pleased. I’m glad to hear we are able to keep up the good reputation of quality wine made at Kinkead Ridge.”
Anne-Marie Bowers said that the plan is to sell the Kinkead Ridge Estate wines on Nov. 21, just prior to Thanksgiving. The winery received a number of pre-orders, and these wines are the last of the 2013 red grape crop of local Ripley Kinkead Ridge grapes.
But with the new wine labels, the idea is to experiment with grape blends to find a unique taste and experience that the Bowers hope can’t be found in Southwest Ohio.
“We hope what sets it apart is the unique flavors and unique blends,” Anne-Marie Bowers said. “My husband (Don) is a really big fan of varietals and a big fan of blends. So we’re hoping what sets us apart is that people will like the flavor, that they will like the body, blends, flavor, quality, that it’s going to be unique that they may or may not find locally in Southern Ohio. That’s our hope.”
Anne-Marie Bowers said that looking forward to next year, the winery is hoping to debut a Sauvignon Blanc in Spring 2016 and a Zinfandel in Fall 2016.