Wine Tasting At The 2019 Kentucky Fruit & Vegetable Conference
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- January 9, 2019
The 2019 Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference was held on January 7 and January 8 at the Embassy Suites. During this conference, there was a session that was dedicated to creating wine in the bluegrass state. Local vineyards came and could only showcase wines that were created from fruits grown in Kentucky.
On Monday, the University of Kentucky Winery did a short course on grape and wine and on Tuesday of the conference, their session was on growing grapes in Kentucky. After all of the Monday sessions, there was a wine tasting with the vineyards that had wines created from fruits grown in Kentucky. The general consensus: the wines were very good and people had a great time tasting them. Many people don’t know, but there are around 70 wineries in the state of Kentucky and quite a few of them are on the bourbon trail.
Wineries that participated in the tasting are:
- Rising Sons Home Farm Winery
- 1922 House Vineyards & Winery
- Wight-Meyer Vineyards & Winery
- Hamon Haven Winery
- Reids Livery
- Rose Hill Farm Winery
- Baker-Bird Winery
- Brooks Hill Winery
- Up The Creek Winery – Won 2019 Commissioner’s Cup for Best Boutique Wine
- Christianburg Farms Vineyard & Winery
- Jean Farris Winery
- Prodigy Vineyards & Winery – Won 2019 Commissioner’s Cup for Best Sweet/Dessert/Fruit Wine
- Copper and Kings Distillery
The University of Kentucky Winery is a research and education extension program. “The 
program at UK is set up to support the industry with research extension and we also have classes for students,” says Patsy E. Wilson, Extension Specialist – Viticulture Department of Horticulture at the University of Kentucky. “The UK winery is set up to do different wine and research related projects only using grapes grown on campus farms.” Grapes used for their wine is grown at the UK Research Farm (a.k.a. South Farm) at the corner of Nicholasville and Man O’ War.
The purpose for this program is to teach students about the industry in hopes that they go into it and help build it up in Kentucky. Give the students the knowledge of which grapes grow best in this state and what tastes and flavors they can get out of the different fruits. However, not all grapes can grow in the Kentucky soil. Patsy says “Growing a Merlot in Kentucky doesn’t happen” because the grape used doesn’t do well in Kentucky soil or weather.
Wine made at the Horticultural Research Farm is sold at two different locations: On Campus on University Dr. and at the Farm on Emmert Farm Ln.
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