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closeTwo Ky. wineries to host festivals this weekend
Kentucky wine industry hits a new zenith: two festivals in three daysBy Cheryl Truman ctruman@herald-leader.com
Fun facts about Talon Winery
Best-selling wine: Sweet Evening Breeze, described as ”an elegant riesling-style white wine, semi-sweet with tropical undertones.“ It's not named after beloved Lexington drag queen ”Sweet Evening Breeze.“
Which sells better, sweet wine or dry? Sweet.
Acreage: 5 in grapes, 300 on the entire farm.
How long has it been there? The winery celebrates its fourth anniversary this month. Its founders bought the farm in 1998.
About the sign: The entrance boasts a sign that says ”In vino veritas“ — which is Latin for, literally, ”truth in wine,“ but more colloquially, it's the way that a glass of wine loosens the tongue.
What's in a bottle? For the equestrian series bottle featuring the John Ward mother-and-foal painting Mother Love, the following grapes were included: Chamburein, Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Norton and Merlot.
What's new at the Kentucky Wine & Arts Festival? Talon wine truffles — chocolate plus wine — made by a Lexington candy maker.
If you go
Kentucky Wine & Arts Festival 2008
What: Original art, food, performing arts and children's activities.
When: Noon-7 p.m. June 14, noon-5 p.m. June 15.
Where: Talon Winery & Vineyards, 7086 Tates Creek Rd.
Admission: Free
Online: www.talonwine.com.
Central Kentucky WineFest
What: Wines from 14 Kentucky wineries, plus Kentucky Proud cheese and produce from Kentucky farms. Chateau du Vieux Corbeau Winery will unveil its cabernet sauvignon at the event.
When: 4:30-8:30 p.m. June 13.
Where: Chateau du Vieux Corbeau Winery at Old Crow Inn Bed & Breakfast, 471 Stanford Rd., Danville.
Tickets: $20; includes unlimited samples of wine, cheese and produce. Groups of 10 or more may buy tickets at a reduced rate. Proceeds benefit the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society and Brenda Cowan Coalition of Kentucky, which provides assistance to area families.
Call: (859)236-1808.
Online: www.oldcrowinn.com.
IF YOU GO: Central Kentucky WineFest
Yes, you have your Ichthus this weekend, your Great American Brass Band Festival, Shakespeare at Equus Run, the Festival of the Bluegrass.
Then there's a weekend in the slow lane, where a glass of wine and the countryside rise up to meet you. It's the weekend of not one, but two wine festivals: amazing times in Kentucky, which usually is better known for its louder pleasures.
The grapes are tiny now on the vines at Lexington's Talon Winery and Vineyards; they're the size of big pollen grains, green-tinged. But come back in July and August, says Talon spokeswoman Lori Baumgardner, and the fruit will be so lush that you can't see the supporting posts.
The 300-acre farm on which Talon sits — and will hold a two-day festival this weekend — used to grow tobacco. Now it grows grapes (six varieties on 5 acres), makes wine and hosts samplings, tours and events such as weddings.
Baumgardner's mother, attorney Harriet Allen, and her stepfather, Charles Tackett, started the vineyard and winery on the rolling Bluegrass. Says Baumgardner: ”My mom said it was always her dream to have a vineyard, and she doesn't do anything small.“
The fruit eventually will be harvested by hand, sorted and then delivered to the ”crush pad.“ Then it's on to processing. Eventually the grapes might wind up in a Sweet Evening Breeze, the winery's best seller, or a Coyote Red. (The winery doesn't grow all of its needed grapes on its land but says it tries to buy most of what it needs from Kentucky growers.)
The winery produces 7,000 to 8,000 gallons of wine a year, or about 36,000 to 42,000 bottles. It's a grapey, yeasty environment. Under state law, the winery can produce as much as 50,000 gallons a year. Talon has a lot of room to grow.
Does winemaker Kerry Jolliffe have a favorite wine? He does: cabernet sauvignon, ”the funnest to say and the funnest to drink,“ he says.
Sweeter wines, he says, are more popular but harder to work with — the sugar-yeast combination is trickier because sugars are the food source for the yeast.
The wine is stored in oak barrels produced by a company in East Bernstadt, leading Jolliffe to quip: ”It's Kentucky fruit in Kentucky oak.“
Says Baumgardner of the vineyard and winery, which also hosts a summer concert series: ”You're in Fayette County. You're not that far away — but when you're out here, you feel away from everything.“
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