Local Harvest

Load your Thanksgiving table with all-natural foods from friendly neighborhood farmers. We'll show you where to find everything from carrots and beets (Madison's Ridgeview Farm), to wine (Kinkead Ridge Estate Winery in Ripley), to organic turkeys (Date Filbrun Farms in West Alexandria).

By Catherine S. Vodrey

Wine

It's hard to believe that only a generation ago, most Americans thought wine was for snobs and that all wine came from France. A natural deduction, perhaps. But now that you can get wine from New York and California and Virginia and Oregon and even New Mexico, it's worth remembering that Ohio has its own share of old vines and young vintners. Herein, a brief rundown of wineries within quaffing distance.

Ron Barrett and Nancy Bentley moved to Ohio from Oregon in 1997 to launch KINKEAD RIDGE ESTATE WINERY, about an hour outside of Cincinnati in Ripley, Ohio. Kinkead produces syrah, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, viognier, and riesling grapes on five acres of limestone-rich vineland. "We're unusual in that a lot of wineries in Ohio import their fruit from elsewhere, while we grow all our own grapes right here," says Bentley. "That's actually the meaning of 'estate winery'--it shows that you are producing the actual fruit on-tie."

Set on top of a ridge overlooking the Ohio River, Kinkead commands more than just a great view. "The soils here are several hundred million years old and there's several hundred feet of limestone," says Barrett, who honed his winemaking skills in Oregon under the tutelage of wine avatar Dick Erath. "People think fertility is wonderful, but you don't want it for grapes. This soil is relatively low in fertility, which is great for grapes. This soil is truly world-class; it would stand with anything in France." Hyperbole? Barrett doesn't think so. Kinkead is not an organic winery, but he points out that Cincinnati's backyard is an overlooked viticultural area. It turns out that about 45 percent of the wine produced in the U.S. in the middle part of the 19th century came from Cincinnati and the surrounding area.

KINKEAD RIDGE ESTATE WINERY

904 Hamburg Street, Ripley (937) 392-6077, www.KinkeadRidge.com. Call ahead for tastings and tours for small groups.