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2006 Kinkead Ridge Red
Revelation

Review from Sandra Silfven, Wine Writer
Detroit Daily News, October 2008
Kinkead Ridge Revelation Ohio River Valley
2006, $14.95: 2006 Kinkead Ridge Revelation Red Wine, Ohio Valley:
This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot has
body, depth of flavors, good weight, good balance. Wave the glass
under your nose and experience the perfume of cassis, bell pepper,
dark chocolate, tart cranberry and stone fruit, and smoke off the
barrels. On the palate, it’s still tightly wound but jam-packed with
all the stuff that matures into a great wine – dusty tannins, layers
of flavor, acidity – all of which stream across the palate to the
finish. Imagine the weight of dark chocolate in the mouth – that’s
what this wine is like."
Note from Nancy: This review is from October
2008, in February 2009, this wine has opened up in the bottle, and is
no longer tightly wound.
Also featured in "Wine Finds" in the
January/February WineBuzz magazine. |
Released September 2008 and
now SOLD OUT at the winery. If you're interested in this wine, retailers
around the state may still have some. Our vintages are sometimes sold out
within six months of their release.
Hand-harvested on October 11
through October 25, this Bordeaux-style blend has hints of black cherry,
plum and currant which precede a rich, complex finish. The grapes were
cold-soaked, fermented in small bins with hand punch-downs, and aged in
premium oak barrels. 68% Cabernet Sauvignon with 18% Cabernet Franc and
14% Petit Verdot. Medal winner, American Wine Society International
Competition
Production: 404 cases. $14.95
This wine was just
rated the top red wine in the Ohio/Michigan Wine Clash... 60 wines were
vetted in Ann Arbor and Columbus by a prestigious tasting panel. It's a
steal at $14.95. More than half of the inventory that was released on
Sept. 4 is sold. Get it now. |
This is the only Kinkead Ridge red wine from this 2006 vintage.
Rarely, we get an extraordinary phone call.
Jeremy gets it... how hard we work; how passionate
we are about fine wine.
From Jeremy, wine store employee, MacClarens,
Columbus Ohio.
"Hello there Nancy and Ron. This is Jeremy
who works at MacClarens in Grandview in Columbus, and I just want you to
know that I just tried this wine; I tried the Revelation and I thought
to myself immediately, Ron Barrett must be really, really happy that he
can make wine like this. This wine is an epiphany. It's absolutely
fabulous, as is the Cab Franc, the second label, and I just want to
thank both of you for pursuing and making this stuff; and I am at a
crossroads deciding whether to tell anybody about this wine and sell it,
or drink it all with my friends. So I'm just telling you that maybe you
should hear once in a while just how delightful that wine that you make,
makes people like me so happy. Thanks very much. I'm sure you're out
busting your tails doing more, but please take my sincere
congratulations on a really nice pair of wines."
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2006 River Village Cellars
Cabernet Franc

Silver Medal, Finger Lakes International Wine
Competition. A great showing, considering this was a difficult
vintage, cold and wet, resulting in a lighter-bodied wine. |
Hand-harvested on October 11,
this wine displays a harmonious complexity with raspberry overtones and
modest tannins. The grapes were cold-soaked, fermented in small bins with
hand punch-downs, and aged in premium American and French oak barrels. A
fine companion for beef, turkey, pork and richly flavored stews. Medal
winner, American Wine Society International Competition.
Production: 375 cases. $12.95 |
Why do we have a second label? Let me quote Baron Philippe de Rothschild:
"The baron hit upon the idea of creating a second-tier brand after a
disappointing harvest left him with a large quantity of wine that was not
up to the quality of previous Mouton vintages. At first, he called this
wine Cadet de Mouton, indicating that it was a junior member of the Mouton
Rothschild family of wines, but soon changed that to the shorter and more
elegant Mouton Cadet. His move had its doubters but the strategy worked
and in later years, when he didn't have any of his own wine to spare for
it, he produced Mouton Cadet from wines bought and blended from other
growers across Bordeaux. It became one of the world's most popular French
wine brands, selling about a million cases a year."
Here at Kinkead Ridge, we know that 2006 was a cold, wet harvest. In
the Mouton model, we second-labeled the wines and reduced the prices. They
are fantastic value everyday wines. The last time we second labeled a wine
was the 2005 Viognier/Roussanne, which went through malolactic
fermentation and was very different from the 2004. Second labelling this
wine at a price point of $9.95 gained us a huge amount of respect in the
marketplace. People know they can trust the Kinkead Ridge first label to
be an ultra-premium wine; and the River Village Cellars second label to be
a value-priced everyday wine. |
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2006 River Village Cellars Syrah

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Released September 2009 and
now SOLD OUT at the winery. If you're interested in this wine, retailers
around the state may still have some. Our vintages are sometimes sold out
within six months of their release.
Hand-harvested on October 18,
this spicy, intense and luxurious wine has excellent balance and notes of
earth, plum, cloves, black pepper and dark berry. The grapes were
cold-soaked, fermented in small bins, and punched down by hand. Oak-aged.
Excellent with beef, lamb, braised chicken and spicy cuisine. Medal
winner, American Wine Society International Competition.
Production: 179 cases. $10.95 |
Selling like crazy. Don't miss it. Top recognition in the Ohio/Michigan
wine clash. |
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2009 Wine Releases |
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2007 Kinkead Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon

Releasing Labor Day Weekend 2009 |
Hand-harvested on October 12th, this dark ruby, well
structured, complex wine displays classic Cabernet aromas of cassis, plum
and black cherry. Aged in premium French and American oak. Small lot
fermentations with hand punch-downs and classic small scale winemaking
techniques were used to create this wine. Enjoy with beef, lamb or wild
game. Alcohol 15.0% by volume. This wine is stylistically much more
similar to big California Cabernets than to our historic European style.
Production: 246 cases. $18.95 Production was limited due to the Easter
frost of 2007. Alcohol 14.9% by volume. |
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2007 Kinkead Ridge Cabernet Franc (blended with
Petit Verdot)

Releasing Labor Day Weekend 2009
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Hand-harvested October 1st (Franc) and 15th (Petit
Verdot), this complex wine's fragrant aromas of violet and black cherry
precede a rich finish with chocolate and raspberry overtones. Small lot
fermentations with hand punch-downs and classic small scale winemaking
techniques were used to create this wine. Enjoy with beef, turkey, pork
and salmon. Aged in premium French and American oak. 84% Cabernet Franc
and 16% Petit Verdot. Alcohol 14.9% by volume. Production: 216 cases.
$17.95. Production was limited due to the Easter frost of 2007. Alcohol
15.0% by volume
Gaiter/Brecher, Wall Street Journal on Petit Verdot
Why do producers select the particular varieties they blend to create a
specific bottling?
There are many reasons, from adding complexity to simply including the
varieties that are growing in the vineyard. Here's an example. In our
recent tasting of "Costco Cabernets" -- widely distributed American
Cabernet Sauvignons that we found at Costco and Sam's Club -- we found it
interesting that three of our five favorites included some Petit Verdot.
In fact, our favorite wine, a 2005 from Charles Krug, was fully 9% Petit
Verdot (along with 6% Syrah, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec, 1% Merlot and
1% Carignan). Petit Verdot is one of the classic grapes of Bordeaux -- it
adds color, tannins and maybe some spiciness to a blend -- but it was
never much of a factor in the U.S. That is changing as more wineries seek
to add depth to their wines. The number of acres planted to Petit Verdot
in California has tripled since 2000, though it's still small (1,743 as of
2007). And it's not just California: We noticed that the most recent
Assemblage blend from Paumanok Vineyards on New York's Long Island, the
2005, is 22% Petit Verdot.
Charles Krug didn't add Petit Verdot to its wines until 2001. Why now? We
spoke to Peter Mondavi Jr., a co-proprietor of the winery. (His father,
Peter Sr., is the brother of the late Robert Mondavi.) Mr. Mondavi told us
that the use of Petit Verdot represented "a certain sea change in
philosophy on our end," a move away from the feeling that wines needed to
be 100% of a varietal. "We were in that purist camp and some other people
around us began blending more, making proprietary blends. When we started
our [Mondavi Family Reserve] Generations wines in 1991, we got some
experience with blending and it opened our eyes up, what blending could do
with these varietals. It makes more complex, more interesting wines. We
blended with Cabernet Franc first and then added Petit Verdot in 2001 and
a small amount of Malbec." The Petit Verdot, he said, is "a beautiful
complement to Cabernet Sauvignon. It has added subtle complexities and
nuances. It's not just taking Cab and making it darker, not just
increasing those classic Cab tannins. It's taking on other complexities
and supplementing them. It's adding more dimensions," he said, explaining
that its tannins "tend to boost up the middle body of the Cabernet."
As more wineries grow a little Petit Verdot for blending, more are also
making a small amount as a stand-alone varietal, often available only at
the winery. A long time ago, we were so eager to find out what Petit
Verdot tasted like as a varietal that John talked to wineries all over
California before he finally found one that made a small amount of it:
Guenoc. He ordered two bottles as a Christmas present for Dottie (well,
yes, this is romantic in its own way), but the winery wouldn't ship it to
us, so we had to have it trans-shipped by another company. We still
remember the dark, spicy wine.
A few years ago, we bought a 1998 Petit Verdot when we visited
Murphy-Goode Estate Winery in Geyserville and now seemed like a good time
to open it up. Murphy-Goode first made Petit Verdot as a varietal in 1997
when there was enough left over from blending. "We have used the Petit
Verdot in numerous wines over the years," winemaker David Ready told us.
"The adds have ranged from 0.5% to 12%. The Petit Verdot adds a variety of
qualities including color, depth and richness." Murphy-Goode now releases
a varietal Petit Verdot in most vintages. It didn't make one in 2006 or
2008, but made 200 cases of 2007, which will be released in the next year
or so.
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2008 Kinkead Ridge Viognier/Roussanne
57% Viognier/43% Roussanne

Releasing Memorial Day Weekend 2009 |
A Rhone blend of aristocratic varieties. The
Viognier was hand-harvested on September 27 and the Roussanne on October
2. This complex and enticing wine has the kiwi and guava aromas of
Roussanne merging with the orange blossom and golden raisin aromas of
Viognier. An excellent, dry wine with fish, shellfish, and poultry. Serve
slightly chilled. Alcohol 14.8% by volume. Production: 367 cases. $15.95 |
The 2003 Viognier/Roussanne was rated as one of the Top 100 Exciting Wine
Finds in the World, Tom Stevenson, British editor of the New Sotheby's
Wine Encyclopedia. The 2005 was put out under our second label River
Village Cellars. The 2006 won a Gold Medal at the American Wine Society
Competition. The 2007 vintage was frosted, only 48 cases were made, so it
was not entered into competition. Don't miss this blockbuster! |
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2008 Kinkead Ridge white Revelation

Releasing Memorial Day Weekend 2009
GOLD: Best of Appellation,
www.appellationamerica.com |
Hand-harvested on September 20th, this winegrower's
blend is crisp, bright, aromatic and refreshing. The wine has aromas of
pineapple, grapefruit and melon, with a honey note and a mineral finish.
This zesty wine with bracing acidity stylistically resembles a French more
than a California character. A classic accompaniment to full-flavored
cuisine. In 2007 this blend was
predominantly Roussanne. This is like the 2006, a Sauvignon Blanc and
Semillon blend with other miscellaneous whites including a small amount of
Chardonnay. Production: 147 cases. Alcohol 14.0% by volume. $13.95 |
The 2007 Revelation was predominantly Roussanne, so this is like our prior
vintages which were Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Review from Andrew
Hall, wine blogger Columbus
2008 Revelation White. Predominantly
Sauvignon Blanc, this was the clear winner in the 2008 white line-up.
Crisp mineral and herbal nose with nice persistence. Good lines and cut.
Nice intensity of the acidity and mineral. Nice integration which
carries its 14%abv well. A revisit showed an elegant side to this wine.
Very good, best white Revelation I’ve had. Wide open for business as
well. |
2008 Kinkead Ridge Riesling

Releasing Memorial Day Weekend 2009
DOUBLE GOLD: Best of Appellation,
www.appellationamerica.com |
Hand-harvested on September 29th, honeysuckle,
banana, peach and ripe pear notes precede a flinty finish. This racy
wine's floral front palate and sweetness balance its crisp acidity. The
grapes were cold-fermented to preserve aromatic components. Serve chilled
with cold meats, fresh salads, light cheeses, poultry, veal and Asian
cuisine. Residual sugar 1.2%. 100% Riesling. Alcohol 12.1% by volume.
Production: 225 cases. $11.95 |
Review from Andrew Hall, wine blogger, Columbus
2008 Riesling Good nose with some verve and apple blossom notes. Nice
citrus fruit notes here, but lacks the mineral verve and spine I want
from Riesling. Like the V/R, ripeness of the ‘08 vintage doesn’t work
for me in whites, but the alcohol is balanced here and I think is a
little residual sugar which gives it body, not sweetness. (A lot of
wines have this, but most don’t tell you.) I think a little time to
relax from bottling will bring this to life.
Riesling Renaissance: America
From "Riesling Rules", www. RieslingRules.com
Click here
"Once again Riesling in on the rise among wine lovers. According to
ACNielsen, Riesling is the #1 fastest growing varietal for the 52-week
period ending December 15th, 2007... The variety's recent success has much
to do with our evolving tastes in food and wine and our interest in food
an wine pairing. Top American chefs and sommeliers have known for some
time that Riesling is an extraordinary food companion, especially for
"challenging" dishes... Riesling is a versatile food wine because its
crisp acidity cuts through the richness of meats and sauces, while its
fruit sweetness pairs well with spicy cuisine and lighter, more flavorful
food styles... And relative to other great wines of the world, Riesling
still represents an amazing value in terms of price for quality. This is a
great time to be, or become, a lover of Riesling."
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2008 River Village Cellars Traminette

Releasing Memorial Day Weekend 2009 |
Hand-harvested October 4th. Traminette is a new
world hybrid grape with a pronounced varietal character reminiscent of
Gewurztraminer from Alsace, which is one of its parents. Its fruity and
spicy nutmeg flavors, floral aroma and refreshing finish make it a perfect
match for Southwest and Asian cuisine. Served on its own, well chilled, it
makes a great sipping wine. 100% Traminette. Grapes grown in the Ohio
River Valley by Rock Springs Vineyard, Kentucky. Production 73 cases.
Alcohol 13% by volume. |
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There is no 2007
Syrah. |
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2008 Harvest Report
As I write this in late February, the wines from 2008 have been cleaned up
and are showing very well. After a cool spring which delayed bloom, the
weather turned generally warm and dry until late October. Harvest dates
were later than usual due to the late bloom, but full maturity was
obtained on all varieties save for Petit Verdot. Brix levels were mid-20s
on some varietals.
Despite extensive shoot and crop thinning, yields were high, and in some
cases higher than desired. Sugar and flavor intensity levels were also
high with more complexity shown in the wines than in 2007. Overall, in
this winegrower's opinion, 2008 might be the best vintage yet for Kinkead
Ridge. Stars for 2008 include the White Revelation (to be released
Memorial Day weekend 2009) and the Cabernet Sauvignon (releasing Labor Day
weekend 2010). See above for a description of the past vintages.
Ron Barrett, Winegrower
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Click here to request a copy of
our retail outlets. There are two wine stores in Cincinnati
that can ship within Ohio or out-of-state.
If you can't find our wines, please have your local wine store
call us at 937-392-6077, and we can arrange a delivery to them for your
convenience. We do use natural cork, the best quality we can buy. But
cork is a natural product, subject to failure. If you purchase a bottle
of our wine that you believe is corked, please return the bottle, cork
and contents to us or the wine store. We will arrange for a replacement
or refund.
For information about older
vintages, please check the "Earlier Vintages" link above. Some
of these wines may still be available in wine stores and
restaurants throughout Ohio.
A quote from Loren
Sonkin on Mark Squire's bulletin board, regarding the
2008 Ohio/Michigan Wine Challenge:
"The final group was miscellaneous reds. The group’s favorites
mirrored mine for this flight. They were the 2006 Kinkead Ridge
Revelation Red, the 2006 River Village Syrah, the 2005 South
River Karma, and the 2006 Fenn Valley Cabernet Franc. All of
these are $15 or less. Mine, and the groups’ favorite came from
Kinkead Ridge.
They are an Ohio Valley winery just east of Cincinnati and
in my opinion making the best red wines in Ohio.
I would easily spend the $15 on the Revelation
or around $20 for the Cabernet Sauvignon (which was not in the tasting)."
Click here for a one page summary of our 2009 releases
Click here for a one page summary of our 2008 releases
Click here for a one page summary of our 2007 releases
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"Rest assured, the quality at Kinkead Ridge is very high, and I would
argue represents the best in Ohio and possibly the eastern US. I would
also add that yes indeed their terroir is worth expressing! A good sniff
and a quick taste will prove that to anyone. The important thing to me is
that these are not wines of ego, rather they are clearly wines of place.
Ron and Nancy have worked hard to clearly express the virtues of their
vineyard, and have given the wine drinking public something rare indeed…
an entirely new wine region, with its own unique combination of flavors
and aromas. To me this is exactly what fine wine is all about." Click here
to read all of Ann's writings about Kinkead Ridge.
--Chuck and Ann Boucher, Serendipity Wine Shop, Columbus
Although all our wines are priced under $20, this sentence resonated,
particularly 'the confidence of quality.' And this is why we have a second
label in some years. "When you spend more than $25 or $30--most of my
wines sell for $55 or more--when you spend more than that, you're not just
buying the intrinsic product--you're buying other things. You're buying
the rarity--you're buying the image, the confidence of quality." Allen
ShoupReleased in May 2008, the 2007
white wine impacted by the frost sold out in two weeks.
Released in May 2007, the 2006 white wine sold out in 3 months; released
in September 2007, the 2005 Petit Verdot sold out in two weeks; the 2005
Syrah, Cabernet Franc sold out in April. We enter several wine competitions a year, and we are approaching
the point where the wines are sold out before medals are awarded! So it's
great to acquire our wines before that happens.
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