BACK TO THE FUTURE:

Once-Vibrant Grape,
Wine Industries
Making a Comeback

by Terri Darr McLean

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What a difference a century makes.

Before Prohibition, Kentucky was the third-largest grape- and wine-producing state in the nation. But by the 1920s, the state’s grape growers no longer had a market for their product, and they were forced to look for an alternative. They found tobacco.

Now, after years as a leading tobacco-producing state, Kentucky farmers are faced once again with finding alternative crops. In an interesting turnabout, many are discovering grapes.

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On 100 acres of a Fleming County farm, former burley tobacco farmer Wayne Vice has tried growing vegetables and raising calves. He grew ginseng, until someone stole the entire crop. He even raised ostriches for a while.

“I tried a little bit of everything,” Vice said.

But nothing—not even the 30,000 pounds of tobacco Vice once grew—had the potential of the wine grapes that now grace his farm in northeastern Kentucky. Vice has had two harvests since he began growing grapes four years ago, and both have gone into production at In Town Winery in Louisville.

“It seems like grapes are kind of going my way,” said Vice, who, along with his wife Sharon and son Clint, runs the farm he now calls Windy Hill Vineyard. “You won't get rich in it, but I think it'll be a whole lot better than tobacco.”

Wayne Vice at Windy Hill Farm.

 

How much better? It's too soon to know for sure, but Vice figures once his crop matures in a couple of years it could bring in twice as much money.

“I love 'em,” he said of the grapes now growing in neatly tended rows where tobacco once stood.

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Vice apparently is not alone in his sentiments. More than 100 Kentucky growers have turned to grapes in recent years, prompting the resurgence of an agricultural industry that flourished until the grapevines were, literally, ripped up by the roots with the onset of Prohibition. Growers have planted 435 acres so far, 250 of which are already in production.

“Even though there are hurdles, the outlook is very good,” said Kaan Kurtural, extension grape-growing specialist, or viticulturist. “With sufficient acreage for a grower, it will be a viable alternative.”

Kurtural is one of two experts hired by the College's Department of Horticulture last August to provide leadership, education, and research support to the fledgling industry. He is a native of Turkey whose family has grown grapes for generations.

The other expert is Tom Cottrell, a winemaking specialist, or enologist. He is a former winery owner who taught enology at Cornell University and still consults with wineries across the country.

Their positions are funded for two years by the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board through the Kentucky Grape and Wine Council.

Kurtural is focusing on site selection, one of the most important factors in grape production. In conjunction with The Ohio State University, he is using high-resolution digital mapping to help pinpoint ideal sites throughout the state.

“There's an old Roman proverb, ‘The wine is in the hills,'” Kurtural said. “ Europe had two millennia to select these suitable sites, and through two millennia of trial and error they decided the suitable sites are in the hills.”

Such sites are much like those found on Vice‘s hillside farm, where eight acres are devoted to growing wine grapes.

“With us, we have the visual tools (digital mapping) so we can shorten the trial and error process for the Kentucky grower,” Kurtural said.

Kurtural is also conducting research that will provide information specific to Kentucky growers. Among the projects he is overseeing are trials in variety selection and training systems. He is also studying yield efficiency and its effect on wine quality.

Cottrell's focus, “to help Kentucky wineries continue to make sound, saleable wine,” is equally as basic and important. Without successful wineries, he said, there would be no market for Kentucky's grapes.

“Most of the wineries I've visited have some very good wines and some not quite as good.

“The challenge is we need to make all their wines good,” Cottrell said.

Cottrell is helping the state's winemakers better understand winemaking techniques, such as using the correct amounts of sulfur dioxide, the major preservative in wines.

“We've got a half-dozen wineries that have been in business a decade or so and all the rest of them barely a year or two or three,” Cottrell said. “Their learning curve is still steep.”

John Pitcock, a former wine hobbyist who now has the “world's best retirement job” as chief winemaker at Talon Winery and Vineyards in Lexington, could probably be considered as being ahead of that curve. Of the 10 wines he has entered in international competition, nine have won awards.

“We're working really hard on that 10th one,” Pitcock said with a laugh.

If anything, though, the success Pitcock has enjoyed since Talon's inception in 1999 has made him more eager to learn from experts like Cottrell. Not only does he believe he can benefit from Cottrell's technical expertise, he sees much to gain from his experience helping wineries become tourist destinations.

“Agritourism is the future of this business in Kentucky,” Pitcock said. “If we can get support, such as adequate signage that will help us bring in those tourists who are already passing through the area, we'll be successful.”

Cottrell believes that's more likely to happen when Kentucky 's wineries—38 at present, mostly in Central and Northern Kentucky —view each other as colleagues, not competitors.

“There is a tendency not to share winemaking secrets,” he said, “but there are no winemaking secrets.”

Pitcock agreed. “The thing about winemaking itself is that it's the same process whether you're making one gallon or one million gallons. You basically do the same thing.”

What does make a difference is the use of high-quality, fresh grapes.

“That's where the quality of the wine comes from,” said Pitcock. “Kentucky itself is an exceptional place to grow high-quality fruit.”

So exceptional, apparently, that demand for Kentucky grapes currently exceeds supply, according to John Strang, extension horticulturist. But with many of the crops yet to mature and some farmers planning to add acreage, that might not be the case for long.

“What we're trying to do is build an industry based on Kentucky production,” Strang said.

That suits farmers like Vice just fine. He's thinking about planting two more acres, probably with the more-difficult-to-grow Cabernet sauvignon grapes. Or, perhaps, Merlot.

“Really, to make this old hill farm useful and productive, grapes can do pretty good,” he said. “I wish I'd done it years ago.”