Kansas wine country

Kansas has a new winery, and it's located about 20 miles north of Wichita, near the town of Whitewater. It's called Grace Hill winery, and they actually grow grapes that don't translate into super-sweet wines.


I forget the name of the couple who owns the vineyard, but one of the Eagle's reporters, Karen Shideler, has a profile of them in Sunday's paper. She told me about the vineyard, and I visited it on Saturday....


This is the owner at the tasting counter, and these are the five wines the winery now offers. All of them except the cabernet sauvignon on the very right are made with grapes grown on site. The cabernet is made at the winery, but the grapes are imported from other vineyards.


One of the grape vines on the farm.


A snap of the grapevines.



The winery from the back. Yes, it's pretty humble-looking, but the home that the owners live in is next door, and it's VERY nice. The owners are both physicians.


The front of the winery.



I bought several bottles of the Barrel Reserve Red, which is a blend of grapes called Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon; and several bottles of the winery's label called Dodging Tornadoes (i love it), which is a blend of Chambourcin and Cabernet Sauvignon.


A parting shot. I'm sure it's much prettier in springtime.