Kentucky's Riverbend Winery in the news

Len Olson, winemaker at Kentucky's Riverbend Winery which opened in 2004, was recently profiled in the Courier-Journal. I particularly enjoyed the personal spotlight they did on him and his assertion that Kentucky's "gonna become probably internationally famous for its wines".

So far, it seems that varieties grown at the winery run the full spectrum of hybrids and vinifera.

Link to the article

[Robin Garr]

varieties grown at the winery run the full spectrum of hybrids and vinifera.

The winery is located in an industrial building downtown, Paul. Len trucks in grapes from all over, mostly from the West Coast, but uses some locally grown, purchased grapes. Not grown in the asphalt avenues around the winery building, though.

Correction duly noted. I just assumed that he was an estate winery!

boy does this bring back memories. i've known len since he started tabor hill; even sold his wine at the distributor i worked for. some of my friends were investors. son of a gun! wouldn't recognize him from the photo to be honest.

one of the interesting things about the history that len points to is the fact that he and his first partner planted the first vinifera grapes in s'west michigan at about the time that ed o'keefe was planting them on old mission. neither of these people knew of each others work; and more interestingly, neither was inspired by the work of konstantin frank. the entire rest of the eastern vinifera industry was based on dr. frank's 'correspondents' i think he called them. the people who planted vinifera in michigan were just crazy people who didn't know any better and had no idea that anyone had proven it could be done.