Holmes County's own vineyard opens its doors during the 2012 Farm Tour

  • By Jenna Polen
  • August 2, 2012
  • 357
                        
Summary: French Ridge Vineyard acts as stop number six on the Holmes Farm Tour. French Ridge Vineyard, located at 2586 TR 34 Killbuck, and will highlight the 2012 Farm Tour as stop number six. Back for its second year, the vineyard and winery will be open for visitors to tour. Owned by Scott and Kathy Buente, the Vineyard was just announced the first winery to be owned and operated inside Holmes County. Since 2001 the French Ridge Vineyard has been operated just west of Killbuck and after over a decade of harvesting grapes and selling them to various wine makers, Scott and Kathy recently opened their estate and their products to the public for the first time in the form of the French Ridge Winery. “We chose them for the Farm Tour because they are Holmes County’s only vineyard that is owned and operated here. It’s a really cool place to go if you haven’t’ been there before, wine making isn’t something everyone can do so we thought people would really enjoy learning how the Buente’s run their vineyard,” said Holmes County Farm Bureau member Lauren Croskey. During the Farm Tour the vineyard will be open for self-guided and instructed tours by Kathy and Scott as well as the winery building. “We will be teaching the Farm Tour why Holmes County is a good area to grow grapes and how we do it. We’ll also be showing them how to make wine, the conditions that are needed to grow grapes, and kind of show them why we make wine,” said Buente. “We are giving them the opportunity to learn everything we do so that they might get interested into the wine business.” At the stop the only thing that won’t be given is Wine Tastings, however, customers will be allowed to buy and browse the wines offered at the winery. “We decided to do no wine tastings just as a common courtesy because the Farm Tour is a family event. But wine will be available for purchase in bottles,” said Buente. “Tours of the vineyard and winery will be done, and while we take people to see what we do we want them to notice how we grow, what we do, and the process we go through to get the final product, such as learning about fermentation, aging, etc,” said Buente. Provided by Ohio Wine Producers all sorts of pamphlets and give away items will be available for taking as well. Wilson ceramics will have a set up display for the farm tour at the vineyard as well. French Ridge spans eight acres, with 5,000 vines, and eight different grape types. They produce a total of 14 different wine varieties, some of which are seasonal. “We thought by choosing the Vineyard we would help them open their doors to people to let them know they are there and what they are doing is actually really something unique,” said Croskey.


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