Northern Kentucky River Region
Winery Reviews

Barker's Blackberry Hill Winery - There's a big difference between those who love wine-travel and wine-travel fanatics. Those who love wine-travel will occasionally travel to areas heavily populated with local wineries. They will visit a couple of the larger, upscale wineries in hopes of finding a wonderful wine to take home with them and drink on their back deck while watching the sunset. Wine-travel fanatics will search out every small winery on a remote country road in hopes of a most memorable experience...plus a wonderful wine to take home with them and drink on their back deck while watching the sunset.

We are wine-travel fanatics...and that's how we found this Crittenden, Kentucky winery. In Kentucky, there isn't a major wine region like you will find in a lot of states. Barker's Blackberry Hill is located approximately 30 minutes south of Cincinnati, Ohio on a small country road lined with white fences and horse farms. This was our first visit to a Kentucky winery, so we were anxious wondering what to expect as we pulled into the gravel drive.

We saw no other visitors, and as we parked the car the winemaker hopped down from his tractor and began to unlock a rustic looking building. We stepped inside and he welcomed us to his winery - stating that his wife usually does the tastings, but she had gone up to the house to cook supper. He asked us what kinds of wine we liked...and our tasting began. 

Barker's produces a couple of different types of wine: blackberry, cherry and honey...but no grape varieties. Our host started us out with a honey wine. I thought it was unusual that he began with it...but I soon realized why. It is a dry honey wine and was actually quite good. I'm used very sweet honey wines and this one was a refreshing change of pace. We moved through a dry blackberry, cherry and then a sweeter blackberry. He was sold out of his sweetest blackberry wine that was bottled...although he told us we could buy a barrel of it if we wanted. I found it amusing when I started imagining us driving back up I-75 with a barrel of wine in the trunk of the car.

Barker's Blackberry Hill is a unique place to visit. The winemaker offered friendly conversation and some nice wines. If you visit in July or August, you can even pick your own blackberries. I love fresh blackberries...so we may stop back if we're in the area. Visited 4/29/2006.