Grace Hill Dry Reds

Happy (belated) Kansas Day! As we're sure all good Kansans know, yesterday was Kansas Day--a day to celebrate our wonderful sunflower state. In honor of Kansas Day, it seemed only appropriate to drink Kansas wines.

Our Kansas Day selection

Wichita is really lucky in that we have our own winery very close by: Grace Hill Winery in Whitewater. Red wines really call our name in the wintertime, and being dry wine drinkers ourselves, we went for two of their dry red wines.

Flatlander

This is a really fun bright, fruity wine. Does anyone remember those old red hard candies your grandma had, that looked like they had white powder on them, and came in a tin? The smell of this wine reminds us of that, bringing back good old memories. It has flavors of bright ripe cherries, and though it is dry, the big fruit in this tricks your palate into picking up some sweetness. This was a fun wine to drink! It's made from the Chambourcin grape, which is a hybrid grape that grows well here in Kansas. It reminded us of Gamay!

Leaning Shed Red

The Leaning Shed Red is actually Cabernet Sauvignon, and you can definitely pick up delicious notes of ripe red plums in this. While you still get a lot of fruit in this, it's not quite as fruity as the Flatlander, and it has a more complex, longer finish to it. You also can taste a bit of oak in this, such as mild vanilla flavors, giving it even more texture. We enjoyed drinking this one and spent awhile sipping on it, reflecting on our good old state of Kansas.

While Kansas may not be well known for wine, we should be, because these are Kansas wines to be proud of. We'll be back for more!

And if you haven't been to the winery itself, you're absolutely missing out. The setting is beautiful, and they have great events out there nearly every week. It's a real gem!