The drive up to Brooks Hill Winery is one of the area’s most scenic. Ascending the winding two-lane, rock-walled stretch happens quickly and makes your ears pop. At the top of the knob the view opens; several hundred feet below is the convergence of Bullitt and Jefferson Counties, an impressive vista that’s worth the drive by itself.
But you don’t make the drive just for lookin’, you drive about 10 minutes beyond the southern edge of Metro Louisville to taste wine, quality wine made right here in Kentucky.
Seriously.
My guide on this Bullitt County winery tour is Tom Kohler, a full-time CPA, amateur winemaker and studied oenophile who’s nudged me for months to join him on a visit to all four Bullitt County wineries.
I love good wine, have tasted a fair bit of it, but am in no way an expert. But like many, I have my doubts about Kentucky-made wines. There’s no Napa Valley terrain, no sculpted rows of grapevines as far as the eye can see, and no stone tasting houses built atop of caves chockfull of barrel-aged wine holding for years at earth-temperature.
