Category: Kentucky Wine Industy

10/26/2011 13:00

Kentucky Wine and the Kentucky Proud Program

Since the state legislature passed a bill authorizing the operation of wineries again in 1976, the number of wine producers in Kentucky has grown exponentially each decade. Once the third largest provider in the country, Kentucky’s wine industry has been devastated twice, once by the Civil War and again later by Prohibition, and remained dormant for decades even after Prohibition was repealed. The newly-found commercial success has gained a lot of attention from state officials, anxious to enhance Kentucky’s position as an eco-tourism state and get people back to work.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA), who at the same time was working to ease growing concerns over the state’s number two ranking in the country for obesity, saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. It developed a plan to not only promote healthy eating by focusing on the array of fresh fruits and vegetables grown in the state, but also to highlight its other agricultural programs and producers at the same time. As a result, a program called Kentucky Proud was born.

Kentucky Proud is a consortium of Kentucky growers, producers, manufacturers, and farmers, managed under the umbrella of KDA. KDA promotes their agricultural products by conducting state-wide advertising campaigns to get Kentuckians to buy local. The department started, and is now overseeing, 150 farmers’ markets in the state, designed to display the variety of fresh produce and products available to its residents.

To be a member of the Kentucky Proud organization, a producer must show that his agricultural-based product is grown and produced entirely within the state. While it may seem obvious that crop farmers, livestock producers, and dairy farmers are all on-board with this program, what is less obvious is the fact that anyone who makes bees wax soap, whiskey, hand-carved wooden items, sorghum syrup, candy, or any variety of other second-tier products, agriculture-based, is also invited and encouraged to join.

The wine industry became a perfect fit for the Kentucky Proud program. Not only is the state excited about its vineyards, but the Kentucky Proud program offers vintners a way to market their products across the state and country without each individual business spending all of their earnings on marketing. Wine tastings, winery tours, and judging contests sponsored by Kentucky Proud are held across the state to promote the industry. The wine industry sees the program as a way of getting the word out about its products, and the KDA sees it as a way of highlighting the state as one of the best producers of agricultural products, especially wine, in the country. Most if not all of Kentucky’s 60+ vintners are members of the Kentucky Proud program.

In addition to the farmers’ markets, a brick-and-mortar store selling only Kentucky Proud products recently opened in Lexington. Backers see it as an opportunity to provide even more access to Kentucky Proud products for folks who may not get a chance to visit a farmers’ market. There is even an on-line version of the store now so members of Kentucky Proud can share their wares with the rest of the world. Of the 65 wine makers in the state, fifteen have their products for sale in the Kentucky Proud Country Store and on the website, and more continue to sign up regularly.