rainbow hills winery

My wife and I stopped on one of our recent outings to sample the wines. Ohio is not quite Virginia yet but they are getting close. They had several really good dry wines and we purchased several. We like tastings and good dry wines!

Large selection of classic Ohio wines made from local grapes. Great tasting wine, beautiful winery and friendly staff.

Our tour of Ohio's wine country took us to this delightful location.Getting to it might not strike one as delightful. You must drive a fair ways into the country and finally find the township road which, as is often the case in these parts, is paved with loose gravel. After 2.5 miles of slow, dusty going, you'll turn into their property to be greeted with a sign reading "No beer on winery property. State law". We took it as humor--though I wonder if they've had trouble in the past?Once parked, you're in an immaculately landscaped area, with lots of garden flowers and a blue pond with central fountain. Climb the stairs to their tasting room, enter, and be greeted immediately by one of the more noted attractions of the winery, Chase, the resident spaniel. As we spent subsequent days in the region visiting other restaurants and wineries, we met several others who had met Chase, and most agree he's an enjoyable part of the experience. Now, I'd recommend ignoring Chase at first--he's a well behaved dog but once you give him attention you can't take it away! Since my wife and I had seen enough episodes of Dog Whisperer, we approached him properly.And so we settled up to their bar for a tasting flight. I'm happy to say that Rainbow Hills produces remarkably good wines with consistency across their many varieties.After many pleasant minutes swirling and sniffing and lip-smacking, we settled on a bottle of their Vidal, a mellow tasty dry white, to go with our lunch. They do offer a meat and cheese tray if you don't want to carry in, but carrying in is the norm here--on weekends they sponsor a dinner where you bring your own meats and grill them up on their big propane cookers, then settle in with sides they prepare. We had gotten our food from the Medbery Marketplace in Coshocton, and so I had some mixed olives, some local Emmenthaler cheese, and a bit of Quinoa chips. Sitting on their generous deck, overlooking their gardens and pond fountain, eating good simple food and drinking their white wine--I imagine that's how it feels to sit overlooking a field in rural France.After lunch, it was time for full dog engagement. Chase loves fetch. He'll bring you bits of wood for you to toss. Note that he's not particularly smart about selection, and usually will bring flimsy little twigs or bits of bark mulch. If you venture off to find a stick with more heft, he'll have more fun until he chews it up into little bits. Chase is a polite dog, he doesn't tease you when returning the stick, and he's particularly happy when it goes into the garden out of sight so that he has to search--or when it goes into the water and he can get wet.So is it worth a 2.5 mile trek down a winding gravel road? I say yes, enthusiastically!