Wine region
Kentucky
Kentucky is a wine region in United States, home to 147 wineries, producing red, white wines.
On this page
Kentucky's 147 wineries produce predominantly red wine; Riesling is the most common single-grape bottling.
About the Kentucky region
- Location
- Kentucky produced over two million gallons of wine in 2011 and is the largest wine-producing state by volume in the American South.
- Climate
- The relatively mild climate of Kentucky, especially in the Ohio River Valley, made Kentucky an attractive place for early American winemaking.
- Soils
- In USDA NRCS Soil Data Access results for Kentucky survey areas, Alfisols have the largest weighted component acreage, approximately 11,447,529 acres.
Region facts sourced from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Data Access query for Kentucky (KY survey-area prefix), retrieved 2026-07-11. (U.S. Government work / Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)), Wikipedia contributors, "Kentucky wine", Wikipedia, revision 1357183966, retrieved 2026-07-11. (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International).
Most common single-grape wines
When Kentucky wines are made from a single grape (rather than a blend), these are the most common:
- Riesling
- 1 single-grape wine
Wine profile
Kentucky is predominantly a red-wine region (about 80% of its wines).
5 distinct Kentucky wines tracked, spanning the colours and styles below.
- Red4 · 80%
- White1 · 20%
Types: Still.
Representative Kentucky wines
Selected from stable product-to-region relationships for diversity — not a claim that these are the region's best wines.
- Lovers Leap — Cynthiana Estate Reserve
- Lovers Leap — Cynthiana
- Lovers Leap — Chambourcin Reserve
- Lovers Leap — Vidal Blanc Reserve
- Lovers Leap — Riesling
United States wine designations
- AVA
- An American viticultural area is a U.S.-government-recognized delimited grape-growing area.
Understanding the wine data
- Designation
- The protected-origin or administrative category associated with the wine, interpreted using country-aware rules. The same abbreviation can mean different things in different countries, so we only show the meaning approved for that country.
How this ranking is built
Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.
FAQs
- Where is Kentucky?
- Kentucky produced over two million gallons of wine in 2011 and is the largest wine-producing state by volume in the American South .
- How are wineries and producers selected for Kentucky?
- Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.
- How are representative Kentucky wines selected?
- Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.
- How much wine data does WhatDrink have for Kentucky?
- The current regional catalogue contains 8 linked wines from 147 linked producers. Counts describe WhatDrink catalogue coverage and may change as source data is refreshed.
Regional data is aggregated from wine directory and product-catalogue sources; grape and style associations reflect characteristic varieties and may vary by producer and vintage.