Home FOOD + DRINK Drink Local Some Like it Sweet
Some Like it Sweet
by Deborah Kohl Kremer
The phrase "black and bruised" might not carry good connotations, but those words happen to be the name of Purple Toad Winery's most popular wine.
The Paducah winery's Black & Bruised is a sweet wine made from blackberries and Concord grapes. It also is one of Steven Dossey's favorites. Dossey is the general manager and winemaker there.
"We like to say that the best kind of wine is the kind of wine you like," he said. "You shouldn't choose your wine from a friend or a magazine article. Just drink what you like."
The winery was built in 2009 by Steven's parents, Allen and June, who started the venture with the intention of making sweet wines. Steven explained that dry wines made in California are hard to beat, and there were not a lot of sweet wines on the market when the winery was first conceived.
Today, Purple Toad makes 46 wines, from dry to sweet, but 99 percent of the sales are of sweet wines.
The family first recommends fruity wines such as the Black & Bruised at a wine tasting. They also suggest the interesting Cotton Candy wine, followed by the label's Tropical Sangria.
"After we see what [visitors] like, then we can prescribe the next round of tastings," he said.
These sweet wines draw a lot of new wine drinkers. Purple Toad is in about 450 stores in seven states and produces 5,000-7,000 cases per month, making it Kentucky's largest winery.
Originally, the Dosseys had hoped to get all of their fruit from Kentucky farms, but the winery grew so quickly, they found there weren't enough fruit farms in the Bluegrass State to keep up with demand. Purple Toad sources its fruit from all around the country, using red raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, peaches, cranberries and apples for its wine.
"Some fruits aren't pretty enough to sell in the grocery stores, but each piece is full of flavor and perfect for us to use," Steven Dossey said.
Although sweet wines are Purple Toad's signature products, other varietals also are produced there, including cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, merlot and chardonnay. Around three acres of grapes are grown on site and are used only for the chardonnay and cabernet. The majority of grapes are sourced from California.
"We get them in and crush, de-stem, ferment and make our wines here, and they can easily compete with the California wines that are so well known," Dossey said.
Purple Toad is named as a play on words for how the toes of people stomping grapes barefoot might look, referring to the age-old method of extracting the juice from grapes to make wine.
This fall, Purple Toad will bring Strawberry Jalapeño Wine to the table. Dossey said it tastes just like the jelly he grew up on.
The winery is open for tastings and invites visitors to come to Paducah, shop in the stores, eat in the restaurants, and make a weekend of the visit.