http://www.WineryAdventures.com
A couple of years ago when Harmony Hill opened to the public, the
owners faced a big challenge - their location. This hard-to-find
winery is located in a very rural area outside Bethel, Ohio. An
online map won't get you there and the mailbox numbers seemed to be
randomly placed along the road in no specific order. We turned
around twice, sure we were missing something - but we hadn't gone
far enough. This winery seems to have surpassed this obstacle. When
we finally found the winery, we encountered a huge number of
visitors that turned out on a Saturday afternoon...plus several of
their wines were sold out. This indicates one thing to me: success.
Once we found it,
we pulled into the long drive back to the tasting room. I was
immediately impressed with what I saw. The grounds were lovely and I
noticed several seating areas as we drove to the parking area. The
main parking lot was full, and we had to park in the overflow
parking area - but it wasn't very far away at all. As we walked from
the car to the tasting room, I could hear the sound of live music as
we passed the vineyard. In the main seating area near the building
there were many groups of people picnicking and listening to the
music. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
 KatDoc's
World Blog
"Where do you think we are? Tuscany?
Sonoma County? The south of France? No, we are outside of Bethel, in
Clermont County, at the Harmony Hill Vineyards and Winery.
Click here to read more.
BY MICHELLE SHAW | COMMUNITY PRESS
STAFF WRITER
BETHEL - It's hard to imagine this place is called Harmony Hill.
With an enormous hole in the ground and piles of dirt and broken
limestone being surrounded by a crane, tractors and semis, the
noises fell together in a symphony that might open to less than rave
reviews.
But by next spring the hole will be filled and covered by a
stage, a parking lot or a patio and landscaping will disguise it
ever being there. Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Wow!! What a summer. 2006 was greater than we could have
imagined. Thank you to all of those visitors who have made this
summer truly memorable. Following is a collage of 2006's SIXTEEN
SUMMER SATURDAYS.
September
30th AAC ANNUAL PICNIC
Harmony
Hill entertained 120 staff and family members of Anesthesia
Associates of Cincinnati for their annual Fall Harvest Picnic. The
weather was wet but the spirits weren't dampened. See you
all next Fall.
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August 19th JAZZ IN THE COUNTRY
'Jazz in the Country', as Harmony Hill featured the soft jazz
sounds of Emerson & Hagerman. Thanks guys for making it one of
the busiest Saturdays of the summer. The music was wonderful, and
Patti and I are looking forward to your repeat performance September
2nd.
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August 12th LEAGUE FOR ANIMAL WELFARE
Adopt-a-Pet Event.
Click
here to see
the web site for the League of Animal Welfare.
Harmony Hill was pleased to welcome the League for Animal
Welfare on August 12th for an Adopt-A-Pet event on the winery
grounds. The pooches and kittens they brought were to die for. I had
to keep blinders on Patti, as 7 rescue dogs and 2 cats that
currently reside in our house is all we can handle. Thanks Toni and
Maxine for all your hard work.
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August 5th COOL PICKERS AND HOT METAL
Cool Pickers and Hot Metal was the theme for our August 5th
event, as Harmony Hill featured the cool sounds of local bluegrass
pickers (thanks Mike) and the hot metal art of Bethel's own
blacksmith extraordinaire, Tom Cole. All in attendance seemed to
enjoy themselves and to watch Tom work the hot steel was a thing of
beauty.
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July 29th DOC DAN UNPLUGGED
Visitors to the winery relaxed to the sounds of Doc Dan and
Andy Wags this Saturday. It was a real treat to reminisce
about old times while Dan and Andy played acoustic versions of
classic rock favorites. Some gray haired guy even got to
audition for next summer's events (last pic....Thanks Andy, your
mandolin makes anyone playing classic Neil Young sound great).
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July 22nd FAST CARS AND FINE WINE
Harmony Hill Vineyards &
Winery hosted the First Annual Wright Motor Sports Porsche
Event on Saturday, July 22. Off to a rocky start with bad
weather in the morning, the sun and the cars were dazzling by
mid-afternoon. Thanks Greg and John for making this event
happen. See you next year.
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Eighteen Wine Geography students and instructors arrived
mid-afternoon from Wittenberg University in Springfield.
Thanks Artimus Keefer for including Harmony Hill on your fieldtrip
(I regret that there weren't classes like this when I was in
college). I had a hoot of a time and look forward to seeing
you all next year.
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July 8th REPTILES ROUND THE WINERY
Harmony Hill featured a visit by The Greater Cincinnati
Herpetological Society on July 8th. Peggy Fille and friends
brought 20 different reptiles of varying shapes and sizes. The
children were fascinated, and winemaker Bill (who used to keep frogs in
his pockets as a child) had the time of his life. Thank you
Peggy for making Saturday a fun event.
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July
1st HARMONY HILL FARM GAINS NATIONAL RECOGNITION AS A CERTIFIED WILDLIFE
HABITAT
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The National Wildlife
Federation announced recently that the Harmony Hill Vineyards in Bethel
has been certified as an official Backyard Wildlife Habitat site.
Vineyard and property owners Bill and Patti Skvarla moved from Pittsburgh
to Bethel in 1994. At that time, they had 15 acres but quickly expanded
the property to encompass the 70 acres which now attract the diverse and
abundant wildlife that live and nest on the property today.
Click
here
to read the story.
June 2nd & 3rd 2nd
STREET MARKET WINEFEST, DAYTON OHIO
 Harmony
Hill poured for the 3rd consecutive year at The National City Second
Street Market Winefest in Dayton, where over 25,000 Ohio wine consumers
were in attendance.
May
19th and 20th WESTCHESTER WINE AND FOOD FESTIVAL
Harmony Hill poured May 19 and 20 at the West Chester Wine and
Food Festival to benefit the Voice of America museum.
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_______________
Harmony Hill's 'Sixteen Saturdays'
campaign has been a huge success. A big "Thank You" to
those of you who have made this summer an enjoyable one.
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In two years, Harmony Hill Winery has already outgrown its
physical space. The construction of our 700 square foot, super
insulated bottle aging room is well under way. Thanks to all of you
who helped make this addition necessary.
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 Harmony
Hill is featured in the "Ohio Wine Country
Excursions" by Patricia Latimer. Available at
www.emmisbooks.com
or www.amazon.com.
An archive of past year's events and
photos
The first annual "BRING YOUR POOCH"
Christmas Open House held December 17th was a huge success.
The weather that day was the nicest we'd seen at the farm all month
and all who attended had a wonderful time. Thanks to those of
you who dressed your pooches for the holiday and brought them along.
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In keeping with our Thanksgiving Day tradition of planting new
trees on the farm, Patti and I planted our 20 foot Apple Tree Vineyard
Gazebo this Thanksgiving. It doesn't look like much now, but we
are real excited about this addition to the grounds. Should
make a great place to smell the flowers, see the grapes and drink some
fine wine.
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Harmony Hill Vineyards poured at the
The Second Annual Taste of Clermont in Batavia, Ohio on September
10th. HHV was one of only three Southwest Ohio wineries to pour
at this prestigious event, and Bill and Patti enjoyed working side by
side with Henke Winery
www.HenkeWine.com
and Valley Vineyards
www.Valley_Vineyards.com.
On behalf of the three wineries, we thank The Ohio Grape Industries
Council and The Village Association of Batavia for their support and
sponsorship.
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 August
14. Harmony Hill featured in the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer
"Sniffing out area wines".
Click
here.
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Patti and I would like to thank all of
you who ventured into Bethel for a day in the country. Our Grand Opening
Weekend was both overwhelming and exhilarating. At closest count,
there were 1200 of you who blessed our farm with your presence. It
warmed our hearts to look around the farm at the folks picnicking under the
trees and experiencing a down-home wine tasting as it was meant to
be; comfortable, non-threatening and
memorable.
We would also like to compliment your
patience, as we know there were times when the parking, long lines and heat
worked against us. Modifications to the parking lots, tasting area,
etc., will certainly be forthcoming prior to our next open house.
We certainly hope that you had a memorable
experience and hope to see you all at the winery soon. In the meantime,
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
Bill and Patti
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The pictures below are from the Westchester Wine and Food Festival, June
24th and 25th at Voice of America Park.
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On
June 3 and 4, we poured for the second year at the 2nd Street Market District
National City WineFest.
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In
keeping with tradition, the spring of 2005 has forced another dozen gray hairs
out on my already graying head. May 4th and 5th were record low temperatures
in the vineyard of 29.6 and 29.4 respectively. Needless to say, I slept
very little those two nights, in the vineyards at 3 am monitoring temp, wind,
humidity, and impending frost damage. The good news is that the
combination of straw bale burning (see pictures) and warm water sprays (1500
gallons) seems to have thwarted any significant damage to the vines, so we are
looking for another excellent vintage for 2005.
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On
an even happier note, our new Traminette vineyard block is planted and the
vines of this spicy white grape (Gewurztraminer parents) are progressing
nicely. The release of our 2004 vintage wines is scheduled for
Saturday, July 2nd with an open house, Christmas In July and
bring-your-own-picnic event at the winery. Watch this site or
sign up on the contact form to receive further notification.
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 Bill
and Patti visited the premier winery trade show, Unified Symposium, in
Sacramento California in January, with fellow growers, Ron and Nancy (Kinkead
Ridge Winery, Ripley) and Brad and Armanda (La Vigna, Higginsport). A
trip to Napa and Sonoma followed the show! |
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 Harmony
Hill wines were well-received at the Chefs Growers Collaborative "From the
Garden to the Table" at the Iron Horse Restaurant in Glendale on August 15,
2004.
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Harmony Hill
"Concerto" was poured at the A Taste of Clermont, September 11 and 12,
2004 in the wine tent. Click
here
for information. To see the Beverage Gardens, click
here.
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 Awards: Our Concerto : 2004 Indy
International Wine Competition : Bronze |
We poured our
wines at the 2nd Street Market Winefest in Dayton Ohio on June 4 and 5 and the
Childrens' Hunger Alliance in Columbus, Ohio.
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