MERCER COUNTY, KY (LEX NEWS) — Kentucky may be known for bourbon, but Logan Vineyard is making a case for wine — and doing it with a sloth as its mascot.
The vineyard's brand-new tasting room is designed to feel anything but stuffy.
"We want it to be a fun, relaxing, experience instead of stuffy," Logan Vineyards owner Theresia Logan said.
Theresia Logan spent decades working in state government before deciding she wanted a retirement project. In 2021, Logan Vineyards opened as a wedding venue, featuring an open-air chapel, bridal suites, and a reception space. That portion of the business is now called The Lodge at Logan Vineyards.
Now, Theresia, her husband Mike Logan, and business partner Colin Cox are focused on building the winery and their homemade wines into what the property is known for.
"My husband had a background in wine and he did some port during the day when he was younger, so we said that would look beautiful here to have a winery. So that's how it started and we planted all of the grape vines, and planted all of the blackberries, we planted 540 blackberry plants, and then we took it one step further," Theresia Logan said.
Their wine brand is called LoCo Wines — and the name has a specific meaning.
"So LoCo came about, we're not crazy wine, but sometimes we feel like we're crazy. But the name actually came from the first two letters of my name, Logan and my husband Mike, and then Colin Cox is Co. So we combined the two first letters, LoCo, to make LoCo wines," Theresia Logan said.
The brand's iconic logo is a sloth.
"What better than to choose the most laid back creature on Earth than a sloth? So that became our mascot," she said.
All wine flavors are created and fermented on-site, managed by winemaker Mike Logan.
"Yeah, so we start our wines in a primary fermenter for about 2 to 3 weeks in primary fermentation. We put it in a secondary tank for a month. Move it back into the other tank for about 6 to 8 months depending on the type of wine," Mike Logan said.
The wines are then bottled, sealed, and labeled by Theresia, Mike, and Colin. For the team, quality matters more than quantity.
"We don't wanna grow exponentially. we're small farm winery. We like to be, um, attached to the wine. We don't wanna hire people and have them do a lot of the buying process and we wanna make something unique and just have a lot of people come here for the community and do it. We haven't grown and we don't plan to really grow huge," Theresia Logan said.
Everything used in the winemaking process is either grown on the property or sourced locally.
"Whatever we don't grow on the property, we actually go and get from someone local. Everything is fresh when we get it, fresh drinks and cocktails," she said.
Those fresh ingredients go into unique wine flavors, including their award-winning bourbon caramel apple and blackberry wines. The vineyard also produces moonshine flavors and hopes to one day expand into making bourbon.
For visitors who prefer cocktails over wine, the tasting room has options for everyone.
"we have a full bar so if you don't like wine we have something for everybody's palette, but we call it tasting the LoCo side of Kentucky," Theresia Logan said.
The tasting room is open to the public on Saturdays. Nestled along the Bourbon Trail, Logan Vineyard welcomes hundreds of visitors from across the country each year.
"This is like another stop along the way, if you're tired after a long day of tours on the Bourbon Trail, you can come, sit, and relax with a glass of wine or a glass of bourbon and just chill out and take it all in," Logan said.
If you'd like to learn more about Logan Vineyards, visit: Loco Wines and Affordable Wedding Venues | Logan Vineyards
