In mid-November 2021 I made an overnight stop at Wildside Winery in Versailles, Kentucky as a Harvest Host location.
In November I had made an unplanned trip from Central Illinois to South Carolina, spent a few days and headed back. On the way out it was a non-stop drive and it was tiring!! So on the way back I decided to split it up into two days so it wasn’t so rushed.
We’ve been Harvest Host members since early in its life, and have only been able to utilize it a handful of times for overnight stops. Our travel style at the time just never allowed for arriving mid-afternoon and enjoying all the host had to offer.
Interested in joing Harvest Hosts? Use our affiliate link to join! We do receive compensation from Harvest Hosts when using this link, and YOU get 15% off a membership! It’s a win-win!
Wildside Winery utilizes the Harvest Host online booking feature, so it was super simple to schedule and they confirmed almost immediately.
I had made a couple of stops earlier in the day as I wasn’t in much of a hurry – hit the grocery store, got the coach washed – so it was getting dark by the time I was getting close to the winery. It was super easy to get to, but the Troy Pike that you take from the Bluegrass Highway was a newly blacktopped, narrow, winding road with no shoulder. I really didn’t notice the lack of shoulder since it was so dark, but the next day on the way out I sure did! Yikes! Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t an issue and totally safe, but had I met a farm implement or oversized load it would’ve been a different experience for sure.
In the dark, I had missed the extremely obvious entrance into the winery but since I wasn’t towing the Jeep on this trip I was able to do a mostly easily u-turn and get right back in there. I arrived later than I wanted to, but still had 30 40-minutes left before close and the awesome staff wanted to make sure I got to enjoy a tasting.
I selected the 8-wine tasting, pictured above, which was really nicely done with the cards explaining each wine selected. I am traditionally a Cabernet drinker, the bigger and bolder the better. All of these wines were very good, and as we were just chatting during the experience, they had me try a couple of others – the PawPaw wine, which tastes very fruity and not what I had expected. Of course I had never heard of the Paw Paw fruit either! I really enjoy ports and had selected the 2013 vintage, so they let me also try the 2010 – totally different taste, I liked the 2013 better and bought a bottle.
In the end I bought 4 bottles to further taste in the RV that evening as I wanted to let them close down for the night and get on their way….and we finished up just before closing time. They showed me where to park, there were two other Host guests there, and since they didn’t open until later in the day on Sundays told me to just find a spot in the main lot, which I did. In the dark it wasn’t as easy to scout a level spot, but I made it work with a couple of blocks under one wheel. Air suspension makes leveling so much easier than our old coach without! It was an extremely quiet night, hardly a sound was heard, and I never did see or hear the other guests.
In the morning I wandered around a little bit while having some coffee. I can imagine in the full swing of summer this place is fantastic! Lots of grounds, pavilions (they host weddings), stages and an orchard with lights hanging throughout.
We will definitely include Wildside Winery in a future stop when we’re in or passing through the area!
