The power of history is both softened and heightened at Leslie and Allen Carter’s Silver Springs Farm Eqwine and Vineyard. They are a dynamic couple who bought and restored a beautiful 19th century house on 20-acres of land that is the historic site of the Silver Springs Distillery. They chose the name for the property because they breed racehorses, produce wine, and offer visitors a very classy farm lodging experience. Allen, the winemaker, is a former football player at the University of Kentucky who also dabbles in bourbon making—a fact that becomes more interesting as you learn about the distillery’s history and some of the popular brands that were produced on the property.

Leslie, who manages the farm, is not to be out done by her husband. She was a player and coach for the UK women’s basketball team. After a stint in a European professional basketball league in Bordeaux, France, her sports career was capped off with an induction into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame. Leslie grew up around horse racing and hung out with her father when he would go to the horse farms, race tracks, and horse sales. Her grandfather held the position of horse foreman at JonaBell Farm known today as Darley Farm. Leslie and Allen have taken that family tradition and Lexington’s legendary equine history to the next level: they now breed their own winning racehorses.

When Leslie is not collecting eggs from their own chickens and Allen is not making his award-winning blackberry cornbread for their farm-fresh breakfasts, they are both pursuing their on-farm and off-farm business activities. Though Allen runs a successful contracting business, Allen’s avocation as a winemaker started with a single French grapevine he spirited back to the U.S. after accompanying Leslie on her basketball adventures. He set about cultivating his winemaking talents and eventually planted five-acres of their farm in grapevines. A fast learner, Allen soon found himself in possession of a Double Gold award by the 2020 Kentucky Commissioner’s Cup Wine Competition for his Black Type Reserve Kentucky Traminette Sparkling Wine. He would later add a bronze designation to his trophy cabinet for his dry white wine.

Allen’s equine endeavors followed a similar path. He purchased his first thoroughbred horse, Princess Laila, and she did not disappoint. After only her third race, Princess Laila entered the winner’s circle. Once she was retired, Allen chose to give Princess Laila a permanent home at the farm, where she became his first broodmare. Naturally, Princess Laila’s first foal was named Wine Devine. Since then, Silver Springs Farm Eqwine and Vineyard has purchased more broodmares and sold weanlings and yearlings at the Keeneland and Fasig Tipton Sales.

Besides her successful career in sports, Leslie’s professional life includes human resources, sales, and marketing. First at United Parcel Service, then as the head of recruiting for UK Women’s Basketball, and finally as sales and marketing administrator for Lexus of Lexington, Leslie has combined her corporate and university training with a family life in agriculture and rural living to make Silver Springs Farm Eqwine & Vineyard the success it is today.

The couple’s athletic and business backgrounds are now channeled into their home and the farm’s ever-expanding activities. They are a “team” that bring complementary skills to the task of creating the highest quality and most delightful farm experience possible. Their personal history, the history of Silver Springs Farm, and its outstanding food and beverages are barely 10 minutes from downtown Lexington. But maybe what is most stunning is the enthusiasm that two people bring to an enterprise that sturdily reinvents, even leap-frogs at times, traditions that now bear a new face.