{"id":39652,"date":"2025-10-13T15:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=39652"},"modified":"2025-10-21T15:09:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:09:51","slug":"furman-and-kennington-family-winery-create-bonhomie-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-and-kennington-family-winery-create-bonhomie-wines\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman and Kennington Family Winery Create Bonhomie Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furman University is toasting to tradition with a new collaboration intended to capture the spirit of the Furman community in every sip. Partnering with Kennington Family Winery<\/a>, the university has helped create two custom wines \u2013 a cabernet sauvignon and a sauvignon blanc \u2013 crafted to embody Furman\u2019s warmth, excellence and community.<\/p>\n

The idea for the Kennington winery was born in 2019 when Furman alumna Allison Shawn Kennington \u201986 and her family were living in Indiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to my son Phillip when he was a senior in college and said, \u2018What if we open a winery? And what if we open it in South Carolina?\u2019\u201d Kennington recalled. \u201cAt first it was wishful thinking, but the more we talked about it, the more it became real.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2020, the Kennington family purchased land off U.S. 25 in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, for their new venture. In 2022, they opened the Kennington Family Winery. And just a couple years later, the dream of making specialty blends in collaboration with her alma mater was in the works.<\/p>\n

\"A

A sign welcomes people to Kennington Family Winery in Marietta, South Carolina. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFrom the start, we wanted this to meet Furman\u2019s brand of excellence,\u201d Kennington said. \u201cEvery decision \u2013 from the varietals to the labels \u2013 was made together. It\u2019s been a true partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The name Bonhomie<\/a> was drawn from Furman\u2019s yearbook and has significance for alumni. \u201cIt means cheerful fellowship, and that evokes special relationships and connection,\u201d Allison Shawn said. \u201cAs an alum, that word carries so much meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the way nostalgia and innovation come together with Bonhomie,\u201d said Christine Velasquez, assistant vice president of marketing and communications at Furman. \u201cIt\u2019s about connection, warmth and the friendships that define the Furman community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homecoming attendees will be among the first to try both wines during a tasting event on Saturday, Oct. 25, on the Furman Mall. They will be available for purchase at Kennington Family Winery, select Greenville locations and online through Kennington Family Winery<\/a> and VinoShipper, so alumni nationwide can raise a glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could be sitting in Oregon or New York, open a bottle and tell your kids what Furman meant to you,\u201d Kennington said. \u201cThat\u2019s what wine does. It allows us to connect memory and meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis partnership reflects Furman\u2019s culture of thinking innovatively and engaging in meaningful, out-of-the-box opportunities,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cWe were looking for something that honored [Kennington’s] experience and Furman\u2019s history. Bonhomie is the perfect way to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Furman University partners with Kennington Family Winery to create a wine that celebrates connection and community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":39655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,3404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-bicentennial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39652"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39671,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39652\/revisions\/39671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}