Category Archives: Indiana

Legislature Could Boost Wine Sales

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2015

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UPDATE: The bill passed the Indiana Senate this week, 40-10, and now goes to the House. I’ll have an update this coming week on the bill’s status. I’ve also learned of some controversy of an increase in the licensing fee – $100 to $500 for Indiana wineries if bill passes.

Wine enthusiasts have read about the great wines of Huber, Butler, Oliver, and Turtle Run wineries in Southern Indiana. But what if you’re reading Grape Sense in Marion or Peru Indiana? You just can’t pick up the phone and order some wine to try these great bottles. It’s prohibited by state law. And let’s admit, it’s a long drive.

Grape Sense LogoThere is seldom good news in Indiana on direct shipping laws but there is hope in the ongoing session of the Indiana legislature. Current law, in place since 2006, requires consumers to visit on site and make a face-to-face purchase before they can order online. It hurt Indiana wineries significantly when enacted and winery owners are excited it could disappear.

Such statutes used to be fairly common across the country but are now disappearing. Indiana Senate Bill 113, introduced by Crawfordsville Senator Phil Boots, would require customers to provide name, address, phone number and proof of age but remove the onsite restriction.

The good news is the bill passed out of the Senate Public Policy Committee, 9-0. But Jim Butler, who often is involved on behalf of Indiana wineries on governance matters, knows there is still a long way to go.

Jim Butler

Jim Butler

“It’s a great start, but the session is never over until the last hour of the last day, and as you know adult beverage legislation is always a labyrinth,” said Butler, who owns a winery near Bloomington. “Back in 2006 we lost the shipping rights that we had had for over 30 years and as a result we lost about 90 percent of our shipping business and have never really regained it.  This bill will be a great help to our customers as well as us as a business.”

So any Hoosier who supports free commerce should support the bill. You need to encourage those ‘pro-business legislators’ to support Senate Bill 113.

Besides killing profit, the 2006 change created more bureaucracy for Indiana wineries, which already are burdened with regulations and mounds of paper work.

Huber, Ted

Ted Huber

Ted Huber, one of the state’s biggest producers and most-visited wineries, said the current system has been a mess. “Obviously, this type of tracking is cumbersome and complicated,” he said. “It is hard for Huber’s to track Indiana customers among the other visitors that we have traveling through from other states.

“This process becomes frustrating to our Indiana guests as they often leave our tasting room and forget to sign the affidavit.” Huber’s welcomes more than 500,000 annually.

The usual suspects have lined up against the change with tired arguments which have never been proven to have merit. The Indiana Beverage Alliance represents retailers and wholesalers and doesn’t want to lose any business. While that’s understandable, don’t we all support a free marketplace?

“There are lots of Pinot Noirs on the shelf at Indiana retailers,” said Marc Carmichael on behalf of the Alliance. Sure there are lots of choices on those shelves. But Indiana wines take up a tiny portion of the inventory of most retail outlets. If you want to drink Indiana wine, shouldn’t you be able to buy it conveniently?

You can bet the underage-drinking crowd will chime in with their hysterics. Such organizations do an important and great job educating young people about alcohol. That argument gets most of us who support direct shipping de-regulation the most riled up. There is no documented evidence this has ever happened – any where!

Today’s column is a call to action, winos! Contact your local legislator and ask them to support Senate Bill 113 and to change this terrible anti-business law.

Redemption for Favorite Italian Spot

07 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in Food & Travel, Indiana

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BEECH GROVE, In . – An old friend may occasionally tick you off, but they’re still a friend. That’s sort of the approach I took after a May visit to my favorite Italian restaurant. Napoli Villa is a family-owned institution for those on Indy’s southside.

But back in May I had more misses than hits. I lamented in the piece I wrote that I was a frequent visitor to Napoli and had always come away delighted. That night was not a delight.

It was very telling though when I promptly got a note from a family member, Paulo, apologizing and explaining what may have happened. He even offered a gift card which I politely declined.

A return Saturday night was outstanding after a minor initial stumble.

My frequent-dining friend and I ordered our favorite appetizer, the crispy calamari. It was an outstanding pick as always.

During my May visit I was brought the wrong bottle of wine, pointed it out and was assured by a member of the ownership family that I was wrong. Well, I knew I was right.

So Saturday night I ordered the same bottle again. It was a simple Ruffino Chianti Classico. And for the second time I was brought the Chianti. I pulled our waitress aside and explained there was a difference and this had happened to me previously. She immediately realized the error and brought the correct bottle of wine!

The wine itself is a run-of-the mill Chianti. The restaurant markup is consistent with any Indy eatery. It would be nice to see a Brunello or bigger wine on the wine list, but this really is a family spot that caters to folks seeking reasonable value.

It was full speed ahead after that. My favorite pasta fagioli soup was hearty with just a slight hint of heat on the finish. The bread was warm with a nice crust.

I almost always order the homemade ravioli. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente with a nice flavorful sausage filling. The problem was with the sauce in May but no problems this time. The lightly-spiced marinara was rich, full-flavored, with just a touch of heat. It was awesome.

We don’t always do dessert but decided to split a cannoli. It was simply the best cannoli I’ve had in years and maybe ever. The cream filling was richer than any I’ve ever had, for sure.

I also have to note our waitress was great. She apologized at least three times for bringing the wrong wine. I continued to assure her it was fine because she got it right and realized the mistake.

After paying the bill I asked if Paulo was working. He actually works full time in Indy’s corporate world but helps out with the family restaurant when needed. He came out and remembered I was the guy who “wrote that piece.” And we had a nice chat before he returned to the kitchen.

If you want authentic and truly delicious Italian, this bit-out-of-the-way and family-owned restaurant really hits the spot.

Indiana Vineyards Took Vortex Hit

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2014

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Creekbend vineyard vines in renewal.

Creekbend vineyard vines in renewal.

When most Hoosiers think of weather problems and crops it’s cornfields that come to mind. But the winter cold is the big issue of 2014 for farmers of a different type – vineyard managers.

Grape Sense LogoThe frigid cold of early 2014 damaged up to 25 percent of the state’s grape crop, according to Purdue’s Bruce Bordelon. “It’s very widespread in the northern part of the state,” he said. “From the Bloomington/Columbus line and north the damage is pretty severe.”

The extreme cold temperatures damaged the vine structure in many vineyards. “So a lot of us are retraining vines from the ground up,” Bordelon explained. What that means to those with the cold weather issues is that sections of the vineyard restarted may be out of production for two years. “We’ll have a light crop next year,” Bordelon said. “There should be a partial crop in two years then back to full production in 2017.”

Oliver's Parker

Oliver’s Parker

One of the hardest hit vineyards was the state’s second largest at Oliver Winery. The Creekbend Vineyard just west of Oliver’s tasting room on Hwy. 37 suffered damage to 20-25 percent of its vines, according to vineyard manager Bernie Parker. “We’ll be making less than half of the Creekbend (label) but Creekbend is only about three percent of our total production. There is an economic impact because we’re still having to put in the same effort in the vineyard to re-grow these vines. It may take more effort.”

Parker had to restart 9,000 of 36,000 vines in the 54 acre vineyard. The largest portion of the Oliver wines though are produced from grapes purchased to produce their signature and popular sweet wines. The higher-end Creekbend wines are grown in their vineyard. The bulk of that vineyard is planted in Chambourcin, Traminette, Vignoles, Chardonel, and other typical Indiana wine grapes.

BruceOthers who suffered damage may have been able to recover a crop with good vineyard practices. “Grapes are an amazing plant in their ability to produce fruit,” Bordelon said. “We always adjust the production through pruning and cluster thinning. We usually have way more fruit than we really need. With some of these (grape) varieties, with lighter pruning, we’ll still be able to have close to a full crop.”

Down south Ted Huber saw little damage in his vineyards atop the Ohio River Valley hilltops. We’re probably going to pull off an 85-90 percent grape crop,” Huber said. We had a little bit of minor damage in one vineyard so by choice we decided to do a renewal on it. It still had one-third to a half crop on it anyway, but it just made a lot of sense to take it out of production.”

Huber has the state’s largest vineyard but is the second biggest wine producer. Oliver is by far the state’s biggest wine producer with the second largest vineyard. Oliver buys the fruit for much of its 300,000 case production. Approximately half of the Oliver total production is the popular sweet wines.

Uncork Puts Wine Fans In The Vineyard

03 Sunday Aug 2014

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Grapes in Oliver's Creekbend Vineyard starting verasion - or ripening.

Grapes in Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyard starting verasion – or ripening.

Parker leading wine fans through Creekbend Pinot Grigio vines.

Parker leading wine fans through Creekbend Pinot Grigio vines.

BLOOMINGTON, IN. – Vintage Indiana brings nearly 30 Indiana wineries and 10,000 people to Indianapolis’ Military Park each June. It’s a great event. But if you want something a bit more intimate try the up and coming Uncork the Uplands held each summer in Southern Indiana.

Both events give wine fans an opportunity to taste a lot of Indiana wine. But the Uplands event is my pick for the intimacy of chatting with wine makers, owner, and vineyard managers and really taking advantage of a great educational experience beyond just sipping. The nine Uplands wineries in the new Uplands AVA host the event, now in its fourth year. Uplands draws about 300 people making it a more laid-back and intimate event.

The 2014 Uncork featured live music, food, plenty of wine, along with vineyard tours at Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyard. I’ve long been an advocate, as have many others, that you learn farm more walking a vineyard with a winemaker or vineyard manager than you can in a tasting room or just sipping wines. It’s, perhaps, one of the oldest cliché’s in winemaking. ‘Great wine is made in the vineyard and not the winery.’

That’s why a walk through Creekbend with Oliver vineyard manager Bernie Parker was so valuable to the 20-or-so I joined for a warm evening stroll through the grapes. Indiana’s frigid weather wreaked havoc in many vineyards across the state with low temperatures that damaged vines and will cost many a year of production. Parker noted he and his crews had to restart 9,000 of the 36,000 vines at Creekbend. I spent some time talking to Bruce Bordelon, Purdue University wine and grape team, along with several winery owners about the cold weather. The impact certainly varies cut hurt Indiana’s crop from about Bloomington on north, Bordelon said.

That will be an upcoming column or two in the next few weeks.

The event not only is a great education experience, but good food, music, and the opportunity to taste wine of the nine Uplands wineries. I tasted at least one wine from each and continue to be impressed how the quality across the board continues to improve in Indiana wine.

My real picks from hit-n-miss tasting were Winzerwald’s Vidal Blanc and Turtle Run’s Traminette. Both were really nice dry Indiana wines. I also liked Huber’s great 2010 vintage of Heritage (a traditional Bordeaux style blend) along with Oliver’s new Noir – a blend of Marahel Foch and Corot Noir.

But even the sweet wines, which are not to my taste but thousands of Hoosiers, were well-balanced and well-made wines. Put Uncork on your radar for next summer. It’s a great way to taste a wide range of Indiana wine – with out the crowds.

Indiana Uplands’ Event one of Best

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in Indiana

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Mingle with the winemakers - Turtle Run's Jim Pfeiffer, Ted Huber, and Jim Butler at last year's event.

Winemakers: Turtle Run’s Jim Pfeiffer, Ted Huber, and Jim Butler at last year’s event.

Indiana’s Uplands wineries will host one of the state’s premier wine events Saturday at Oliver Winery’s Creekbend Vineyard.

The fourth-annual Uncork the Uplands features nine Southern Indiana wineries located in the state’s only federally-designated AVA – or American Viticultural Area. The wineries will be pouring their wine with food pairings, vineyard tours, and a chance to get up close and personal with some of Indiana’s best winemakers.

The wineries will start pouring at 4 p.m. and keep it flowing until 8 p.m. Creekbend Vineyard is located across Indiana 37 from Oliver Winery. The address is 7508 N. Woodall Road. Tickets are $50 per person.

Creekbend Vineyard illustrates what Indiana can do with wine grapes.

Creekbend Vineyard illustrates what Indiana can do with wine grapes.

“Guests will have the opportunity to explore the Indiana Uplands’ unique terroir firsthand with guided tours of Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyard,” said Turtle Run Winery owner/winemaker Jim Pfeiffer. The Creekbend Vineyard covers 54 acres over rolling hills near Bloomington. More than 30,000 vines feature Indiana signature grapes like Traminette, Chambourcin, and Vignoles among others.

Admission includes opportunites to taste local cuisine and enjoy music from Art Four Sale, a Nashville, Tn., based instrumental quartet.

“Take a stroll, breathe in the summer air and sip your favorite Indiana wines while learning from the many winemakers who have helped build the Indiana wine industry with over 180 years of combined winemaking experience,” said Pfeiffer, chairman of the 2014 event. “This year, guests will even be able to purchase their favorite wine by the bottle to enjoy at home.”

This post was mostly written as a release for the newspapers which carry my column. I promote this event, over some others, because I find these wineries consistently deliver Indiana’s best wines. The three gentlemen above, lead the pack in top quality Indiana wine, along with host Bill Oliver.

The Indiana Uplands Wine Trail is located within the Indiana Uplands American Viticulture Area, a federally recognized grape-growing region established in 2013. The trail wineries include Best Vineyards Winery of Elizabeth; Brown County Winery of Nashville; Butler Winery of Bloomington; ; French Lick Winery of West Baden Springs; Huber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyards of Starlight; Oliver Winery of Bloomington; Turtle Run Winery of Corydon and Winzerwald Winery of Bristow.

Wine Festivals Help Expand Palate

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

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The only way to appreciate wine is to taste wine, different wines, and push yourself to try new things.

There’s no better way to taste more wines than the exploding popularity of wine festivals. There are many events in Indiana and surrounding states, many in Indianapolis, but two large ones which dominate the calendar. Story, Indiana hosts the Indiana Wine Fair April 26. Then Indianapolis hosts Vintage Indiana June 7.

Grape Sense LogoThe Indiana Wine Fair has grown to be wildly successful approaching its 12th year in quirky little Story, Indiana. The town is best known for its old inn – “One inconvenient location since 1851” and a world-class restaurant.

The wine fair runs 12:30-7 p.m. April 26th. Admission is $30 with a Story Inn wine glass keepsake for the first 4,000 at the gate. Designated Drivers are admitted for $10. The fair offers shuttle buses from picturesque Nashville and Bloomington.

The wine fair offers plenty of food options and entertainment. Story is approximately half way between Columbus and Bloomington about 10 miles south of Hwy. 46.

StoryCrowdVintage Indiana is the oldest of these mega-wine gatherings in its 14th year. Vintage is sponsored by the Indiana Wine and Grape Council. The noon-6 p.m. event is held in Indianapolis’ Military Park downtown. Admission is $25 in advance and $35 at the gate. The first 10,000 people receive a souvenir glass. A VIP program costs $50 in advance and gets you an hour of less-hectic tasting at 11 a.m.

Vintage includes entertainment, craft and food vendors along with a Wine & Food pavilion featuring presentations from chefs and foodies.

Both wine festivals present a wide range of wines from many of Indiana’s 80-some wineries. You can easily taste more than 100 wines at either event. Though a little advice for big wine events is learn to spit. Some people are uncomfortable sloshing wine around in their mouth then expelling it into a dump container at each winery’s booth. The trick is to learn to move the wine around from the front of your mouth (or palate) to the back. If you’re a little uncomfortable remember this is a world-wide practice commonly seen in Europe and even Napa Valley tasting rooms. You can practice it at home.

There are other wine festivals. Vevay, along the Ohio river, hosts the Swiss Wine Festival August 21.24. Vevay claims to be the location of Indiana’s first winery. At this time they have 12 wineries committed to pouring for the event.

Then there are other festivals and art shows which may feature a winery or two.

StoryCrowdBut the two big ones come up early in the year. Each features a lot of wineries. It’s not unusual to find 20-35 wineries at either event. Parking can be an issue at Story, a large abandoned field is used across from the Story Inn. Parking in Indianapolis is where it can be found but plentiful on the city’s near west side.

Both festivals are great fun. But a word of warning, Story’s Indiana Wine Fair is crowded into a small space. There are Hoosier winemakers who will whisper, off the record, the festival has grown beyond the space.

Vintage draws an even bigger crowd but the venue is much more spacious. Both venues feature long lines and crowds. Obviously, people are consuming alcohol at these events. There are always a few who have bellied up to the tasting table a few times too many. The wineries are very careful with the one-ounce pour but there is no policing how many pours anyone consumes.

With that word of advice, the wine fairs are a great way to explore Indiana’s improving wine industry.

Ertel Winery Does Sweet Right

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Indiana, Uncategorized

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Indiana has about 70 wineries. It seems like I’ve visited many of them but a quick count shows only 23! I’ve tasted wine from some of the others but only keep track of those I’ve set foot in and tasted the wine and had the full experience.

A small tasting bar greets visitors as they step into the large lodge-like winery.

A small tasting bar greets visitors as they step into the large lodge-like winery.

I notched my 23rd visit over the holiday weekend. I visited Ertel Cellars Winery just south of Batesville while visiting family for Thanksgiving. It’s easy to be taken by the beautiful winery and restaurant atop a small hill and the nearby vineyard. It’s one of Indiana’s prettiest winery settings.

Details about the visit are on the Indiana Winery Page linked at the top of the blog.

In short summary, the Ertel brothers do sweet wines right. I’ve written here many times I have no palate for sweet wines but try to assess them fairly. These wines were well balanced with a purity of the fruit. They are sweet – and no that’s not a redundancy. Some of Indiana’s top winemakers are trying to retain the fresh fruit taste on the palate and reduce residual sugar. But for those who like fruit and sweet, you’ll enjoy Ertel wines.

TripAdvisor reviews were very kind to the restaurant

TripAdvisor reviews were very kind to the restaurant

The Traminette was very nice but again quite sweet. The Chambourcin is often my benchmark for Indiana wineries and Ertel gets it right. Indiana wineries grow lots of Chambourcin but many make a truly awful wine by harvesting at the wrong time and not producing the beautiful light-bodied wine that holds up great against more established names and regions.

The Ertel $16 estate-grown Chambourcin is a nice, locally-made wine.

One of the more impressive things is a beautiful restaurant and interesting menu. I didn’t eat there but will on a future trip to Southeastern Indiana. The winery is perhaps a 10-minute drive off I-74 so a great stop if you’re driving to Cincinnati. The estate fruit is largely producing sweet wines, but if you like that flavor profile you’ll like Ertel Cellars.

Friends, Wine – Doesn’t Get Better

07 Thursday Nov 2013

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DudesI’ve written and even posted video of my Wine Dude friends from time to time over the past few years. Jobs and spouse’s jobs have broken up the band a bit. But over the weekend we had three of the original five guys together, one newbie – and two youngsters! (of age, of course!).

We tasted our way through several wines.

cultivateCultivate Dream Walker 2010 Chardonnay – This is a blend of Chards from Mendocino, Central Coast and Napa. It was a little higher on the alcohol side at 14.1 percent with a suggested retail of $17.99. (Trade Sample)

The guys ended up liking this wine quite a bit. There was a stronger hint of oak on the nose than the palate – and that pleased most of our six-man group. One of the guys said, “There’s a small taste of the oak but you can still taste the mineral.” I thought that description was spot on. Another of the guys also may have hit the nail on the head from a different point of view.

“This is a wine that doesn’t know what it wants to be.” In a way, they both had it right. But the wine won in the end because all six of us liked the Chard.

B_Vignoles-crop - CopyHuber Winery’s 2012 Indiana Uplands Vignoles – This was the Indy International Wine Competition’s top wine beating out more than 2,500 entries from nearly 40 states and 13 countries.

Ted Huber’s award-winning Vignoles fools a lot of people with its incredibly bright fruit. This group is pretty uber-sensitive to sweetness. A couple guys argued it was too sweet. But I cautioned them to judge the wine on the third or fourth sip. They then admitted it was not as sweet tasting as they first thought.

Words like “honeysuckle, pear, and honey dew melon” were some of the descriptors. I like this wine a lot. I get a hint of fall spice among all that fruit that I love. At $14.99 a bottle, it’s a great, great Hoosier white wine.

creekbend_chambourcin11 - CopyOliver’s Creekbend 2010 Chambourcin – This is a grape grown throughout Indiana that can make great wine. It can also make musty, skanky crap.

Fortunately, Bill Oliver – best known for sweet Oliver Red and Oliver White found in more than 30 US states – has a great vineyard and makes some great wines he often gets little credit for under the avalanche of the winery’s flagship bottles. When harvested right and handled properly this a rich red wine with an earthiness that is somewhat reminiscent of a nice Pinot Noir. It has red raspberry but also hints of dark cherry.

One of the guys found a hint of caramel on the nose and I couldn’t argue. “It’s balanced and round. It’s got a solid nose. It’s a bit like a Cab Franc but more mellow – and without the nasty back end.”

I poured the Chambourcin blind without telling the guys a thing. They all liked it quite a bit. A couple of the guys loved it. When I told them it was $22 – they thought that was about right for a Hoosier wine of this quality.

Yes, we sit about being THAT wine geeky!

I’ve found Oliver, Huber, Buck Creek, and Turtle Run to all make really nice Chambourcin. There may be other but these four do it right. SRP $22.

One of the better palates of our group said, “I like the idea that two or three Indiana winemakers who say they’re going to take an Indiana grape and make a world class wine.”

2008-panther-creek-freed-18904-736z - CopyPanther Creek 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Freedom Hill Vineyard – This bargain found on several of the sales flash sites is really solid Pinot.

The nose and palate features typcial strawberry, caramel and dark cherry, floral hints and nice balance for an Oregon Pinot. A couple of us thought the wine lacked when it came to fruit. It was well balanced but just didn’t bring enough sense of barnyard stink – or terroir – of most Oregon Pinot.

This wine retails for $40 but has been features on several of the flash sites for $40. For my money, it’s not $40 Pinot but at $19.99 its a great buy.

kokomoKokomo Vineyards 2009 Zinfandel, Timber Crest Vineyards – I had saved this bottle of wine for a special occasion. I had carried it back from Sonoma a couple of years ago.

I had had a great visit with Erik Miller, owner/winemaker, and his vineyard manager Randy Peters. We tasted through several wines in the tasting room and I was really taken by this Zinfandel. Randy grows the grapes.

The guys loved it. It’s a big rich Zin without being as over-powering as many. The balance was nice with a silky mouth feel. This is a small production, winemaker’s designate wine that you might not find. To top it off, I couldn’t not find a price online and don’t remember what I paid for it. It was in the $40-$50 range, as I recall.

It’s great wine. So the lesson on this one – sometimes vineyard designate, winemaker’s reserve and such labels mean something. This bottle of wine proved that.

Buck Creek’s Older Vines Deliver

20 Friday Sep 2013

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JUST SOUTH OF INDY – Indiana now has nearly 70 wineries and I’ve visited nearly 25 of them. Three stops this year yielded a 1-2 record (in sports jargon, at least).

My first two 2013 stops yielded mediocre to undrinkable wine. I struggle to write about those out of a sense of fairness to someone’s livelihood but what value would anything I write be if I’m just a cheerleader?

So it was with trepidation I finally stopped at Buck Creek Winery visible on I-74, just south of Indianapolis. Let’s just say my faith was restored!

Jeff Durm pours in his tasting room. Yahoo.com Photo

Jeff Durm pours in his tasting room. Yahoo.com Photo

Jeff Durm retired from the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and opened the winery in 2006. But more importantly, bought the property and established the vineyard in 1991. You can see vines zipping along I-74.

Old vines make better wine – it’s pretty simple. But you still have to know what you’re doing. Jeff was a home winemaker then shadowed veteran Dr. Charles Thomas at Chateau Thomas to hone his skills.

He’s doing something right. The wines were quite good – and some were as good as any produced in the state.

I tasted the Seyval Blanc ($12.95), not to my taste but well made and estate grown. The Traminette or “Forget Me Not” ($12.15) was really solid if a bit on the sweeter side.

The reds are what really got my attention. Durm’s “Amore” or 100 percent Chambourcin was silky smooth, bigger fruit than some Indiana versions with a lighter finish. It was darn good wine at $14.95.

Durm’s William Loyd Reserve ($14.95) is a bigger version of the basic Chambourcin with two Noire grapes added in. It didn’t have the balance of the first wine but certainly had a more complex flavor.

Jeff’s Merlot sourced from California’s Mayacamas region of Napa Valley was outstanding. Dark fruit, great tannin structure from time in French and American barrels and a really good buy at $17.95.

Buck Creek has 29 wines on their tasting sheet.

Buck Creek has 29 wines on their tasting sheet.

But, shaking my head while I write this, the best of an extensive wine list was a Pinot Noir. Yes, Pinot! But wait – it gets more head shaking than that. The grapes were grown near Sunman/Batesville Indiana area. It was light in a Burgundian/Oregon style. It was 100 percent correct for the Pinot grape. It was aged one year in small French and American oak barrels. It sells for $15.95. I’m still shaking my head. I brought a bottle home to try in a few days to see if my initial impression holds up. I’ll update here.

The small but beautiful tasting room and knowledgable staff help make Buck Creek a really good stop. Jeff also makes a full line of sweet and fruit wines. He entered nearly 20 wines in the 2013 Indy International Wine Competition and won medals for all but one.

And one more note, I’ll be going back to visit with Jeff and tell more of his story. But before I left he wanted me to taste a barrel sample. Joe and his son are making a traditional Bordeaux blend of Cab Franc, Cab Sauv, Petit Sirah (from Lodi), and Merlot (Mayacamas). It was stunning. I was shocked. The grapes were from the 2010 harvest and have spent 18 months in new French oak. He only has one barrel of the wine, but I can’t wait to taste it again.

Huber Wins Top Indy Competition Award

19 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013

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Indiana is on a roll.

For the second straight year an Indiana wine won top honors at the prestigious 22nd Annual Indy International Wine Competition held in early August at Purdue University.

Grape Sense LogoHuber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyards took the honor for the competition’s top wine with its Vignoles. A year ago River City Winery won the prize also with Vignoles.

“I think Vignoles really hits a consumer sweet spot,” Ted Huber said in explaining the second straight Vignoles win. “Consumers want nice fruit but more and more without the sweetness.”

The wine comes in with a modest .73 percent residual sugar and a light 12 percent alcohol. The Vignoles is grown on the Huber 80-acre vineyard. Vignoles is a French hybrid grape that has been found to grow well in the Midwest.

Ted Huber pouring in his Starlight, IN. tasting room.

Ted Huber pouring in his Starlight, IN. tasting room.

Characteristically, the wine is semi-dry with low sugar and tastes of pineapple, honey and melon. On my palate it was the honey and a maybe a Honey Dew melon flavor that dominated the wine. Some wine drinkers not familiar with Vignoles might compare it to a Gewürztraminer. It has a bit of a floral characteristic on the nose but doesn’t overpower the wine. The wine can have an odd banana-like flavor that is, fortunately, missing from Huber’s wine.

“It’s always very well-received in our tasting room,” Huber says. “People are bashful about trying a semi-dry wine but pleased once they do. The tropical fruit on the palate makes it approachable. There’s nothing else quite like it. It really holds its own.”

Success is nothing new to Huber’s 80,000 case operation and tourist destination. “I think we’ve won something like 20 Governor’s Cups,” Huber said. The Indy International presents the Cup to the Hoosier winery with the most medals each year.

Huber's were harvesting Traminette Monday.

Huber’s were harvesting Traminette Monday.

This year Huber won winemaker of the year, given to the winery with the most gold medals. They also won the Eagle Award for the Best Rose Wine, Huber’s Catawba Rose.

Don’t dismiss the Indy International as just any competition. The organizers bill the competition as ‘the largest scientifically organized and independent wine competition in the United States. Judges come from across the county and all wines are tasted blind. This year more than 2,500 wines were entered from 35 states and 15 countries.

“It all starts with agriculture – growing top quality grapes lead to award winning wines,” Huber said. “Southern Indiana has proven this many times with our ability to produce world class wines.”

Hubers won double gold, the highest honor before the top wines are chosen, for Vignoles, Starlight White, Chambourcin, and Raspberry wines. They won gold medals for six other wines, silver for nine wines.

Several Michigan and Illinois wineries also took home medals. See Indy International for full results.

Huber’s Vignoles ($14.99) represents a movement among several Indiana winemakers to reduce residual sugar while maintaining the fresh fruit qualities of their wines. The Vignoles is an outstanding summer sipper but would also be good with creamy cheeses or salty meats like prosciutto.