18 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted in Indiana
My second day at Huber’s Winery, Starlight, IN., was mostly a quick stop Tuesday morning. I did take about 45-60 minutes to wander the vineyards with the beautiful morning sunshine.
The photos speak for themselves – like the one above. Huber’s has beautiful grounds, and stunning vineyards. The morning sun just made the images a bit better.
Check out Tuesday’s photos. Read yesterday’s full post with more photos: In Vineyard at Harvest is an Education.
16 Monday Sep 2013
A harvest worker reaches through the thick vines to grab this bunch of Indiana Traminette.
STARLIGHT, IN. – The Monday overcast morning wasn’t necessarily the idyllic setting many wine enthusiasts vision for fall harvest. There is this romantic notion of Napa-like sunny skies, smiles and the colors of fall and wine grapes.
All of that holds true, to an extent, in Southern Indiana but a day in the vineyard during harvest quickly brings the realization that harvest is hard work. It’s hectic, its difficult, and it’s rushed – because it has to be to make fine wine.
Ted Huber scooping out stems.
Ted Huber, Indiana’s largest vineyard owner, was kind enough to let me hang out today. I shot a ton of photos. Here is the album of more than 30 shots.
I’ve been telling people for a long time that you learn about great wine in the vineyard and not the winery. And it couldn’t possibly be more true than walk the vineyard during harvest then watch the fruit being delivered to the production facility.
All of the workers, along with Ted, were great explaining the process and what they do during this incredibly busy time of the year.
I’m headed back up the hill to Huber’s Tuesday morning. This will be a shorter visit but they’re probably doing some bottling – something I’d like to see. Maybe buy some peaches or something!
13 Friday Sep 2013
I work at a small college and the blog really suffers when we hit a busy time of the year. Obviously, the start of the year is one of those times. So it’s back at looking ahead a bit.
I’m headed to Southern Indiana the first of the week to spend time in the vineyards and wineries at Huber’s and Turtle Run. Mainly, I’m going to be doing lots of photos. But I’m sure there will be some Tweets and Facebook posts – along with some albums up on the blog.
There will certainly be a story, video, or something more. I’ve never spent a day at winery during harvest season and I’m pretty pumped about it. Hope you check in.
Regulars might notice the page link at the top about the Willamette Valley. I’m putting together a trip for anyone interested and will open registration in early October. It will be a very boutique experience with supurb accomodations, meals, and customized winery visits.
I have
03 Tuesday Sep 2013
Posted in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013
Michigan has long been known for its apples, cherries, blueberries and more. Indiana has raspberries, blackberries, and peaches, and more. Winemakers have been turning those fruits to wines for decades.
While fruit wine often gets the cold shoulder from snooty wine drinkers, those wines remain some of the best sellers throughout the Midwest.
But what do you do for dinner if your wine rack only has fruit wine choices? It’s just a matter of experimentation and perhaps a little direction from others.
“A lot of people just like sweet wines,” said Kim Doty, French Lick Winery. Many people like it for dessert. There is this mystique that you have to drink dry wines but many people like sweet … people are going to drink what they like.”
And if you like sweet wines just use a dose of logic – like pairing a cranberry wine with poultry.
Another classic pairing is raspberry wine with just about anything chocolate. The sweetness level of the wine will set the bar for sweet, semi-sweet, or a robust dark chocolate dessert. Of course raspberry wine makes a great reduction to use with chocolate desserts, cheesecake and other sweets.
Generally, wine drinkers will think of a sweeter Riesling or Gewürztraminer for spicy Asian food. Why not try a peach wine with a spicy pairing? You might be surprised how well it complements big strong flavors. You can always fall back to grape wines and pair a semi-sweet, Midwestern Traminette.
Huber Winery, with Indiana’s biggest vineyard and acres more of fruit and vegetables, makes Peach, Strawberry, Apple, and Blackberry wines.
Dana Huber
“We partner one of our semi-sweet sparkling wines with a peach and a graham cracker as an appetizer,” said Dana Huber, Huber Winery, Starlight, In., “But obviously people just enjoy them as a perfect glass of wine independent as dessert in a glass. Certainly brownies or cheesecake can be a great match as far as sweet wines.”
Another wonderful pairing is just about any fruit wine with a salad. It’s simple, just think of your ingredients and if you’d add the fresh fruit to the salad or not. Add the fruit wine as a complement instead of the fresh berries or fruit.
Wine has always been a staple in most kitchens in reductions and traditional food pairings,
“We’ve had some customers marinate steaks in our blackberry wine which it gives it a really nice tenderness and a little sweetness on it,” Huber said. “The sweet wines are definitely something home cooks can use in their recipes.”
Another great fruit-based wine is infusions. An infusion usually is a wine infused with a complementary brandy. “You can take an infusion, and replace some of the water in a recipe and infuse your brownie bites. They’re really yummy and it’s a good addition.”
Doty’s winery produces an award-winning cherry wine that’s great with desserts. “One of the things with the cherry we recommend is to try it with goat cheese,” she said. “It sounds weird, but it’s really a great match.”
20 Tuesday Aug 2013
Posted in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013
Anyone who has tried to buy wine at a winery, take a special bottle to a restaurant or buy wine on a Sunday knows Indiana’s laws are confusing and restrictive.
Neighboring states aren’t much better off. Indiana and Kentucky prevent direct winery to consumer shipping while Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio allow it. All four of those states allow Sunday sales while Indiana does not. The American Wine Consumer Coalition, Washington D.C. issued a report and grade for all 50 states. It’s called Consuming Concerns: The 2013 State-by-State Report Card on Consumer Access to wine. The forward in the report bemoans the existence of laws ‘from the 1930s” that are still ‘in place in most states, despite a cultural, economic and commercial reality that is starkly different (today).’
David Honig, a wine writer, publisher of one of the country’s biggest online wine magazine – Palate Press – and attorney, says the laws make no sense unless viewed through the lens of distributor protection. “A wine lover can have their favorite bottled shipped to them, but only if (a) they’ve been to the vineyard or winery in person, and (b) left a copy of their Indiana Driver’s License, and (c) the winery has an Indiana shipping license, and (d) only if the winery does not have a distributor in the state,” Honig said.
Palate Press Publisher David Honig
“These laws don’t protect minors from their plans to set aside the usual adolescent need for instant gratification to order an expensive vintage for delivery in a week or two. Nor do they protect Hoosiers from bathtub gin or other adulterated hooch. They don’t even keep the streets, playgrounds, and schoolyards safe from Hillside Select swilling bums, hiding their $250 bottles in plain brown bags. They protect distributors, the top tier in the three-tier system, from suffering the indignity of seeing somebody enjoy a bottle of wine without getting a cut.”
By now you may have guessed, Indiana got an F and so did Kentucky. Michigan and Ohio came in with D grades while Illinois scored highest in the Midwest with a C.
The scoring standards were: winery to consumer shipping; retailer to consumer shipping; grocery store wine sales, Sunday wine sales, and bring your own bottle to restaurants laws.
Who scored near the top? Not surprisingly, California led the list followed by Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Indiana is joined by 11 other states on the stinkers list including Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Utah.
The hodgepodge of laws is largely the embarrassing work of state legislatures. In Indiana, the distributors’ lobby has controlled, or owned, our voting representatives. I’ve heard more than one distributor say there is little problem with allowing direct shipping because that is such a small portion of the wine-buying market. The hypocrisy is extraordinary even for state legislators. Write the representative in your state. The laws are ridiculous.
Consumers can buy almost anything through the mail and have it shipped to their doorstep – clothing, books, medicine, furniture, even pornography. This has nothing to do with under-age drinking – a favorite ploy of the distributors. You have to have a valid credit cart and a person 21 years of age available to sign when delivered to buy wine for direct shipping.
It’s about greed.
17 Saturday Aug 2013
Posted in Indiana
SOMEWHERE IN SOUTHERN INDIANA – Indiana is not Napa, Willamette Valley, or even New York’s Finger Lakes when it comes to wine quality. But several of the state’s 70 wineries are making great wine. I’m equally sure there are a few I’ve not visited making good juice as well.
It’s a pleasure to tell the stories of the Uplands Wine Trail. I just did an interview Friday with Ted Huber about his winery winning top honors at the Indy International Competition.
A lovely setting, nice patio area, but the wine …. ???
But what to do when you visit an operation making substandard wine? It’s one thing for a wine not to be to your taste but totally another when the wine is flawed – or far beyond just flawed to poorly made and just plain awful.
I taste the sweet wines and the fruit wines and try to judge them for what they are and have found a respect for those winemakers producing such wines for our mass market of Hoosier sweet-lovin wine drinkers.
The Thomas Family winery is in a historic building in Madison, In. – one of the prettiest spots in Indiana. The Ohio River is beautiful in the stretch along this old river town. The family has a history of wine making dating back to the 1930s. As a matter of fact, the Thomas Winey has its roots in Indianapolis.
But for just the second time in my six years of wine writing I tasted wines today that were not well made and, arguably, turning people away from Indiana wines. I could go a step further and say it was a disservice to Indiana wines in general.
I tasted a white wine from grapes grown in Indiana and a red Zin made of grapes from Lodi, California. The tasting room person described the wines in detail and answered my questions. But her description of a raisin-like quality, similar to port, in the Zin was unfortunately right on target but the wrong comparison.
The raisin-like quality was much more a wine-gone-bad, corked, pour-it-down-the sink state of disgust. Maybe a bad bottle you say? Perhaps, but each bottle was opened for my pour. And, by the way, I never identifty myself as a wine writer on first-time visits.
The wine had gone bad in the barrel, bottle, or somewhere along the line. It was astringent with no fruit and the balance of a roller-coaster. The Indiana white wine was also oddly astringent and virtually undrinkable. Normally I enjoy a nice acidic white but not when the acid is closer to chemistry class than agriculture.
I’m neither a chemist or winemaker but I understand the principles of wine making. I taste hundreds of wines every year but thousands is probably more accurate.
The history and location had me wanting more. Perhaps a second visit is called for in all fairness.
Is it dishonest to praise the good and ignore the bad? I tend to think so. Leave a comment. Send me an email. I honestly would like to know what you think and expect.
05 Monday Aug 2013
Posted in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013
The vineyards at Huber Winery stretch over 70 acres.
The ideal growing conditions of 2013 has Indiana grape growers forgetting last year’s dry and scorching summer. Indiana wineries and independent vineyards are looking at the potential for a bumper crop of wine grapes.
Indiana has nearly 600 acres of vineyard to support what’s soon to be 70 wineries. Most Hoosier wineries buy all or some of their fruit from in- and out-of-state suppliers. Most winery vineyards often are just 5, 10, or 15 acres which provides fruit for a small portion of their production.
Two of the state’s biggest wineries, not surprisingly, have the biggest vineyards. Oliver Winery has its beautiful 50-acre, Creekbend Vineyard just a few miles off Highway 37 near Bloomington. Ted Huber has the state’s largest winery-owned vineyard with nearly 70 acres producing grapes on long-held family property overlooking the Ohio River Valley close to Louisville.
Oliver’s Dennis Dunham at Creekbend Vineyard
“Everything looks perfect and ideal at this point,” said Oliver’s Director of Winemaking Operations Dennis Dunham. “We’ve had a fair amount of rain pre-veraison but it’s is not a big deal. And especially after last year I think there is general thought that getting moisture back into the soil, overall, is a good thing.
Veraison is a vineyard term meaning the onset of ripening. White wine grapes become more translucent and red wine grapes turn red.
Dunham said the vineyard had issues last year in the hot weather. The lack of rain forced vineyard workers to cut clusters from the vines to encourage ripening of what remained.
Ted Huber said the story was similar down south.
Ted Huber in his Starlight, IN., tasting room.
“We’re probably 15-20 percent in veraison and the rest of the varieties are a week out,” Huber said. “Right now we’re sitting very disease free considering the amount of rain we’ve had in June and July. We’re starting to dry out, because we’ve missed most of the late July rains
But like any Hoosier farmer, growers are never totally happy with the weather. “The problem we’re having now is excess vine growth,” Huber said. “So we have several different groups working almost seven days a week doing shoot positioning, leaf pulling, cutting, getting rid of the massive canopy we’re seeing right now. It’s necessary so we go into veraison and can ripen fruit correctly.”
But both men agreed a bumper crop is starting to look certain. “We’re seeing a very big crop right now and we can ripen a big crop.” Huber said. “Unlike last year, with the lack of shoot growth, we had to drop fruit because we didn’t think we could ripen it. This year we have a bumper crop of leaves and shoots, and a full canopy absorbing the sunshine.
“So if we get the fruit exposed to it and let mother nature take its course, we should be able to ripen everything. We should have a big crop.”
Dunham said Creekbend is set to deliver the biggest normal crop winemakers can ever expect. “So with the weather we got now, we have as much fruit as we can expect,” he said. “Overall, everything has looked pretty darn good and some of the crop estimates I’ve seen are pretty high. I think we’re going to have a large grape crop.”
But what does it all mean to Hoosier wine consumers? First, it means there are more Indiana grapes on the open fruit market and the chance for some producers to buy locally. Many Indiana wineries buy fruit from out of state. Second, great wine is made in vineyards and not by winemakers. A great crop should mean a great 2013 vintage.
26 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013
Tags
Last fall NUVO, the Indianapolis alternative newspaper, picked up Grape Sense – my newspaper column. They run it every other week much like the other 22 newspapers. They usually have to edit it down to about 300 words.
But I’ve done a few special pieces and a few of my regular columns for them as a feature. It was great to see this week’s column featured promoting Saturday’s Uncork the Uplands event in Bloomington!
19 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013
The News-Tribune in New Albany and Jeffersonville has become the 23rd Midwestern newspaper to carry my wine column, Grape Sense.
The river city daily is a combined production of the old New Albany Tribune and Jeffersonville News. I’ve been after them for awhile with their close proximity to Huber, Turtle Run, and Best wineries!
That brings my newspaper count to 23 papers in three states, and reaching more than 310,000 homes each month!
Thanks to editor Shea Van Hoy for picking up Grape Sense!
15 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2013
Tags
Best Vineyards, Bill Oliver, Bloomington Convention Center, Brown County Winery, Butler Vineyards, Capriole Farmstead Goat Cheese, French Lick Winery, Huber Orchard & Vineyards, Indiana Uplands, Jim Butler, Jim Pfeiffer, Judy Schad, Kim Doty, Oliver Winery, Owen Valley Winery, Smoking Goose Meats, Turtle Run Winery, Uncork the Uplans, Winzerwald Winery
Indiana’s best wine region is pairing up with some of the state’s better-known artisan food producers for the third annual “Uncork the Uplands.”
Ten Uplands wineries will pour wine beside artisan food businesses at 6-9 p.m., July 27, at the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center.
The Indiana Uplands grape growing designation (AVA) was awarded by the federal government earlier this year. The designation adds authenticity to a region for growing grapes and producing wines unique to the geographic area. The Uplands group is capitalizing by moving its young event from near Louisville to Bloomington.
Visitors can tour Bill Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyards Saturday afternoon
“The Uplands area is very large geographically so we are moving the event to different venues around the trail to be accessible to a larger and more diverse audience,” said Kim Doty, Uplands president and owner of French Lick Winery. “This is our signature event. We want to show people what we can do. We’re making world-class wines.”
The evening features 10 wineries: Best Vineyards, Brown County, Butler Winery, Carousel, French Lick, Huber, Owen Valley, Oliver, Turtle Run and Winzerwald. A few of the food vendors include: Fair Oaks Farm, Piccoli Dolci, Peacetree Mountain Truffles, Yours Truly Foods , Maple Leaf Farms, Smoking Goose Meats, Inga’s Popcorn, and Steckler Grassfed (beef).
Butler
Judy Schad, Capriole Farmstead Goat Cheeses, will be one of the featured speakers. Jim Butler, Butler Winery, will talk about the significance of the AVA designation. A silent auction will be held to benefit the Local Growers Guild, and three chefs will compete in a wine/food pairing competition judged by all visitors.
Bill Oliver, Oliver Winery, is opening his Creekbend Vineyard to visitors as part of the Uncork event. Winemakers from many of the 10 wineries will be in the vineyard Saturday afternoon to talk about grapes grown in Indiana and their winemaking.
Tickets for the evening event are $55, which includes tasting at all of the winery and food tables. The combined evening program and Creekbend Tour is $75. Tickets are available at the Convention Center box office and any of the 10 wineries.
For the winemakers, 2013 has been a very good year. The American Viticulture Area designation provides legitimacy to wine enthusiasts.
Pfeiffer in his vineyard neary Corydon.
“It’s all about validity,” said Jim Pfeiffer, winemaker and owner of Turtle Run Winery, Corydon. “When you have big events people take notice. I’m a big subscriber to Robert Mondavi’s mantra of promote yourself, promote your industry and get others to grow with you.
“It’s sort of like we’re trying to do things Napa Valley does. We want to be noticed.”
The wine trail has benefited from the publicity. Already this year, the Uplands added a 10th winery after the AVA announcement, Owen Valley Winery, Spencer, IN.
“Indiana Uplands was Indiana’s first wine trail,” Doty said. “We are celebrating our 10th anniversary. With the new AVA designation, we are seeing more wineries take root in the Uplands and the expansion of established vineyards.”
Pfeiffer said the wine trail brings more credibility to each winery’s effort. “Would anyone know of Napa Valley if there were 1-2-3 wineries? You have to partner up with people who are like minded. It creates validity and excitement.
Howard W. Hewitt 