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Howard W. Hewitt

~ … The "W" stands for wine!

Howard W. Hewitt

Tag Archives: Uplands Wine Trail

Time Again to Uncork the Uplands

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Indiana, Newspaper Column 2015

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Huber Winery, Indiana Uplands, Jeffersonville, New Albany, Oliver Winery, Turtle Run Winery, Uncork the Uplands, Uplands Wine Trail, Winerwald Winery

One of the state’s best, if not the best, wine celebrations returns to Huber Orchard and Winery 4-7 p.m., July 25 in southern Indiana.

Uncork the Uplands is in its fifth year celebrating the wines of Indiana’s only designated American Viticultural Area – the Indiana Uplands. The annual celebration returns to Huber’s after two years at Oliver Winery near Bloomington.

Grape Sense LogoThe Indiana Uplands has nine Indiana wineries coming together for one night of wine, food, and celebration. The event is hosted by Huber in its large Plantation Hall. Huber’s is located in the rolling hills of southern Indiana overlooking the Ohio River Valley near the very small town of Starlight. It’s a short drive from New Albany.

The nine wineries pouring will be Best Vineyards, Brown County Winery, Butler Winery, French Lick Winery, Huber Winery, Owen Valley Winery, Oliver’s, Turtle Run and Winzerwald. Those nine make up the Uplands Wine trail and grow grapes within the Indiana Uplands AVA.

The unique Indiana event also brings in a number of Indiana artisan food purveyors offering samples to pair with the wine. Live music and other events highlight the evening activities.

Touring vineyards at Uplands last year at Oliver Winery.

Touring vineyards at Uplands last year at Oliver Winery.

Wine fans can also participate in two guided tours. In one, guests will tour one of Indiana’s largest and oldest vineyards. Huber’s almost 800-acre farm has contributed to Indiana’s agritourism for over 150 years. In the second, tour Huber’s production facility, and see how wines and spirits are created from the ground up.

This year, Uncork will feature add-on tickets for an exclusive VIP event that will take place in Huber’s Starlight Distillery’s new 20,000 square-foot stillhouse an hour before the main event.

VIP tickets include special cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a keepsake glass and personal interaction with the winemakers from around the trail. Tickets to this event are limited.

One of the best parts of the Uplands event is the chance to talk with the winemakers and family members who make some of Indiana’s best wine. But be sure to get there early and take the vineyard tour. If you’re a real wine fan, there is no better way to learn about wine grown in any region of the world than a walk through a production vineyard.

Tickets are $60 per person and are available at the participating wineries and at the door the night of the event. The fee covers all the food and wine tastings throughout the evening.

With Huber located in the southern most region of the state, you should consider spending the night near New Albany or Jeffersonville and enjoy the historical district, restaurants, and new walking bridge across the Ohio River. The area is going through big positive changes. There are several national chain motels near I-64.

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Legislature Right – For a Change

22 Friday May 2015

Posted by Howard in Indiana, Midwestern States, Newspaper Column 2015

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Butler Winery, French Lick Winery, Indiana legislature, Jim Butler, Kim Doty, Phil Boots, Uplands Wine Trail, West Baden, Wine shipping

Indiana’s legislature showed a small bit of sanity in getting a shipping law passed for Hoosier Wineries before closing the most recent session. Governor Pence signed the bill into law.

Phil Boots

Phil Boots

Grape Sense LogoSen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, gudied the legislation removing the face-­to-­face requirement for Indiana wineries to ship wine to their customers. At one point, the licensing fee went from $100 annually to $500. That was plain and simple another case of the legislators bowing to the powerful liquor lobby, funded largely by alcohol distributors.

He urged supporters to keep the foot on the gas and in the end the fee structure was set up on a graduating scale depending on production and alcohol shipped. A fair, if not arguably unnecessary, solution.

Kim Doty, standing center, with husband John and family.

Kim Doty, standing center, with husband John and family.

Indiana wineries could not be happier.

“When the law requiring an initial face to face transaction became effective, it literally destroyed our shipments to wine customers,” said Kim Doty, owner of French Lick Winery.

“We lost 95 percent of our wine shipping sales. Our wine sold and shipped to customers in 2004 was about 10 percent of our total sales. Today with the face to face requirement, our shipping sales are less than one tenth of 1 percent of our total sales. This requirement has also had a negative impact on the growth of our wine club with 99 percent of our wine club sales are shipped directly to the home.”

Again, that face­-to-­face requirement was added to legislation in 2008 as a token to the alcohol lobby but crippling, in particular, to small wineries.

Wineries like French Lick were forced to play along but at a steep price. “We have accumulated over 5400 completed verification forms to date. We would have sold and shipped at least twice that if not for the requirement.”

The new law requires age verification but all shipping laws generally do. Wineries can meet the requirement by using an age verification delivery service like FedEx or UPS.

“We are thrilled with having the requirement rescinded,” Doty said. “Age verification will still be performed by the delivery company and we will pay additional fees for this service. We are confident that our wine shipments are properly handled in accordance with Indiana’s age requirement for liquor.”

Jim Butler

Jim Butler

Jim Butler, Butler Vineyards near Bloomington, has long been one of the industries leading spokespersons and advocate for sanity in wine shipping laws and more.

“We are basically back to where we were 9 or 10 years ago,” Butler said. “With the face to face requirement we l lost 90 percent of our shipping business. Perhaps now we can build it back. This is a nice step forward. It is always a battle of the titans at the statehouse about alcohol issues, big money. big players. We are just little guys. It is one small step toward sanity.”

Sanity? That seldom happens with the legislature and liquor laws. Just look at what happened this year with Sunday sales. A simple law was mangled with requirements that would have retailers build walls in existing stores to sell alcohol on Sundays.

Fortunately, the legislature got it right for Indiana wineries, big and small, in 2015.

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Uncork Puts Wine Fans In The Vineyard

03 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Howard in Indiana

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Oliver Winery, Uncork the Uplands, Uplands, Uplands Wine Trail

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.

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“Uncork” a Great Indiana Event

12 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by Howard in Indiana

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Tags

Uncork the Uplands, Uplands Wine Trail

My every-other-week newspaper column Grape Sense went out to newspapers yesterday. It’s about the Uncork the Uplands event July 27 in Bloomington.

I attended last year and was blown away – a great adventure and great time for Hoosiers. The deadline for advance tickets is Monday so here is the group’s publicity poster with all the details. I have my column up sometime over the weekend.

uncork_2013poster1_1

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One Great Day in Southern Indiana Wine Country

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Howard in Indiana

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Huber Winery, Jim Pfeiffer, Ted Huber, Turtle Run Winery, Uplands Wine Trail

Ted Huber pours wine for the both of us to taste in the Huber tasting room.

A day in Southern Indiana to attend the Uplands Wine Trail “Uncork the Uplands” event was educational, informative, and productive.

I’m working on a story about Indiana wine for Palate Press – the National Online Wine Magazine. So I had daytime appointments with Ted Huber at Huber Orchard and Winery along with Jim Pfeiffer of Turtle Run.

I’m obviously sitting on most of that material for Palate Press. But the overwhelming feeling of the day was Indiana’s improving wine business. NHuber and Turtle Run are certainly two of the very best in Indiana so it’s not like I was hitting up a few Southern Indiana wineries I have panned in the past.

Check out photos from my day at Huber’s and Turtle Run.

Huber’s, which I’ve probably written as much about as any Indiana winery, really is a good benchmark for quality. Ted Huber is quick to point out the family considers themselves farmers first. The property, dating back well into the 1800s, has 600 acres of most every fruit and vegetable imaginable. Just 80 acres of the massive operation is in vineyard. That allows Ted and his winemaking team to produce about 50,000 cases of wine annually.

I’ve talked with Huber on several occasions but our 30-minute appointment Saturday quickly turned in to two hours. Huber talked about reducing the sweetness in Indiana wine and guiding the sweet wine consumers to a better quality product. We talked about the industry in general, the weather’s impact on his vineyards, and more. And plan plenty of extra time if you want to ask about Ted’s brandy operation. It has become his passion. And though I admit to not being a big spirits fan, the 10-year aged Applejack Brandy was absolutely amazing!

Pfeiffer in his vineyard near Lanesville, IN.

Jim Pfeiffer is one of my favorite wine people in the state. His unbridled enthusiasm and willingness to break molds – well heck, Jim doesn’t break them he never used popular molds any way. But the man knows his chemistry and winemaking.

The thing that struck me was the similarity in thoughts and efforts between Pfeiffer and Huber. Both are moving their wines away from higher residual sugar while maintaining pleasant fruit Hoosier like and higher quality juice. The wines are far more approachable than the uber-sweet Concord, Niagra and similar wines which have been Indiana’s calling card.

I’ll have much more on these two in coming weeks.

Uncork the Uplands is just in its second year but already a great wine event, marketing idea, and should be a can’t miss for Indiana wine fans. The word Saturday is next year’s Uncork will be in Bloomington, In. That is a bit easier for Central Indiana folks certainly than the long drive down to Starlight atop the hills overlooking the Ohio River.

The Uplands wineries all pour a selection of their wines while Hoosier food product companies show off their edibles. The $75 admission is well worth the price when you consider a portion of the proceeds help several charities.

I didn’t make it to every winery’s table nor every food booth. But I did taste lots of interesting goodies that made the trip just that much more fun. I thought I’d share business names and links here for people always looking for good Hoosier food products. These were some of my favorites;

Peacetree Mountain Truffles – Dark chocolate and Chambourcin do mix! The truffles were to die for! Certainly many wine fans know the almost magical powers of a good red wine and dark chocolate. If you’re one of those fanactics check out the website.

Yours Truly wine cake

Yours Truly Foods – This company is making cake mixes which will be sold at wholesale to wineries. The samples were a hot commodity Saturday. I loved the rich dark chocolate. The owners Diiana Chamness and Betty Davis came up with the mixes and make a recommendation on types of wines to add to the mix. Unfortunately their website is very incomplete. But you can look for the product coming soon to an Indiana winery near you.

Steckler Grassfed Cheese, poultry, beef & lamb – This new business emphasizes pasture-raised products. I had the aged raw-milk cheddar and found it to be a great pairing with red or white wine. Not a fan of the pepperjack, but hey – I don’t/can’t like everything! Ha

Grateful Greens – While Greg Graft’s business is largely a wholesale operation based in Clarksville, Indiana, the basil pesto he served up with fresh mozzarella on a cracker was world class. It was one of the best things I had at Uncorked.

Fermenti Artisan – is an Indianaplis company that “puts the culture in your diet.” They specialize in artisan cultured vegetables, nutrition education, and urban farmers. Fermenti provided the Kraut on a marvelous small bite of Rene Bakery sour dough, along with Smoking Goose black truffle bologna! (Fermenti doesn’t appear to have a traditional website, but the link will take you to their Facebook page.)

de Tours Indiana Wines – Kyle Marcum introduced himself while I was scurrying about Saturday night. Marcus has started an Indiana wine country tour business. He offers a luxury limosine experience that would be great for groups not wanting to drive and taste. Packages vary in price but start at a reasonable $315 for up to 8 people.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

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