Cold Weather and Free Events

So we had hot spring weather, then we had several days of frosty weather and the result was not good. Although, we will not know exactly how badly the frost damaged the Indiana grapes are for several months. We hope its not too bad, but we still might get some good results from the late budding varieties.

We have some good stuff scheduled here at the winery:

First the next Wine Nite is Saturday, April 21, 6-9 pm. Stop in and join us for wine tasting, have a glass of wine, and meet some new friends.

Our biggest event of the Spring is our Open House, where we open the winery up and invite all to join us for free tours on the half-hour, some special surprises, and a lot of fun, Come on out Saturday, May 5,from 1-6 pm, we’ll show you our unique methods for making wine and answer your wine questions.

As we move into Summer, watch here and the newsletter for details on our Big FREE Events every month, including July’s HUGE Chocolate Festival and always popular, September’s Cheesecake Festival.

More to come…

Winter & Wine

I am loving this so-called “winter weather” and it is having an effect on the grape crop for this year. Warmer winter weather can cause the buds to begin to develop early and if there is a late frost, it can destroy the crop fairly easily. So as the daffodils push through and bloom, thinking its April, we hope the grapes keep their heads down and we have no heavy frosts to come.

The Wine Nite this past weekend was a Big Success! We had a houseful of wine drinkers, the music was loud, and the talking was furious. A couple who had never been to a wine night and knew no one there remarked, “These people are extremely friendly, we sat down and they just drew us into their conversation!” Its true, when a group of Wine Club members get together, they like to talk and don’t care who they talk to!

We were also gratified to have several customers comment on how much they appreciated the Wine Nites as an opportunity for them to get in to buy wine, after their usual work times. The Wine Nite idea was a result of comments like this, but I must admit, they’ve turned into a monthly party as much as anything!

At Wine Nite, we introduced the new EEL RIVER semi-sweet red wine, made with Pinot Noir, and the response was quite favorable. I have been getting some grief about a few of the fruit wines we have run out of, so we are THINKING about starting a new batch of all the fruit wines; that's THINKING! We’ll keep you up to date as to the thought process as it progresses…

What is good news is how the 2011 wines are progressing, especially the Foch we use for the dry red, HANGING ROCK, and the semi-sweet SWAYZEE. We hope to have these in the bottle by mid March.

We expect to have the dates for the March and April Wine Nites and free seminars out pretty soon, as well as the May Spring Open House, first of the Big Events for 2012. Keep a watch here for details!

So You Want To Make Wine, Huh?

So, it’s about an hour before The Big Game and business has been very slow in the winery. Typical for a Big Game day, so wine drinkers do like football? Apparently…

I spent the weekend working on the new semi-sweet red wine that’s replacing the old EEL RIVER, made with Cab Franc, with different taste using Pinot Noir. Its hard to get the great flavor of a dry red wine in a semi-sweet, but I think we might have a winner here. I will knock out a test batch in the next week or so and offer it at the next WINE NITE!

Oh, I should mention our next WINE NITE is Saturday, February 18, 6-9pm. For those of you new to the blog, a Wine Nite is where we stay open till 9 instead of 6 pm; we play music loud, and people talk even louder, and the last few have been very busy!

The next free seminar is being held on Sunday, February 26, 4:30-6 pm; the topic is: HOME WINEMAKING BASICS. The program will discuss the ins-and-outs of making your own wine and mistakes to avoid. We’ll talk costs, where you can buy stuff, and how bad might your first batch be? Send an email with HOME WINEMAKING in the topic line and reserve your spot; only 20 spots open, so do not wait too long! oakhillwinery@yahoo.com

The free seminar for March will be “Midwest Wine Destinations – planning a winery getaway” and April will feature “Starting Your Own Winery” for those of you with a spare few hundred thousand to toss around! Watch here for scheduling!

May's Spring Open House planning is underway! This big event draws hundreds in to see our modest winemaking set-up and a fun Q&A with the winemaker himself. There will be some fun too, so again, watch the blog for more information!

New Year, New Wine?

I spend more time in the tasting room in the winter and early spring. Yes, its because business is slower this time of year and I am cheap about having help in with little to do. Oh, and I like to reconnect with customers and get feedback on the wine.

I tend to piddle with wine left over from the prior vintage while things are slower. This sometimes gets me kudos and sometimes gets me trashed. I am in the process of bottling a new dry white wine using the Indiana Seyval Blanc. I love a crisp, clean, simple Seyval and our MISSISSINEWA WHITE has been in our line since 2003. But I have been monkeying with it and we'll see if I get trashed or kudo'ed!?

The sweet wine lovers can look forward to February when I hope to offer the new versions of SWEET SALAMONIE and WATERTOWER, both white wines that come close to pegging the sweet-o-meter. As I wrap these up, I start tweaking a new semi-sweet red and trying to get the new vintage Foch wines ready to bottle.

Tomorrow is our January Wine Nite and as I sit here typing the snow is piling up, but the weatherpersons are promising it will break in the morning and clear up for the day. I just hope we can get the people in here for Wine Nite, I think its fun and i get to sell a little wine!

We kick off our free seminars on the 29th with a wine basics class for those who want to know more about the wine world. We'll talk about wine names, types, appellations, regions, and descriptors. We only have room for 20 to 25 people for these little workshops, so sign up soon if you want to attend!

“Help, my dining room is full of gift baskets!”

So I got yelled at recently by a customer who said, "I have been waiting two months for your blog on the dining room full of gift baskets thing, what happened?"

Ok, fair enough, but its not all that funny when its happening. Every year my wife takes on the task of making ALOT of gift baskets for the winery. Its a lot of work, of course, because she is picky about what she puts into the baskets and how they are put together.

Begining in around July, she starts looking for baskets and stuff to put in them, although I have seen her sneak bags full of items in throughout the year with the explanation, "There was a closeout!". These items are socked away in our guest bedroom (thus no overnite house guests September thru December) and brought out in early October for assembly.

From that point on, the dining room in the center of our home is piled high and full of grass bedding, baskets of all shapes and sizes, ribbon, plastic wrap, and do-hickies to jazz up the baskets.

Oh, plus candy and snacks too. See, I have been known to snack on my way through the dining room and this results often in me getting yelled at for eating the basket goodies. True enough, but first of all, I see it as compensation for the inconvenience and secondarily, she should factor in my "grazing" as I have done this for years!

At times, its a real obstacle course walking through the house as the piles spill into the walkway or path through the dining room. This huge "mess" casues another interesting development: my wife does prefers to not have any visitors see her home looking "this way". I say, we will explain what this pile of stuff is and they will understand. Uh, no! We greet family and other personal visitors in the winery instead of our home and we take them out to eat instead of offering my wife's great home cooking.

This is one of the many sacrifices one makes for owning a small winery. I guess its a fairly small one in the greater scheme of things, losing a dining room while gaining a winery. Maybe we could add on to the winery? Hummmmm???

Good Deed

So my wife and I took off for the weekend at the first of the year, a few days to rest and recharge after the demanding holiday season.

While we we gone, the area experienced some very high winds that broke our swinging sign, snapping off one side and causing the sign to swing about on the one hook.

This could have very easily allowed our (expensive!) sign to bash itself to pieces against the sign post.

But someone came and unhooked the other side and left it laying by our stairs. We have patched the sign back together and it is once again back in place.

THANK YOU! To this anonymous Samaritan(s) who went to considerable trouble to do this Good Deed. It almost restores one's faith in humanity!

Is it REALLY a "wonderland"?

The cold weather has rolled in and although its technically still “Autumn” it sure feels like WINTER to me! Of course, here at the Winery we are in the full force gale of the gift buying season. The big sellers are certainly the sweet fruit wines we introduced last month. I’ll spend this weekend making sure we have plenty in stock of the cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry.

Next Saturday, December 17, we will hold our next WINE NITE! From 6-9 pm we will remain open and have a good stock of wine for you to buy as gifts or drink yourself! There might be music and a little dancing, if we have a bit to drink first!

Gift baskets are always a big item this time of year. My lovely wife spends hours putting nice collections together for a wide variety of price ranges. We had been talking this summer with how hard it has been to keep basket prices starting under $20, yet when she brought the first 20 baskets out, she still managed to have a good group at $19.95!! With a single bottle of wine priced from $10.99 to $12.99, you can buy that bottle wrapped in a gift basket for just a few dollars more!

Wines coming down the track include the Riesling/Gewurztraminer blend we call WATERTOWER, a very sweet white wine we hope to have anytime now; a dry white wine with a nice French-Oak taste will be out in February using the popular Seyval Blanc wine we call MISSISSINEWA WHITE as a basis; and yes, I am still playing with a peach wine, something we have not offered in several years, patience!

So while we are in the midst of our busiest season, we look forward to the cold winter in some sense, to its end and the coming of spring. Keep in mind the winter also brings (as of Jan 1) a change in our hours. We are only open Saturday and Sunday 1-6 pm for five months during winter and spring. However, we do offer free 90-minute seminars throughout the winter and spring, so watch here for dates

Hope to see you in the winery soon!