websites and home shows

Our website has been redone; again, I was just not happy with the look or the layout. I think the new website is not as flashy, but more functional. We will try to get the special event calendar set up asap. I am already getting questions about the bread-baking contest in June and the Cheesecake Festival in September. Soon, folks, soon!

We did decide to go ahead and try attending the Kokomo Home Show this weekend, so you will not see us in the winery much. One big obstacle to “doing” a home show is the cost of your booth itself; special items needed to run the booth like cash registers, credit card machines, sample cups, etc, etc, etc.

We did decide to charge $1 for tasting at the show as a way to recapture some of the overhead. Well, that and to deal with all those people who show and want to know what is “free” at your booth. How many pencils and pens can someone use in their lifetime, anyway?

The new wines have been well received, my staff kids me I have not come out with a “clunker” recently, I told them sooner or later it happens! We try to avoid that through test tastings of small batches. A good example I have mentioned before is the blueberry we have but have not bottled yet. I just cannot quite hit a good flavor with that wine yet, so we let it sit in the barrels for a while longer and then I will take another run at it.

I wanted to thank a number of you faithful readers for your regular emails in response to question we have posed here. It seems many of you hesitate to post a public “comment” (see below) but are quite willing to zing us an email. We appreciate that willingness and your input. As the weather warms up, so does the business at the winery and we hope to see you in there soon!

New Wines are in!

So I was working last week in the winery and I finally got around to bottling several new wines. One I had looked forward to was our first Gewürztraminer which we call WATERTOWER in reference to the old water tower that was torn down last year, it was truly a landmark for local drivers and pilots. The wine has a nice flavor and turned out a bit sweeter than I expected it too. Give it a taste and let us know what you think.

We had a nice batch of Chardonnel grapes we got from Southern Indiana and we bottled the first barrel and called it SYCAMORE STUMP, if you’re from Kokomo you’ll get the name. Its a very nice dry white and my wife likes it a lot. So do I!

We are happy to announce we have bottled some more of our Cabernet Franc, RIVERWALK, which I thought was a little too light in body. Our customers disagreed and have been complaining. I was going to blend it with some Foch, but the people have spoken. Stop by this weekend and try it.

The issue of light bodied reds is interesting, because most winemakers tend to prefer full- to medium-bodied wines. Many light reds are thought to be too thin in the mouth, with not a great deal of flavor volume. I have always felt that was untrue and our customers who are not red wine drinkers are telling us they LIKE the lighter reds, so we will continue to offer simples, easy-to-drink red wines as one more distinguishing point in our favor, sales-wise.

I know several people are waiting to hear about our April special event and if you can be patient, we will have that information out very soon. I want to thank those who have commented on the new website, still under construction, we think it has a bit more up-to-date look then the old one. We hope to have some video added in soon and maybe even a podcast? Keep watching!

Home Shows & Websites

We were recently invited to be a part of the Z92.5 Home Show at the Kokomo Event Center on US 31 on March 27-28. Now I have blown off these types of events over the years because I did not see a fit for a winery in them. But I have attended several similar shows recently and I am amazed at the number of non-home-type vendors that are there selling all kinds of stuff.

Then I went to the Indianapolis Home show, the one held at the fairgrounds. I saw Barefoot Cellars there sampling and selling their wine in a pretty fancy booth. And they were pretty darn busy too! I asked several people what they thought of a winery at the home show and got positive responses from all. One lady said it was a nice break from all the walking around, a vendor mentioned he loved the idea of potential customer s having a drink while shopping!?

So what do you think? Do you need a quick sip while wandering the Home Show? Would you buy a glass or a bottle of wine you liked, -at a home show? You can email us at oakhillwinery@yahoo.com or click the ‘comment’ link below.

A bit of good news, we finally were able to get the www.oakhillwinery.com name bought, registered, whatever. We have been waiting for ten years for whoever owned it to contact us or stop re-registering the name, and they finally did! For now, the www.oakhillwines.com will remain our website, but we will eventually set up a parallel site under the new name and begin the phase-out of the old name over a few years.

Have you visited our newly revamped website? Its still under construction, but I am getting he hang of the new program now, a few bugs to track down and kill. Any suggestions as to new content? Let us know….

Bad Planning or We Need a Bigger Winery?

We have survived the snow, so far! In the winery business continues to be brisk, I suspect many people are getting cabin fever and need to get out. I hope we have had our snow for the year, its been colder and snowier then a normal year and could use a break myself.

We had our free WINE 101 workshop last Sunday and had a very nice turnout for this program. We like helping people become more wine-literate and it gives us good feedback on what new customers want, like, and think. Watch this space for next month’s free seminar in the coming weeks!

I did have a little problem in the winery regarding the seminar. A BUNCH (way more then four) of our regular folks had made arrangements to meet at the winery and enjoy some wine and snacks. I noticed the BUNCH about 45 minutes before the seminar and went out to let them know we had another group coming in and, well. You know; --Yea, that went over like a lead balloon!

It’s never happened quite like that before and we are not sure how to handle it so it does not happen in the future. We typically ask people who plan on bringing big groups in to let us know, but we have had informal gatherings of people like this at the winery for several years, almost since we first added seating.

When all is said and done, I guess we might just say “Crap Happens” and move on. But we do encourage anyone who PLANS to bring more then six people in for a tasting or to hang around several hours, please check with us so we can accommodate you. We do not want to disappoint, honk-off, irritate, or inconvenience anyone.

Free Wine Seminar Happens Soon!

Ok, another snowstorm is hammering our area here, but we care not! All that matters is wine, wine, and more wine! We were surprised at the business we had in the winery have my prior rant as to how weather and football kills business, OK I was wrong!

New on the horizon is WINE 101, one in our continuing series of free workshops we hold at the winery. This is a fun and informative one hour session on the in-and-outs of wine. We will talk about stuff like what wine names mean, what is a varietal, and what is an AVA? The workshop will be held this coming Sunday, Feb 14, at 4:30 pm. LOOK GUYS! This is a way you can “Do Something” on a lazy winter afternoon and get credit for having good ideas,

We had a very nice time in Gas City at the Thompson-Ray house wine-tasting. The people there were very kind and said many nice things. We even got a nice article in the local newspaper which featured a shot of the Wine Maker his-self!

Another almost new thing at the winery is several new wines I keep hinting at, but do not ever seem to get bottled. No, I have still not bottled any, but we are getting closer. For example, every fall we introduce an “oaked” version of our popular dry white, MISSISSINEWA WHITE. One problem is we do not also offer the un-oaked version at the same time. Well, we’re almost out of the oaked version and I would expect in a few weeks, the last barrel of our crisp Seyval Blanc will get bottled and labeled.

Once that last barrel is gone, we will move to a Chardonnel version of this label. I suspect many will be delighted, a few disappointed, but you know the old saying, you can’t please everybody all the time!

Have you got a wine related question you’d like answered? Write us at oakhillwinery@yahoo.com and we’ll try to post our responses as soon as possible.

snow and free stuff?

Oh no! A major snowstorm is bearing down on the winery on a Friday on a weekend that is already marked by The Big Game. I mention this because snowstorms are a business killer, people seem to hunker down during and after a snowstorm and our business slows way down.

This weekend the Big Game will also slow business, wine does not seem to be a “football drink” for most people. Maybe we need the Gallo Bowl to compete with the Bud Bowl? It has been good to see the growth of wine appreciation in general over the past ten years. One publication claims wine sales have gone up every year for the past ten on a national basis.

So, one thought would be if you need something to do this weekend, stop by and see us, we’ll be happy to see you and we’ll have a good bit of time to give you more then the usual amount of attention.

On a side note, I had been asked several months ago to speak at a fund-raiser in Gas City being held tonight and now the snow is a-coming. I hope we do not get too much to botch up the fund raiser, I support a few not-for-profit events, but this is about historical preservation, one of my hot buttons and we are glad to help out.

Another hot button of mine is how many times we get asked to donate stuff every week! The first year we did pitch in a good bit for local stuff as advertising, to let people know we are here. But we get letters from anybody and everybody now and even other states asking us to donate! Now most of these are non-profits and many are charitable institutions, but we have got to be a bit selective as to who we give to and when.

Thanks, I needed to say that, just got a call from a Union in Indy wanting three gift baskets for a meeting they were having, Arragh!

rested and ready for The Big Game

This week is a busy one in the winery, because I have not been busy doing much for the last month! As previously mentioned, January is our slow-down, de-stress time after the rush of the gift-giving season. I must admit I have accomplished a bit in both the actual de-stressing and fixing-a-few-problems arena.

We finally found a good cooler for the tasting room. We have wanted to stock locally-made cheese and a larger number of chilled wine bottles for our customers, now we can! This will allows us to have our small wine coolers just for tasting bottles.

I have had a number of requests for a Super Bowl party at the winery, especially for wine club members. I think this happened after I set up my old 25” color TV in the tasting room so we could watch the AFC Playoffs. We knew from prior experience our business would be down due to the game, so we decided we’d hang out in the winery and watch ourselves, keeping an eye on the TV and whatever customers who showed up. That amounted to less then ten people in the door from 3 pm to 6 pm and none of them cared about football. But what about the Big Game?

Now, a business cannot just turn on a TV and show the Super Bowl, the game is licensed to for-profits and even not-for-profits for a substantial fee. I heard of several churches that got in trouble for hosting Super Bowl parties without paying their fee, got to pay Caesar his tax!

I am amused by the fact the term “Super Bowl” cannot be used in an ad without paying for it. So you are hearing “the Big Game” and “Championship game” in place of the Real name of the event.

The game starts at 6 pm, we close at 6 pm, we are not having a party, so we are not worried about it. I expect most people have already made plans for where they will be to watch the Game. I hope they remember to pick up some wine to enjoy during the game, we will be open 1-6 pm day of “The Big Game”!