Too Much Wine! Is it Possible?

The winemaking continues! As the new 2010 Concord, Niagara, and Catawba wrap up fermenting, we have the new fancy grapes coming in. We will have 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Shiraz being shipped in from cold storage and beginning to ferment within the next week. These will be ready for (we hope) next fall when we head into the busy season.

Space is a big problem this time of year in the winery. We have more wine in barrels and bottles than ever before. The 2009 is still in house, now selling, and the new 2010 wines are resting, awaiting their turn “at bat”, so to speak.

We get asked about tours a good bit and we generally explain the cellar is not really set up for tours. We do have a spring open house every May, when we do open the cellar for a peak as to our naturally-made wine methods. Watch both here and the website for more information.

March will be the month of planning for spring and summer trips, so we will offer a FREE 90-minute seminar on planning a winery get-away. Where to go? What to look for? What else is there to do? We will offer tips on wine tour trips to Indiana, Michigan, New York, Missouri, and more. Whether you want to go for a day or a week, we’ll talk about destinations for wine lovers. This fun-filled (we’ll be drinking, of course) gather is Sunday, March 27th at 4:30 pm; email us your reservation with SEMINAR and the date to reserve your spot.

Is there a wine-themed seminar you’d like to attend? Send us an email at oakhillwinery@yahoo.com and we’ll consider it!

GOOD WINE NEWS!

Greetings all! I have returned in the new year with energy and enthusiasm and I will try to post more often. I (we) crashed after the holidays, as planned and did little work in the winery, other than a few days of working the tasting room and watching the wine-making area, we call the cellar. No its not below ground, that’s just what you call it!

So we got the 2010 juice for our popular American grapes, Concord, Niagara, and Catawba in and got it fermenting nicely. Occasionally I would look over the 2009 stuff I started late to see if it was progressing and around Feb 1, I noted, by gum, it was! As I racked from tank to tank I saw clarity and flavor had matured nicely, so last weekend we dropped our best selling BUNKER HILL and the popular semi-sweet white WINDFALL back into the tasting list. Soon we expect to reintroduce WILDCAT CREEK WHITE, SWAYZEE, and HANGING ROCK to the list as well. If you know these wines, I think you will be happy, but if you do not, stop in for a sample and we think you will like them.

Our free seminars have kicked off and the next on is Feb 27th at 4:30 pm, 90-minutes of wine appreciation information for those who want to know more about wine. What is an appellation, an AOC, a rhone compared to a burgundy compared to a Barbera?? We will discuss all those wine-geek bits of stuff and more. But if you want to come, you MUST reserve a spot as we will limit it to 20 folks.

Next month we will discuss planning that wine tour weekend, where to go, what to see, how far to travel??? Hope to see you there for wine fun again soon!

new year

It is the end of another year and as I have had the opportunity to do for every year since we opened, I want to thank each person who has visited the winery for their business. We have had another sales-breaking year and that encourages us, especially right now when we are running on little sleep and had little recreation outside the winery for the past two months. You make us feel like it’s worth it.

We are running a business, true enough, but a customer once said wine is “artwork in a bottle”. I love making wine and my wife and I love meeting people and talking wine with them. We love the people who come in and say, “WE know nothing about wine!” and we love the serious wine drinkers who come in and say, “WE like your wines; they are special, unique, different!” Those are what make owning a small winery worthwhile.

As you may have heard before, we started this winery with the hope of allowing an early retirement, an opportunity to make a modest living working for ourselves. Few people get rich owning a winery, but you can make a living if you are good enough and make the right decisions. The idea of opening a winery is not about wealth, its about passion and desiring to live your dream. And you who visit the winery are enabling us to live that dream.

Thank you.

whine, wine, whine,

I have been a bit frustrated in the winery lately with how the wine is maturing. I expected to have several new wines out by now, but we have just a couple. Now that does not mean there is nothing new. The fruit wines have been re-blended and, I think, greatly improved. The new dry red, VAN BUREN, continues to be a good seller. Gift baskets have stressed my wife, to keep up I mean. But that’s normal for this time of year, we pretty much are swamped day and night and that’s just the way is is. In January we can relax….

I was asked why we were having problem getting some of our more popular wines to the point of bottling and the truth is, well, I screwed up! I did not take in to consideration that the big upswing in sales last winter/spring would impact availability fall/winter. So we did not order more of our Concord, Catawaba, and Niagara juice early enough o allow them to be ready for prime sales time, that would be NOW!

So, we will shortly have several of our old favorites back in the bottle, just not now, when we really need them. I am enthused about a new wine, WHITEWATER, we expect to release after the new year that is a great blend of three good grapes, watch for us to tell you who-when-what here soon!

Well, I am back in the winery, bottling some more of these apple wines you guys keep buying. Thanks, by the way…

Nick and Knacs

Oh boy do my arms hurt! We got 20 new barrels in and I have been trying to make room for them and five big tanks in the winery. Yes, here at the peak of the winemaking season we are bringing more juice so we’ll have it when we need it next year. The winery is going to be chock full of barrels and tanks and there will be little room to work around in there. Oh well…

So we are very happy with the feedback from our 2010 “nouveau” wine, VAN BUREN, made with the Indiana-grown Chambourcin grapes. We serve it slightly chilled, but I like it room temperature myself. Its pretty fruit-forward, as we say in wine-speak and I like it better than any other nouveau style wine I’ve ever made.

We are trying to get the BUNKER HILL sweet Concord wine in the bottle, but its just not quite ready. We are going to bottle the new vintage SWAYZEE, HANGING ROCK, and WILDCAT CREEK WHITE very soon. I’ll let you know.

Our “Black Friday” promotion went much better than we thought it would, a lot of people took advantage of our early hours, special deals, and free eats. It was fun and we sold a lot of wine, yea!

Just a few weeks left in 2010 and this has been great year for the winery. Thanks to all those who visited, tasted and took home a few bottles. We are working on some new stuff at the winery we hope you will find interesting and exciting. Keep an eye here and we’ll keep you up to date. We will also make the announcement here when the 2009 BUNKER HILL is (finally) in house and for sale.

Black Friday

So, some of you will not even go to bed on Thursday, because a few of the crazy retail stores open at midnight or 3 am, right? Well, we are not so crazy at the Oak Hill Winery. But we will suggest you stop by and see us after walking your tootsies off and wearing down the stripe on your credit cards. Ok, we might even have a deal or so for you, but what you will really need is a time-out to recoup and rest-up. So here we go...

--yes, even we will open early this friday!
We will open at 11:00 am to give you two extra hours in the winery and...

--from 11 am to 1 pm only:
Save a dollar more per bottle off our regular discounted price!

--Join the Wine Club:
Join at the regular price for one year and two extra free bottles just for joining!

--need to mellow out?
Mugs of hot, spiced Kokomo Cider are just three bucks Friday only!

--One more enticement:
Free cookies and snacks, while they last...

Ok, one more:
--we'll be releasing our NEW NOUVEAU RED wine called VAN BUREN - Its a 2010 Indiana Chambourcin!

- So don't miss the fun from 11 am to 6 pm on Friday at the Oak Hill Winery!!

Fire and Wine

I am sure many of you have heard the news that Grape Inspirations Winery in Carmel burned down last week. I cannot imagine where you start after having your whole business reduced to ashes. I suppose you start out by designing a new building and getting it built. That would shoot a year at least. Then you would probably find another winery where you could start making wine again, under their license, so you’d have product when the new building was ready. Maybe the ATC (state) and TTB (federal) agencies would allow you to use a temporary building to make your wine, but the hassle of setting up such a facility would most likely lead you back to finding another winery where you could work.

Problem is; how many Indiana wineries have space to handle such a process? Every winery I have visited is pretty tight on climate-controlled square footage, although I know a few have helped some new wineries get started before they had a building. So it’s possible, I guess. I hope we never have to face that problem!

What’s new at the winery? We bottled our “Nouveau” style red wine this week, which we will release next Friday (11/26) as our salute to the French Tradition of releasing their new wines on the third Thursday of November. For those wine enthusiasts among us, that is this Thursday (18th) and I am sure many local wine stores will have a batch to sell. Here is what Wikipedia says about it:

“Beaujolais nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It is the most popular 'vin de primeur', fermented for just a few weeks then officially released for sale on the third Thursday of November. This "Beaujolais Day", or "Beaujolais Nouveau Day" sees heavy marketing from the producers, with races to get the first bottles of the vintage to different markets. Beaujolais Nouveau is a purple-pink wine that is particularly lightweight, even by the standards of Beaujolais. The method of production means that there is very little tannin, and the wine can be dominated by fruity, ester flavors of bananas, figs and pear drops. These are enhanced by the frequent recommendation to serve the wine lightly chilled, at approximately 55°F.”

Last year we had several of these new-style wines, but this year we have only a small batch of some Indiana-grown Chambourcin that we handled to be drinkable at this very young age. I am very pleased with the result, as the grapes were picked on September 18; the fermentation began on the 19th and completed (for-the-most-part) by the 28th; then we left the new wine on the skins for two weeks; then pumped off the free-run; and pressed the skins on October 9th. So the wine has only been tanked for five weeks or so and out of the vineyard for two months.

So what does it taste like? Hard to answer, because I have been riding this wine almost daily, watching and tasting. I feel its got a strong Chambourcin flavor, with overtones of ripe fruit, blackberries and currants. I drank about 500ml of the unfiltered stuff left in the hose and filter housing last night and was very pleased. I want to try it well chilled and see how that impacts the flavor. I am quite happy with the color of the wine, although there is a noticeable “muddiness” as you might expect with a young, naturally made wine. Well anyway, stop by on BLACK FRIDAY and enjoy a taste of this new wine. Have a seat and rest your feet after slogging through the malls, enjoy a glass of wine and some Indiana-made cheese.

By the way, last spring I said I would do three things: (1) paint the house; (2) install the new background music system; (3) finish the downstairs trim and paneling. Ok, well the music works now, OK, but its not the end of the year yet, I might still (haw-haw) get some carpentry work done.