Its a little after 9 am on Saturday and I have been working since 6:30 am getting set up for the open house today. Its a big job since we rarely open the winemaking area to the public, its small and we just do not have the space to walk people through for tours on a regular basis. But a couple of times a year we do open up to show people our unique natural method of making wine.

We put up our brite red canopy to call attention to the place and set up some chairs downstairs. Last year we had alot of people show up for this event and we have added extra staff to help out.

My only regret is we are out of our semi-sweet reds right now, the popular SWAYZEE and a new wine, EEL RIVER, should be bottled soon. The new version of FAIRMOUNT has proved popular, using a white grape blend I developed to mimic (not too closely) the fruity Niagara grape wine we have used in the past for this wine. We exect the 2010 vintage of FAIRMOUNT to be with us in mid-summer, but the substitution is not too bad...

Watch here for the upcoming BREAD BAKING CONTEST in June; its a great time for both bread baker and bread eaters here at the Oak Hill Winery and, like all special events, its free!

Windy Sunny Day

Hey Wine Fans! All is good as I sit here in the winery. Well, not good, “good” would be a full house of wine drinkers, but HEY! Its Sunday and us Hoosier folk do not think you can buy wine on Sunday. Ok, some of us know…

I am piled high with blue barrels. We get some of our juice in blue barrels and I have been stacking them up higher and higher and, well, it’s time to get rid of some. So if you’re looking for a heavy –duty trash can; a colorful rainbarrel, or something to store big stuff in, try one of our slightly used wine-juice barrels for $15; or two for $25: or five for $60.

I see the sunshine as I look out the winery windows, but the wind is blowing and its kinda rough outside. Inside I have been working on the next free seminar on winemaking next Sunday. Yes, I know its easter for some folks, but last year we were closed on that Sunday and I got complaints, so we will be here and we’re having a free winemaking seminar. Oh, I said that already…

On May 7 we will have our annual Spring Open House, something we started a few years ago and people seem to like a lot. We open up the winemaking area for tours every half hour and last year I was swamped! We usually have a snacks and run a few specials on wine stuff. We also do a little advertising and that seems to bring in the people. Come buy and say hi!

New wines? We have intro’ed a fair number in the past few months, but I am playing with a semi sweet red to add to the list. Keep an eye here, I let you know.

This summer we’ve got the great lineup of special events, see the last blog for details and mark your calendars now! We’ll get dates for the July-Aug-Sept festivities pretty soon. And another winery bus tour???

2011 Calendar of Events Part One

I have been promising a schedule of upcoming events, so here we go!

Sunday, March 27th at 4:30 pm: PLANNING A WINERY WEEKEND; a 90 minute seminar for those who would like to visit a group of wineries in one of the following regions: Southern Indiana; Southeast Michigan; Southwest Michigan; Northwest Michigan; Missouri River Valley; and the Finger Lakes Region of New York. This will offer advice on where to go, how to plan your trip, and what pitfalls to watch for once you are there.

Sunday, April 24th at 4:30 pm: WINEMAKING - AT HOME & IN THE WINERY; a 90-minute seminar for those who want specifics on small and large scale winemaking with a focus on questions the audience has on any related topic. Both beginners in home and commercial winemaking are welcome.

Saturday, May 7th, 1- 6 pm: OPEN HOUSE AT THE WINERY; Free tours in the winemaking “cellar” with Q&A by the winemaker every 30 minutes; free winetasting with music and snacks.

Saturday, June 11th, 1-6 pm: ANNUAL BREAD-BAKING CONTEST; Enter your best home-made bread for a shot at glory & prizes and come help us pick the best commercially-made bread by tasting and voting on your favorite. Bread and wine make a great combination!

Watch here for more on: July’s free CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL; August’s INDIANA CHEESE TASTING; and the Big Event of the Year, September’s CHEESECAKE FESTIVAL!

All the events we have at the Oak Hill Winery are FREE and we hope you’ll come join us for fun and a little wine too!

Cleanliness is next to...

One of the ongoing jobs at the winery is tank and barrel cleaning. I handle the majority of the icky, scrubbing, scouring, de-gunking jobs in this category. But on occasion I do ask for help.



We had another load of juice coming in and I was getting all the empty containers ready to transfer the new stuff in for fermenting. But one of the big tanks had a stain I could not get out through regular means. I soaked, pressured-washed, and scrubbed with a long handled brush and mop, but could not get it gone.

Now, these tanks are about 6-feet high, 31-inches around, with a 15-inch lid, so I was doing all I could. But then I thought about my wife’s much lesser size (and girth!) and asked if she would help out. Of course she would!


So I took off the lid and she crawled right in! With her close up view, she was able to get more pressure on the crud and with about 30 minutes, it was back to its sparkling clean state.



So while I often get the credit for what the wine tastes like, my lovely wife is always willing to chip in and do her part when a job is too big (or I am, in this case, too big) for me to handle.

If you have not been by, we have LOTS of new wines in stock and the popular BUNKER HILL is selling well, as expected. A new wine WHITEWATER we tested the last few week has won a place in our regular line-up. So come by and see us!

March 27, free 90-minute seminar, PLANNING A WINE GETAWAY, is now able to be booked. Limited to 20 people, send in your reservation today! Next month’s topic: MAKING WINE AT HOME AND IN THE WINERY. Watch here for details.

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.