Monday, March 14, 2011

Always Great Visiting Huber, Turtle Run Wineries

Wineries continue to pop up all over Indiana. As a matter of fact, a new winery opened about two weeks ago near Crawfordsville, IN.,where I live.

The state now has more than 50 wineries. Over the weekend I visited my favorite two, Huber Winery and Orchard and Turtle Run Winery.

Huber is a destination winery I've written about before, click here. Huber also turns up in several of my regular blog entries.

Ted Huber continues to push the boundries of what he can grow at his great location near Starlight, In., atop hills overlooking the Ohio River. He told me two years ago he had planted Petit Verdot and Malbec. He's now using the Petit Verdot in his red wine blends and bottling the Malbec for his club members only.

His latest Cabernet was simply the best Cab I've tasted from an Indiana winery. There is a lengthy list of choices in Huber's big tasting room. Make a trip in May and pick your own fresh strawberries or wait till June and pick red and black raspberries. In the fall it's hard to find a parking spot during festival time with trees full of apples and fields of pumpkins. And just down the road is Joe Huber's restaurant - perhaps the greatest fried chicken in the Midwest. Seriously!

I also ran over to Turtle Run winery and was able to spend a few minutes with Jim Pfeiffer. To say Jim is pusing the limits of Indiana wine isn't any stretch of the truth.

Jim has made Indiana's first ever Botrytis cinerea - or 'noble rot' wine. He calls it "Catherine's Blend," named for his daughter. This is for the wine geeks out there, think of Sauternes of France and the deep yellow, rich, slightly sweet wines with a full mouth feel. He also has done some really interesting things with the native Steuben grape. And of course, as I wrote recently in Grape Sense, he makes one of Indiana's few dry Traminettes.

What I didn't know is he makes a traditional stainless steel aged Traminette but also one he barrel ages. I'm not aware of anyone else doing that.

Turtle Run is an easy drive from Hubers. The two stops make an awesome one-day trip. And I have some video of Pfeiffer talking about his Catherine's blend and the Traminette I hope to get up on site this week.

I think I'm going to pour both wines at a group tasting with 'the Dudes" this week and do a little video to accompany Jim's comments.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

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