Award-winner opens state’s 36th winery

Indiana’s fledgling wine industry isn’t really fledgling anymore, and its growth won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Wildcat Creek Winery in Lafayette has become the state’s 36th winery, and state officials say four more wineries are scheduled to open before the end of the year.

How does that compare with a state with a more mature wine industry? Michigan has 60 wineries, and more and more Michigan wineries are specializing – finding niches where they can excel rather than feeling they have to be all things to all wine lovers.

Michigan’s Left Foot Charley (www.leftfootcharley.com), for example, makes almost nothing except Riesling, pinot blanc, pinot grigio and Gewurztraminer, all from very carefully chosen small vineyards. They even make vineyard-specific wines – something usually unheard of outside major wine areas like California, Washington and Oregon.

Well, Indiana’s not far behind. Not only will we have 40 wineries by the end of the year, but we’ve already begun to see specialization, too, with the ethereal honey wines made by our friends at New Day Meadery (www.newdaymeadery.com).

Indiana’s wine grape industry is growing right along with the wineries: There are now more than 400 acres of grapes in the state. We expect those vineyards to increase not only in size and number, but also in quality as grape growers continue to learn what varieties work best here and as new hybrids developed specifically for our climate continue to be developed. Michigan has about 1,800 acres of wine grapes.

Indiana’s newest winery, Wildcat Creek, is owned by Rick and Kathy Black. Rick has been an amateur winemaker for many years, having earned more than 20 awards, including the 2002 Indiana Amateur Wine Champion Award at the Indy International Wine Competition.

“Making wine has been a passion of mine,” Rick said in a written statement. “Our mission is to bring the wine culture and tourism to Tippecanoe County by producing and selling the best quality wines. This winery is a dream come true.”

The winery is in a restored 1900s farmhouse just off Interstate 65 in Tippecanoe County. The winery is selling four varieties of wine with others to be released later this year.

One of the problems with opening a new winery is having wines to sell: While 2008’s white wines will probably be ready this spring, most red wines take at least a year before they’re ready to drink. So if you’re opening a winery, do you open in the spring with only white wines? Or do you wait – and not make any money while you’ve got pallets of white wine you could be selling – until you have your full inventory?

There’s another problem as well: knowing how much wine to make. When Satek Winery in Fremont (www.satekwinery.com) opened in 2001, it sold its entire year’s worth of inventory in 19 days. Granted, that’s a good problem to have but a problem nonetheless.

All of those factors go into deciding to start a winery, and that’s part of what makes Jeanette Merritt so happy about Wildcat Creek. Merritt is the marketing director for the Indiana Wine Grape Council and organizes the annual Vintage Indiana wine festival in Indianapolis.

“Seeing Wildcat Creek Winery open is very exciting for Tippecanoe County,” Jeanette said. “It’s always exciting to see an amateur winemaker take that last step to open the doors of a commercial operation.”

The winery offers free wine tastings, both indoor and outdoor seating, winery tours, a gift shop, and periodic food and wine pairing events, It will help you plan special occasions. Current hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, but the hours will expand for spring and summer. Check the winery’s Web site at www.wildcatcreekwinery.com or call 765-838-3498 for more information.