Tonne Winery hopes to make a splash in growing Hoosier industry

MUNCIE -- There's no vineyard yet, but a new local business hopes to get into an industry that's growing in Indiana. Literally growing.

Tonne Winery opened quietly at the end of the year in a new building at North Walnut Street and Royerton Road. The winery -- whose name rhymes with "sunny" -- is owned by Larry Simmons and Kevin Tonne.

Simmons and his wife, Kathie -- Tonne's sister -- are longtime local business owners, having owned G&M Pet and Garden since 1978.

"Ever since we bought the property, Larry has been thinking about it," Kathie Simmons said. "He has a cousin with a winery on his family farm in Columbus, Simmons Winery, and we've watched it and enthused with him and enjoyed that type of atmosphere. And there's not a lot of wineries in East Central Indiana along the Interstate 69 corridor."

While a handful of East Central Indiana wineries exist -- as well as one meadery, which uses fruit and honey to make mead -- the industry is still new in Indiana.

But it's growing.

"We had a handful of wineries before 1990," said Larry Satek, a northeast Indiana winery owner and president of the Indiana Winery and Vineyard Association. "Those seven wineries produced 30,000 gallons a year. Now nearly 50 Indiana wineries are producing one million gallons a year.

"Indiana is the 11th-largest wine-producing state in the country," Satek said. When told that ranking is surprising, Satek replied, "It surprises everybody."

Industry taking off
A few decades ago -- when Indiana wine was unheard of -- wine imported from France was universally acknowledged as the best available in the United States. Then California and a few other sun-soaked states began to develop the U.S. wine industry.

"Fifty years ago, people made fun of California wine," Satek said. "People said the only good wine came from France. But they proved they could make good wine in California and Chile and Australia. Now we're finding out we can make good wine in lots of places, including Indiana. It's a real success story.

For many years, people were saying the U.S. wine industry was going to take off. After 35 years of people saying that, it's starting to happen."

Wine is a $50 million retail business in Indiana, Satek said. And with an average sales tax of $2.30 a bottle, that means more than $12 million a year in local and state tax revenues.

"The impact is a lot larger than some people give it credit for," he said.

The industry isn't limited strictly to grape-based products. New Day Meadery, in Elwood in Madison County, is the only winery in the state that isn't grape-based. New Day owners Tia Agnew and Brett Canaday use peaches and plums, plus honey, to make mead.

"There's an explosion of interest by the consumer," Agnew said. "People are wanting to stay more local, to support local products. A lot more than ever before, people want to say, 'I know who made this.'"

Satek agreed.

"The public as a whole likes the idea of local wineries," he said.

Vineyard in the works
It might be hard to imagine in the depths of winter, but Satek said Indiana is a good place to grow grapes.

Satek's Steuben County vineyard has six acres of vines that produce grapes. He also buys from growers elsewhere.

Simmons said Tonne Winery will start its vineyard this spring.

"Right now, we're buying juice and grapes from other vineyards, in New York and Michigan," she said. "We have five wines ready to be tasted and sold and three or four more in the vats processing that will be ready in February."

Satek said that while many wineries grow their own grapes, others purchase grapes from other growers or offer wines made from a mix of purchased and locally grown grapes.

Simmons said she believes Tonne Winery's product and ambiance will appeal to fans of wine from Delaware County and East Central Indiana.

"We have a place for local artists to display their works," she said. "It's going to be a tasteful, classy place for people to come in and try something local."

Agnew agreed that the time is right for Hoosier wineries.

"People are looking in their own backyard for an adventure, and Indiana has so much to offer," she said.