Indiana winery

Stream Cliff Historic Farm is more than a winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 2 Comments

Draw a triangle with Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati as the points and in the center you’ll be close to the Stream Cliff Historic Farm near Commiskey, Indiana. We were surprised when we found this listing for a winery in south eastern Indiana that we had not seen before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The now famous heat wave of September was not enough to keep us from adding this new to us winery site to our travel agenda last Saturday. We packed some drinks and headed out in search of a new winery to see.

 

The Steam Cliff faculty is a beautiful farm with quite a fascinating history. This is a seventh generation family farm. The John Hunt Morgan Trail of the Civil War Confederate raid runs across the property. A barn from 1821 and a chapel dating to 1880 are memorable structures. History is a strong and vital part of the Stream Cliff property.

 

The farm has many different features. There is a full service restaurant that features herbs and edible flowers  from the farm. Freshly baked breads and delicious homemade deserts coupled with unique sandwiches and salads make for a wonderful culinary treat in the hills of southern Indiana. Mother’s Day celebrations are popular by reservation.

Several display gardens are laid out in clever use of quilt patterns. These are wonderful photo ops and ideas for your own gardens. In addition, there is a large nursery that is Indiana’s oldest herb farm. It specializes in culinary herbs and ornamental perennials and annuals. Some classes are also part of the nursery’s offerings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Winery of course was the main reason we made the trip. The winery offers a 5 sample “flight” with many of the on site made wines. Sher and I both had a 5 sample serving, which we were able to share and  let us sample 10 of the wines! We ended up purchasing two different wines, “Grandpa’s Blackberry” and “Captain Jack”. It was a most comfortable experience, and an enjoyable taste adventure.

Our hostess told us about about a holiday event that includes a full dinner and a walking tour of the property and the buildings. We are planning to go back and do this tour. Their website is www.StreamCliff.com

 

Oliver Winery is an Indiana landmark

/ Roadtirementvintage / 16 Comments

The Oliver Winery is located north of Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. That is important, as Oliver Winery traces its roots to the basement of IU law professor William Oliver in the 1960’s. He started as a hobby, planted a vineyard north of town, and soon had a production winery in the early 1970’s.

Tasting bar in center

Lots of cool stuff!

Covered deck, lovely hill with picnic tables overlooking the pond

Oliver’s website gives a wonderful bit of history: “Professor Oliver was instrumental in passing legislation allowing for the creation of small wineries in our state. The Indiana Small Winery Act passed in 1971, and Oliver Winery opened in 1972. Sales took off with Camelot Mead, and we’ve been growing ever since. Today, we distribute our award-winning, fruit-forward wines to 40 states and ship across the country.”

Interesting limestone feature

Path to the tasting room

From the flower garden…

 

 

 

 

 

Oliver Winery grew rapidly during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The new tasting room was built in 1997. The winery has become a very popular gathering place. The beautiful grounds provide peaceful areas for picnicking, including a lovely pond to add ambiance.

The stunning gardens and grounds are worth the time for a visit! We really enjoyed seeing the Oliver Winery in person. We had discussed many times making a visit to this well known winery. And yes, we left with some Cherry Moscato, Blueberry Moscato and local Dillman Farms Plum butter and Blackberry  preserves. Deliciousness coming!

Lanthier Winery and Distillery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 27 Comments

The Lanthier Winery and Distillery in historic Madison, Indiana fits the tag ‘historic’ in several ways. The site of the facility has quite an interesting history going back to the 1700’s.

The stately historic building

Beautiful garden paths to the entrance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made this winery a stop on a recent trip to southeastern Indiana. The path to the entrance door leads through a beautiful garden. The flowers had begun to grow, and a few daisies had begun to bloom.

Wine vats and start of bottling machine, right

Distilling column, gathering 94% ABV spirits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once in the building we headed to the tasting counter where free tastings are offered. We tried 5 different wines and landed on two of the sweet wine offerings. While we were sampling I asked if the winery and distillery were operated on this site. Immediately a nice fellow said “We are making wine and distilling vodka here, would you like to see the operation?”

In the tasting room area

Our purchases after tastings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fellow who offered us a private tour was none other than Chris Lanthier, Cellarmaster and, with his wife Tami, owner of Lanthier Winery and Distillery. Chris took us right back in the production area of wine making, bottling and the distilling of vodka products. He was most generous of his time as he explained, in detail, how the distillery works, and how it leads to their own brand of flavored vodkas.

We enjoyed the gardens, our tour, the tastings and the friendly staff of Lanthier Winery and Distillery. Chris was most generous with his time and all made us feel very welcome. Be sure to visit the Lanthier website here for more fascinating information about this wonderful winery.

Indiana’s Madison County Winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

Sher and I found another winery to visit north of the place where we were having our big yard sale. The Madison County Winery is, for sure, in the country. In fact without our phone navigation app I doubt I could have found it!

The winery building is a great facility, and it was set up for safe tasting with all the COVID shields.  We tasted several wines, including a couple of blueberry wines, including Blueberry Moscato. They also have one very different wine, a Chocolate Covered Pear Wine. Interesting, but not our favorite.  We ended up buying a bottle of Blueberry wine, and we also got a large Blueberry Moscato slushy to go.

Store and tasting room

This large farm site has not only vineyards, but also an RV park. Local complaints about of all things smoke from their outdoor firepits  have shut down the RV park until permitting is completed. Outdoor concerts are planned, and we look forward to visiting again when we can catch a concert,  enjoy some wine and stayover in our RV.

Harmony Winery gave us a break from the Highway 40 sale

/ Roadtirementvintage / 22 Comments

Today was another wet day, though not a total washout. Sher and I decided to visit a local winery in the early afternoon while our son stayed at our setup for the sale.

Tasting room/bar

Inventory racks

 

 

 

 

 

We headed west for about 5 miles to Knightstown, Indiana for a visit to the Harmony Winery. This comfortable and intimate winery is located in an historic building that used to be a chicken hatchery at the turn of the century. The winery has a great selection of wines and we decided to taste a flight of 5.

Tasting the flight

Our host was most helpful in our determination of which five wines to taste. He described not only the making of the wines we tried, but also gave us hints of other uses of wine in different ways. Some of the owners concoctions sounded very interesting. We purchased three bottles before we left and look forward to enjoying our selections each evening after the sale closes. This is the Harmony Winery website.

 

Shop local for fruit of the vine

/ Roadtirementvintage / 16 Comments

 

We like to support local wineries as opposed to buying in supermarkets. These two Indiana wineries are within an hour’s drive, and we enjoyed getting out for a while.

These two wines are limited edition holiday runs. The spiced red is good at room temperature or heated. The Christmas cherry is a delightful sweet wine. Notice the red nose on the buck on the label. Cute touch…

Drink responsibly. Don’t let your guard down and stay safe from the virus.