Yesterday, Debby and I took a Sunday drive to check out a couple of Indiana wineries. Visiting wineries is one of our favorite things to do. I have only recently developed a taste for wine and I certainly lack the vocabulary to discuss wine, but why should that stop me?
We started out at Wilson Wines “in” Modoc, Indiana. I say “in” because I did not see any towns in the vicinity of the winery. The winery does not look like much as one drives past an assortment of outbuildings to get to the winery, which mostly looks like just another outbuilding. A friendly, polite but not overly talkative gentleman showed us the wine list: eight whites, three reds, and seven fruit and non traditional wines.
We tasted five wines. We liked the Seyval Blanc (dry white), the Autumn White (semi-dry) and the Marechal Foch (semi-sweet). Well, I liked the first two and Debby liked the last two. If you like those kinds of wine, I can’t believe you would not like these.
The American Riesling was OK. I have had a few rieslings that I thought were OK, but this one didn’t quite do it for me. Debby liked it better than I.
We also tasted the Indian Trail Red (dry). It had quite a strong flavor (lots of tannins we were told) and was not to our taste.
I lack the vocabulary and I have a limited palette, but we’ve been to a lot of wineries over the past few years and Wilson Wines are as good as any others we’ve had. It is a bit out of the way, but worth the trip. We bought two bottles, the Autumn White and the Marechal Foch.
Then we went to Madison County Winery at 10942 S. 400 East, Markleville, Indiana (again, not really in the town). This winery opened for business just over six months ago (January 9, 2009). The tasting room in an outbuilding at Wilson Wines is fancy next to the tasting room in a mobile home at Madison County Winery. But facilities take money and he’s just starting out. The web site is not all that impressive, either.
I believe that we dealt with the propriator, Eric Hensley. He is friendly and passionate about the winery. The selections are limited, particularly on the dry side, but he plans to add more wines over time. We tried a (dry? semi dry?) Mead. We found it interesting, but not quite to our taste (being a mead, we didn’t expect to like it). We also tried a sem-sweet red that was a blend of two grapes (I think one of them was niagara grapes). It was interesting also. Maybe a bit too sweet for me. Both had what I think were distinctive flavors.
If you are looking for wines that are not just another white or red, this may be worth the trip for you. Debby and I look forward to the day when his selection is wider and we can get back there.