Grape Growing Gets Back to its Roots in Southwest Indiana
Published Feb 11, 2009
Quick quiz: Where is the nation’s oldest vineyard society? California? Washington? Wrong. Try Kentucky.
The Southwest Indiana-Kentucky region may not be the first image to come to mind when you picture wine country, but the area has been quietly growing grapes for decades.
Harley Kauffman has been growing grapes at Kauffman Vineyard in Mount Vernon since 1974. A long-running winery is now closed, but the vineyard still sells grapes to other Indiana wineries.
Kauffman attributes the popularity of his high-quality Indiana wine grapes in part to the deep soil in the area.
Whether it’s good earth or a nod to history that draws people to the region’s wineries, they’re flourishing. The burgeoning agritourism industry is only increasing the area’s exposure as a cradle of wineries.
“It’s just been a great experience for us,” says Jamie Like, co-owner of Ruby Moon Vineyard and Winery in Henderson, Ky., a short drive over the Ohio River from Evansville. “I think people generally consider vineyards and wineries as an outing, a daytrip, a fun place to go and do something and see something different.”
Before prohibition, Kentucky was the second-largest grape-producing state in the country.
“I think people equate winemaking with the West,” says Like. “The truth is that a lot of grapes grow very, very well in our region – not the same kind of grapes, but a lot of good wine is being made in our region.”
Ruby Moon grows eight varieties, a combination of American grapes, such as concord, and French-American hybrids. The winery features a tasting room, open to the public for enjoyment of Ruby Moon’s wines.
Visitors from 32 states and five countries have found their way through Ruby Moon’s doors, which opened two years ago.
“It’s been two years, so word is beginning to really get out now, I believe,” co-owner Anita Frazer says. “That’s the fun part about it – meeting different people, new people.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
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