In its third year, Oliver Winery’s Harvest Wine Festival was all about creating wines of extraordinary quality and a welcoming, enjoyable and wholesome experience for everyone.
The event took place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the winery, featuring outdoor live music performances, local food trucks, self-guided winery tours and free wine tasting.
The festival allows the winery to showcase its customer service.
“We have shared a genuine passion for wine making with our customers ever since 1960s,” said John Mikolajczyk, director of hospitality and retail operations. “And we really address the consistency of providing good guest services to accompany the great quality of our wines, making it something that happens here everyday.”
Mikolajczyk said the core of ensuring the consistency of the high standard of guest services would be treating all the customers as if they are here for the first time.
“We started out with the single original tasting room, and now we have entertainment field for the kids, beautiful scenic views such as the pond, picnic areas and this wine shop,” Mikolajczyk said. “Guests can bring families and their own meals over in a nice, bright weekend.”
Dennis Dunham, director of wine making, not only succeeded in keeping up the most powerful modern techniques in wine making, but also grew the full collection to its most desirable versions for the customers.
The secret behind the scene is that the Winery always keeps a fairly small group of wine makers who really understand what good wines taste like and what would best suit the preferences of local wine consumers.
The wine tasting was set at four different locations, including wine tasting rooms and outdoor tents.
From more than 50 varieties of wines made at Oliver Winery, the Harvest Wine Festival tasting menu provides a selection of 23 varieties of dry white wines, dry red wines, semi-dry wines, bean blossom hard cider, semi-sweet wines and dessert wines.
The broad selection included both varieties such as caber net sauvignon and camelot mead, as well as local icons such as creek bend traminette 2013, described on the Winery’s tasting menu as “Indiana’s signature wine. Floral, fruity, inviting, this grape loves our Indiana Climate.”
Live music also brought a festive and celebratory atmosphere to the experience.
Performances featured classic rock, folk, funky blues and acoustic strings, including Endiana, Charlie Jesseph and Busman’s Holiday.
Other entertainment included Octopus, Ink.’s magic and balloon twisting and inflatables for kids at the front entrance.
Visitors also found local dining options, including the Big Cheeze, Gimme Sum Moe and Bean blossom Hard Cider Brat wursts.
“The great quality of wines and a very laid-back atmosphere has not changed over the years,” said Tina Arnold, who has attended the event several times. “It’s getting much bigger, and there are more channels to buy their wines, which is great.”
