Film digs into Ind. wine industry

Think only soybeans and corn grow in Indiana? An upcoming WTIU documentary begs to differ.

The station takes viewers behind the scenes of local wine production during its Sunday premiere of “Hoosier Hospitality: Wine,” a documentary on Indiana’s wine industry.

“We’re at 63 wineries,” said Jeanette Merritt, marketing director for the Indiana Wine Grape Council at Purdue University and one of the experts in the film. “We might be at 70 before the year is over.”

Merritt is joined in the documentary by Purdue faculty and IWGC members Bruce Bordelon, professor of viticulture, or grape growing, and Christian Butzke, professor of enology, wine making.

The hour-long program follows the history of how Indiana can claim to be “the birthplace of America’s commercial wine industry,” according to a WTIU press release.

Viewers will learn about the life of a wine grape, from its time in the vineyards to fermentation, blending and bottling. Tours of six Indiana wineries, including Bloomington’s Oliver Winery, will explain the process.

“Oliver Winery is our state’s oldest and largest winery, and they really have set the standard for how our other wineries are in the industry,” Merritt said.

Oliver won the Governor’s Cup — an award for the best Indiana winery of the year — at this year’s Indy International Wine Competition.

The documentary takes an insider’s peek at the competition, which is judged by the IWGC and is the third-largest wine competition in the U.S., according to the release.

River City Winery of New Albany, Ind., won Wine of the Year for its 2011 Vignoles, a white grape variety that bested nearly 3,000 other wines from around the world.

“It’s the first time that an Indiana wine has won wine of the world,” Merritt said. “We’ve had others come close.”

Richard Vine, wine columnist for Bloom Magazine and associate professor of food science at Purdue, spoke with the documentary’s producers about the ever-growing industry.

“A lot of Hoosiers will testify that Indiana wine wasn’t the best 20 years ago,” Vine said. “Now, they’re winning medals all the time.”

Perhaps the most notable change through the years was the declaration of Indiana’s signature varietal — the Traminette, a white wine known for floral and fruity aromas.

Merritt said the Traminette grape was very successful in statewide growing experiments and that it represented the state well.
 
The documentary will further examine the IWGC’s role in selecting grape varieties best suited for a vineyard’s growing conditions, according to the release.

Merritt added that, contrary to what one might think, wine grapes benefit from the current drought.

“Grapes don’t need as much water as corn and soybeans, so they can survive a little bit better,” she said. “Any soil that won’t grow corn very well will grow grapes very well.”

Tune into WTIU at 8:30 p.m. Sunday to learn more about Indiana’s grape-growing industry, wine festivals and wine trails and how our wineries measure against the competition.