By Kurt Wieneke
This past summer, we took a jaunt to Southeast Indiana to check out a couple of Hoosier wineries, namely Holtkamp Winery and Ertel Cellars. As a bonus, we didn’t have to spend all day driving because these wineries are only about an hour from Indianapolis. 
The first stop was Holtkamp Winery, established in 2013. The Holtkamps have a beautiful, off-the-beaten path winery about ten miles east of Batesville in the rolling hills of Dearborn County. They have an estate vineyard on premises and the winery itself feels like a sprawling ranch house. The Holtkamp Winery offerings were a nice mix of not only local hybrid estate wines, but also some robust reds hailing from the Sierra Foothills region of California. The white wines definitely leaned toward the sweeter side, and most of their red wines had a significant punch of toasty oak. The best wines we tasted were their Traminette, the very well-balanced Syrah. The favorite for the girls was a Black Raspberry dessert wine.
Heading west towards Batesville, we traveled through farmland and a few small towns, finally arriving at Ertel Cellars. Ertel has been around since 2006 and produces mainly hybrid wines such as Vidal Blanc and Vignoles, along with Chambourcin and Marechal Foch. For good measure, they also offer a California Chardonnay and Cabernet in the tasting room. The best wines we tasted were the Vidal Blanc and Marechal Foch. Most wineries make Marechal Foch as a red wine with skin contact during fermentation and oak barreling, but Ertel makes a fresh and brilliant rose-style version.
The next time you plan to be ‘out and about’ in the Hoosier state, consider a visit to an Indiana estate winery (or two). Cheers!
