DeKalb County Winery Rated Indiana's Winery of the Year
Article by Andy Barrand | KPC News | August 4, 2022
ASHLEY — Sporting his dingy blue harvest day shirt, Shane Christ and Kirk Etheridge unloaded 1,000 pounds of blueberries from a blueberry farm in Plymouth.
Shane Christ, owner of Hartland Winery in Ashley, unloads 1,000 pounds of blueberries Thursday morning on the opening harvest season for the winery.
The delivery was the first of harvest season at Hartland Winery. Christ recently purchased the winery from Alan and Brenda Lockhart, who opened the small winery six years ago just south of Ashley.
Christ, who has been in the wine industry for the past 21 years, said he has worn the same shirt on the first day of each harvest season.
With the acquisition of the blueberries, the two wine makers began to create the next award winning wine for the winery, which was just named Indiana Winery of the Year at the Indiana State Fair Wine and Spirits Competition.
Hartland garnered six awards in the competition — three gold and three silver.
“To be awarded medals for each of our wines entered, let alone a Best in Class Rose, says a lot,” Christ said.
Christ says he owes the top winery honor to the Lockharts who have done a tremendous job building the reputation of the winery.
The Lockharts, who were present for the awards ceremony, said they were honored to win the award.
Christ, who previously worked for Satek Winery in Fremont, said the opportunity to purchase the winery was a sudden one.
He said one of the reasons he purchased the winery was for a new challenge.
In purchasing the winery, he brought good friend and wine maker Etheridge with him from Satek. Etheridge has been in the wine making business for the past seven years.
Christ said another thing that drew him to the winery was its location.
“You are only four minutes away from Interstate 69, but you feel like you are in the country (when you are here),” he said.
He said the winery is a good place for people to escape the city and enjoy a glass of wine while relaxing in a country setting.
“We have a wine that will appeal to all different levels of wine lovers,” Christ said.
Christ said he isn’t looking to make any drastic changes to the winery moving forward. He is looking forward to bringing some new wine varieties to the winery along with the possibility of distributing the wine to local restaurants.
“Next spring, we will have a variety of new wines,” he said.
Etheridge hinted that those new varieties could include a port dessert wine and possibly a sparkling wine. He said sparkling wines are one of the new hot trends in the wine industry.
Also on site at the winery are six varieties of grapes, which will produce some 15 to 18 tons of grapes this season. The staff of Hartland will begin picking grapes in the coming weeks.
Etheridge said the winery sources its grapes and other fruit used for wine making from local producers within DeKalb County and the surrounding area of northeast Indiana.
Hartland also features a full kitchen open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The menu includes appetizers, pizzas from a wood-fired oven, handheld sandwiches, salads and desserts.
The winery located at 425 C.R. 23, Ashley is open Wednesday and Thursday 12-6 p.m., Friday and Saturday 12-8 p.m. and Sundays from 1-5 p.m.
Article source: https://www.kpcnews.com/heraldrepublican/article_b4f488f0-efd3-534f-98ab-6e89c106440c.html