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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 1987)
Page 4B/The Battalion/Friday, September 4, 1987 Indiana winemaker experiments with recipes UNIONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Out along a quiet country road by the northern shore of Lake Lemon, past Needmore and Trevlac and about 30 minutes from Bloomington, sits Possum Trot Winery. Ben Sparks and his wife, Lee, have sold wine from here since 1978, 10 years after he retired from the Navy. A taste for expensive wine and a need to economize led the 68-year- old Sparks to his current occupation. “The idea I had was to grow grapes that would produce the wine I had been accustomed to drinking before I retired,” he says. “I got deep into viticulture and enology and decided to become a commercial It’s not exactly on the scale of Cali fornia’s Napa Valley, but south-cen tral Indiana does have a strong wine making industry. There are about 11 wineries, 12 vineyards in Indiana, including four wineries in and around Blooming ton. operation. The number of Hoosier produc ers does not include those in south ern Michigan, which associate more closely with the wine industry in northern Indiana. The state’s grape and wine indus try is often overlooked as part of In diana agriculture, says Jim Butler, president of the Indiana Winegrow er’s Guild. “Indiana has not put any money into the wine industry and we have been working to get funding for a grape marketing program similar to what the state of Ohio has,” says But ler, who operates the Bloomington Winery. Open daily between March and December and by appointment the rest of the year, Possum Trot creates about six wines a year beginning in mid- to late August. Among the 8,000 to 10,000 bottles produced annually are usually one or two dry whites, a dry red and what Sparks calls “wines for the Pepsi Cola crowd . . . sweet wines with no flavor — not very sophisti cated wines.” The winery, named for a nearby creek and road, attracted about 1,000 visitors last year, according to its guest book, which includes names from Australia and nearly every state in America. Only about half of the visitors sign the register, Sparks says, but nearly every entry contains effusive thanks for tne hospitality and the wine. Sparks initially planted about 4,000 grape vines on 60 acres of land, at first producing “experimen tal wines” like rhubarb and red and white wines for the personal con sumption. But the grape vines were a failure. The climate was too cold for the vines and the crop was destroyed, Sparks says. The winery now buys grapes from growers in more tem perate areas of the state such as Evansville, Terre Haute and the Ohio Valley region. The art of winemaking is a taught skill for Sparks, who attends courses around the Midwest. He is a member of several professional asso ciations on viticulture, the science o grape-growing, and enology, the study of wine and winemaking. Like other wineries, Possum Trot has surprised many visitors, among them a Massachusetts couple wrote in the guest register: "What : delight to find a vineyard in In diana.” ■ r ' e U.S. Choice Whole Beef Briskets 10 to 12-Lb. Average 6-Pack 12-Ounce Cans All Varieties Diet Pepsi, or Pepsi-Cola WiNN OlXiG STORES INC Lb. Va-Gal. Superbrand All Flavors Ice Milk, Sherbet or Ice Cream This Labor Day, even if you’re on the go, you can still enjoy the great flavor of spareribs cooked with real hickory wood. Just leave the cooking to us...it’s Deli-licious! 12-Pack 12-Ounce Cans Regular or Light Budweiser or Coors, or Miller Genuine Draft or Miller Lite Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Q Spareribs Beer available at stores where local laws & ordinances permit America’s Supermarket Winn-Dixie We Gladly Redeem Your USDA Food Stamps Rights Reserved to Limit Quantities No Sales to Dealers Copyright 1987 Winn-Dixie Texas Inc Beer & wme available at stores where local laws & ordinances permit A food store so totally unique and exciting, we had to give it another name. Prices good September 2 thru September 8, 1987 in all Winn-Dixie and Winn-Dixie Marketplace stores. WHILA come wit sooing sh< Yet he bined wit vofite foe breeding that caus< Michael F at ? Thom Hospital. In this ^•'V^L’idpIv into ! 5 _ ’^SuSH hou r s, ’ ^■Carefu aaration ivkh thou md creati 'INY ADS, BUT REAL HEAVYWEIGHIS mm rew REALLY COUNI. ong way tant aftei *rved out laid O’Nei inary In: Hyde Park ffrhile 1 igned foi Dost apply “You ca bod you vfiether it’ ause foo aid. “Tha it a store juality.” Nevertb iearances i lOTed: • Meat Utep red i: round the • Whole been on i orm hou Id 1 • A houldn r conta tices in O Ne hou Id i teat am fin t h n le anil ames 1 tocessi lined ards e lent. As f lould r lould i latter \ Urchas Froze ozen a 'ft spoi iraturt T baett The Y ozen food ^ g -| * ‘d refrozen Bat talior Classifiei . he said. The next poisoni perishabl< Tes outside 845-2611 P '^WV%AA/VV^V\JV\ ! jVWWtt FA ^°in PI K> Jnd NOT f$reek Fra for Parke WISE MOVE