Jacob Peerman ’10 - My first impression of the Huber Winery in southern Indiana was, “There are so many things growing at this place.” As we drove through the entrance, there were rows of red raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and of course, rows of grape vines. I later came to find out that Huber has 600 acres and they are able to rent land from neighboring farms.

Within the fields, adults and children were walking on the grounds picking the fruits. The great thing about this place was that if we were tired of talking about wine we could visit the petting zoo, farmers market, or cheese shop. However, we stumbled out of the car and made our way to the wine barn. After talking to the help desk, I scheduled an interview with Ted Huber between 2:00 and 3:00. I asked for a map to Capriole farms. We did not want to drive aimlessly into the uncharted areas of Southern Indiana. (See Ross McKinney’s blob for this leg of the story). 

We arrived back at Huber Winery at 2:45. I was a little nervous that I would not have very much time with the wine maker. I was wrong. We spent about 2 hours 30 minutes with Ted Huber. I would later walk away with a passion for much more than just winemaking. 

We started in the main display room. The colors alone were amazing. There were bottles of wine that almost seemed to glow. As Ross began to film various things in the room, I began to think up intelligent questions to ask Ted. Not long after I began to think, Ted walks up and introduces himself. The first thing that came out of my mouth was, “wow, I mean…uh…how did you get started?” (I should have blamed my nervousness on the heat). I was able to find some solid ground as Ted began to tell me his family story.

Ted Huber is the 6^th generation of wine makers. His family has a rich German heritage, which comes out in some of their wines. The Huber family came to America in the late 1800’s from Baden-Baden Germany. They original started the farm as an Orchard. During Prohibition, the farm survived by growing both fruits and vegetables to sell to the local community.

Ted told us a couple family secrets. “I’m not going to lie,” he said. “We were bootleggers, and we made good money. But when the Feds come through, you didn’t want get caught.” He then asked us what we wanted to see. He gave no time limit, so we jumped at the opportunity. Judy Schad from Capriole told us to make Ted showed us the wine cellars. We proceeded to ask Mr. Huber if it would be possible to accommodate such a request.  All at once he became very excited and the next 45 min was spent in the underbelly of the operation.

Ted opened the ‘Employees Only’ door and I found myself walking down into what felt like the Huber dungeon. We talked about his passion for wine making and his family pride. I asked Ted if Indiana was a sweet wine state. “No,” he was quick to answer. “Why would someone want to pinhole Indiana to say that the people only drink sweet wines.” Huber’s biggest seller is a sweet wine. However, Huber explained “Our 2^nd, 3^rd , and 4^th best sellers are dry wines.  At this point, I knew that this winemaker had a passion that went well beyond the tasty libation. “The reason that people like to drink wine is because there is a story behind the wine.” Ted told us that his grandmother made her wine from scratch. Ted makes a sweet wine today called Sweet Marcella to honor Grandma Marcella Huber. This is the only wine that is named after a family member. He exclaimed, “Blueberry wine has no story. It’s just blueberry.”

We were now in the bottling room. Another unique aspect of Huber Winery is that they are self-sufficient. 95 percent of what comes in from the field is used. The farm does not use any pesticides on the crops and all the equipment is sterilized with ozone. Nothing is wasted at the Huber farm. Even the unwanted alcohol is used to serialize hand tools.

Huber Orchard, Winery and Vineyard is a self sustaining farm. As Ted says, “It all comes back to agriculture. I have never made a great wine from bad grapes.”

We then wandered into the room that separates Huber Winery from every winery in the state. In 1998, Ted wrote the bill that allows him to distill his wine in order to make port wines. He was unhappy with the quality of alcohol that was being shipped in. Therefore, he decided to write the law so he can distill his wine on site. Dr. Bowen was able to taste the 180 proof raspberry spirits. His expression was “It goes down so smooth, and there is the raspberry.”

We left the vineyard as the sun was going down. This was the highlight of my summer. Before I left, I bought my father a gift certificate. I think that everyone deserves to experience this place. I was just one more person to add to the 500,000 who make the trip every year. I will be talking about this for a long time. 

In photos: Top right, Ted Huber explains the wine-making process. In center, Jacob Peerman interviews Huber. Lower right, the Huber still. On homepage, Huber in the retail sales and tasting room.