By Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star
Flat Rock and Palestine, Ill.— When it comes to Brian and Joy Neighbors’ desire to make unique wines, the proof was in the pudding.
Persimmon pudding, that is. Accidental persimmon pudding, to be accurate.
The Neighbors painstakingly experimented with that wild Midwestern fruit, trying to create persimmon wine — a rare beverage. At one point, the pressure in the persimmon press intensified so much, the contents burst out in explosive fashion.
“We had persimmon pudding all over the ceiling, the walls,” Brian Neighbors recalled, with a laugh.
Their determination paid off. Last month, the Grand Persimmon Sherry produced at the Neighbors’ White Owl Winery received a gold medal rating from the Beverage Tasting Institute in Chicago. Five other wines from White Owl — one of four wineries on the 33-mile Wabash Wine Trail — earned silver or bronze medals. That list of award-winners includes their Paw-Paw vin. White Owl is apparently the world’s only winery to successfully turn paw-paws into a commercial wine.
In fact, representatives of Northern Kentucky University came to this converted turkey barn to see how Brian, White Owl’s winemaster, pulled off a feat other wineries could not. NKU has a horticulture program to promote greater use of the American Indian paw-paw because it contains cancer-fighting chemicals.
The delicate process of making wines from wild fruits such as paw-paws, persimmons and elderberries intrigues Brian Neighbors. That fascination is a prime reason he and Joy gave up demanding jobs in the Dayton and Cincinnati metropolitan regions of Ohio in 1999 and moved back to this serene setting along the Wabash River valley.
“I love crafting the wine,” Brian said.
White Owl produces 16 different wines, using both those unusual fruits, as well as the traditional grapes, and Midwestern favorites such as strawberries, blueberries, cherries, pears and apricots.
The winery harvests some of its paw-paws and persimmons from trees on the Neighbors’ farm, but most of its ingredients are purchased from local growers. Unlike the two southern-most stops on the Wabash Wine Trail — Windy Knoll Winery in Vincennes and Lasata Winery just north of Lawrenceville, Ill., along Illinois 33 — White Owl and Pioneer Winery at Palestine, Ill., don’t grow their own grapes.
While Brian Neighbors understands other vintners who relish handling the process from the grape vine to the bottle, he prefers focusing on the winemaking, itself.
“Experimenting with each recipe is where we have our fun,” he said.
Interactive winemaking
People who travel the wine trail, which follows Illinois 33 from White Owl (a mile south of the Crawford County line near Flat Rock) to Pioneer (on Main Street in downtown Palestine), are frequently active participants in that experimentation. When Brian is trying to perfect a new wine, visitors are invited to taste and rate different mixes of that vin.
“The customers know when they come in there’s a chance they will have a say in the final product,” said Joy Neighbors, who handles marketing and public relations for White Owl, which has eight employees.
Joy is an energetic former TV news writer, producer and director at commercial and PBS stations in Dayton and Cincinnati. Brian worked as a corporate computer and marketing consultant. At a peak moment of job stress, a co-worker suggested Brian visit a wine tasting at a Cincinnati vineyard. There, he and Joy sipped wine and saw lots of smiling people. The sight of a woman drinking wine — pinky up — while driving by on a tractor sold Brian on a career change.
“I turned around and told Joy, ‘I have got to get into this industry,’” Brian said.
He and his dad, Ken, made their first batches of wine from a gift kit in 1998. They attended wine schools around the country and took courses at Purdue University. Soon their homemade wines won awards. Eventually, they bought a bottling line, 30 stainless steel vats, and remodeled the former turkey barn with classy touches like a spalding wood ceiling.
“We took the mom-and-pop out and made it a little more upscale,” Joy said.
Some day, she said, they hope to make White Owl “the Oliver of Illinois.” She was referring to Indiana’s largest wine producer, Oliver Winery at Bloomington.
Mixing art, wine
Unlike White Owl, Lasata and Windy Knoll, the Wabash Wine Trail’s final destination (or the first, depending on which direction you choose) isn’t nestled in a wooded countryside. Palestine’s Pioneer Winery is housed in two buildings in Illinois’ oldest town. Its storefront is a historic bank building on South Main Street, where the early 20th-century windows are original and extra bottles of wine are stored in the old vault. A parrot greets visitors with a good-lookin’ girl whistle. The actual winemaking occurs in a more utilitarian structure across the street.
The unique settings are attractions for winelovers who follow the two-state, four-winery Wabash Wine Trail.
“The wines are as different as the buildings are,” said Bill Johnson, who co-owns Pioneer with his wife, Cathy. “And they each reflect our different tastes in wine.”
Johnson formerly was a traveling businessman, while Cathy worked as an artist.
“We were looking at a business to complement what she was doing,” Bill explained.
Palestine, an arts-minded town with a program to lure artists to relocate there, was also hoping to attract a winery. In 2003, the Johnsons put wine and art together by opening Pioneer. Its walls are adorned with not only Cathy’s artwork, but also that of jack-of-all-trades winery employee Paul Spangler.
Amid all of that color, Pioneer offers an array of wines, ranging from traditional Merlot, Zinfandel and Chardonnay, to those with local names like Pioneer Pride, Moonlight on the Wabash and Rodeo Red (in honor of that annual Palestine event). Those latter three wines — the sweetest Pioneer creations — are the best sellers.
Pioneer also sells wine slushies. So does White Owl, where its Cherry Pie slushy is a tasty entry drink for wine novices, Joy Neighbors said.
The idea of wineries collaborating to attract more visitors for all is catching on in Illinois, said Bradley Beam, a University of Illinois specialist in enology, which is the study of winemaking.
“Wine trails have been a real popular marketing concept in Illinois,” Beam said.
The four Wabash Wine Trail wineries keep in touch with each other, and help guide customers to their varied offerings, Johnson said.
“If we don’t have a particular wine or flavor here, we can tell them who does have it on the trail,” Johnson said. “The more successful they [other wineries] are, the more successful we’ll be.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.
Trail Mix
The Wabash Wine Trail is a 33-mile trek linking four wineries in Indiana and Illinois. Here’s how to contact each:
• Windy Knoll Winery — Owners: Rick and Gwen Leser. Address: 845 N. Atkinson Road, Vincennes, IN, 47591. Phone: (812) 726-1600. Hours: Noon to 6 p.m. daily (Central Time). E-mail: rick@windyknollwinery.com.
Web site: www.windyknollwinery.com.
• Lasata Winery — Owners: Brett and Diana Robling. Address: Rural Route 2, Box 64B, Lawrenceville, IL, 62439. Phone: (618) 884-1200. Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. (Central Time) Friday-Sunday.
Web site: www.lasatawines.com.
• White Owl Winery — Owners: Brian and Joy Neighbors. Address: 122A Birds Road, Route 1, Flat Rock, IL, 62427. Phone: (618) 928-2898. Hours: Noon to 6 p.m. (Central Time) Friday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. E-mail: vinolefemme@excite.com. Web site: www.whiteowl winery.com.
• Pioneer Winery — Owners: Bill and Cathy Johnson. Address: 300 S. Main St., Palestine, IL, 62451. Phone: (618) 586-2921. Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. (Central Time) Friday-Sunday and by appointment. E-mail: info@pioneer-winery.com.
Web site: www.pioneer-winery.com.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
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