As a relative “newbie” to the world of wine and certainly an imbecile when it comes to explaining what constitutes a good wine, I would nonetheless like to submit my review of a winery near my home in northeastern Indiana.
Satek Winery was opened near Fremont, Indiana in June of 2001 officially, but had operated as a commercial vineyard since 1992. Initially, they offered only four wines, but have since expanded their offerings greatly. According to their website, Satek’s wines are made with roughly 20% locally gorwn grapes and 80% purchased from other sources in several states. Regardless, all the wines are made on-site at Satek’s winery/retail outlet.
Satek has a very nice secluded location near the State Road 120 and Indiana Toll Road in the extreme northeast corner of the state. Their retail room is relatively small, but serves it’s purpose very well. They are open seven days per week from 10:00a.m. until 6:00p.m., with the exceptions of Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, New Year’s Day, Easter, and Election Days. The room is dominated by a large L-shaped counter and has several racks with bottles of wine as well as a cooler and various corkscrews, corks, gift bags, etc. here and there. The staff is exceptionally personable and is very helpful in explaining the specifics of all the available wines.
The counter has lists with all of Satek’s available wines listed by category: Dry White, Dry Red, Semi-Dry, Semi-Sweet, and Sweet Dessert. There are several wines that carry over from year to year and some that are added with each updated list. Satek allows you to taste any and all wines as you please, but they will generally ask you what you tend to like to give you a starting point and they are very gifted at being able to recommend the right choice for the individual. Not nowing a lot about wines, I was initially clueless as to what would even appeal to me, but they were able to guide me in the right direction very quickly.
Many of Satek’s wines have been very successful in competitions, notably the 2006 Vidal Blanc, which won a Concordance Gold Medal at the Indy International. Some of Satek’s other award-winning wines include the Raspberry, Syrah, Old Vine Red Zinfandel, 101 Lakes Red, Pinot Gris, and the 101 Lakes White, among several others.
My personal favorites include the Kreibaum Bay Port, 101 Lakes Red and the Steuben, but there are many that I have tried and liked. As I mentioned, I can’t tell you why I like them ecept to tell you they taste good, but maybe the pretentious wine-speak isn’t a prerequisite to enjoying good wine, although I’m sure the upper crust enjoy Satek’s offerings as well. If you find yourself in the neighborhood while whizzing by on I-80/90 in northern Indiana, I would definitely recommend taking a little detour and giving Satek a try. If that isn’t an option, they do ship to several states and have a pretty comprehensive website to assist you.
