Fruit Hills Winery & Orchard

Warm, welcoming hospitality, delicious wine, beautiful grounds, what more can you ask for?! Checked out several wineries in the area last weekend, and this one was by far our favorite one! The owner was so welcoming and nice, really took her time explaining the different wines and wine pairings to us. The grounds it self have real grape vines, and the owner told us that they plant more and more varieties each year! None of the other wineries in the area had grape vines, and didn’t seem as authentic as this place. If I am ever back in the area I will be sure to step in again and pick up a few more bottles!

Just a little wine shop (next to their vineyard) with a wine tasting room. We stopped by for a quick sampling of wine. And we weren’t the only one’s with that bright idea, it was a pretty busy tasting room mid-​afternoon. Nearly all spots at the bar were filled. We were given a menu of their wine list and could marked 5 – 6 wines we wanted to taste. It was a nice opportunity to try some very different wines than we were use to. Most of the bottle prices were very reasonable ($ 10 – 20) and we ended up leaving with a bottle of our favorite tasting. Nothing better than a try-​it-​before-​you-​buy-​it bottle.

My first experience with Indiana wine was the venerable Oliver brand, the winery of which is in (near?) Bloomington.
I’m sure they have some decent varietals, but the stuff I tried tasted like alcoholic grape juice. Blech.
With this in mind, I wasn’t suuuper optimistic when my mom brought me to this little spot near Bristol. It’s off a state highway, five miles or so from the Michigan state line.
The building is small, pleasant, with wine bins lining the walls and a smallish tasting counter. There’s a little deck overlooking the orchard. The owner was working and they do a free tasting — up to 7 choices, you pick them off the list with descriptions. You can also buy a glass or a bottle to enjoy there (or take a bottle with, of course).
I tried most of the whites, a couple fruit wines and one red — all were actually quite good, and the owner was very knowledgeable about it all, quite chatty as she poured my samples.
I ended up with a bottle of Traminette (which I naturally then left at my mom’s house) and the knowledge that hey, northern Indiana does have a little culture after all.

I LOVE going up to Michigan and following the Michigan Wine Trail to all of the wonderful local wineries. We are fortunate to have so many great businesses so close to us, producing a quality product. However, sometimes, Michigan is just too darn far. Why can’t we have an Indiana winery closer to us? The Indy and Bloomington area are lousy with them — darn them and their hills! Well — look no more, my friends! We DO have hills in northern Indiana — the fruit hills of Bristol, to be exact and luckily, someone has finally taken advantage of this and opened a winery there.
Fruit Hills Winery & Orchard tasting room had their grand opening this past weekend and I took a trip over there on Sunday to check it out. I live in Osceola and was shocked to see it was just a beautiful 20 – 25 minute drive from door to door, following Jackson Street/​SR 120 along the St. Joseph River. Take SR 15 south out of downtown Bristol and you are there in mere minutes.
Entering the tasting room, I was immediately impressed by how beautiful and inviting the space is. Gorgeous woodwork, homey earthtoned painted walls and jolly Christmas music playing. There is enough room for 8 – 10 people, easily, at the tasting bar and once the weather is nice enough, a beautiful, huge outdoor deck will provide seating overlooking the orchard and fruit hills.
Now, what we really care about — how was the wine? Fruit Hills Winery offers 5 different varieties — pinot noir, noiret, which I found very similiar to a sirah, a riesling, seyval blanc and a traminette. I prefer deep red, hearty, dryer wines to fruity and light whites but after trying all 5, I was extremely impressed with all of them. The whites were not too fruity at all, even the traminette had a wonderful floral bouquet that gave it a very unique taste. All of them had something special that made them taste better than some of your cookie cutter wines out there — plain, blah, appealing to the masses. NO — you won’t find that here — you will find full bodied, full flavored wines in each variety. My favorite was the noiret, which has the peppery taste of a sirah but at the end, a hint of mint that worked well together.
Prices are very reasonable — from $ 13.99 a bottle for the seyval blanc and noiret to $ 16.99 for the pinot noir.
I can’t wait to go back, take a friend, take my husband, take any able bodied, wine loving person who will come and spend my days chatting with the incredibly friendly owners, breathing in the gorgeous scent of that new wood and over a glass or two, debating which wine of theirs really is the best. Congratuations, Fruit Hills Winery! I really think you have a winner here!