By Chelsey Carr
Wine sales in the state of Indiana are stagnating, but Best Vineyards is undergoing explosive growth.
Wilbert Best purchased the land in Elizabeth, Ind. in 2000 when he was searching for rental property. The vineyard had already been planted on the land so the Wilbert and his sisters, Rachel and Berretta, established a commercial wine business in growing and selling grapes to local wineries. Soon wineries requested that they process the grapes and sell juice.
Their plan for the business change and the Best Vineyards opened in 2008 as a winery. They celebrated their eight-year anniversary on April 5.
“We are already far, far larger than I ever thought we would be,” said Wilbert. “This was actually my retirement project and it’s getting ready to turn into my full time job. It’s going kind of crazy,” he laughed.
Currently, Wilbert works full time at UPS.
“My vision when we put up this 40 by 60 winery building with that 20 by 32 tasting room with a couple bathrooms with a 40 by 40 production facility was that would last us seven years. About two and a half years in we ran out of space. So we had to put the building up across the drive way in the back. It’s not enough to support me as an individual but that’s because I’m constantly putting up new buildings and buying new equipment to keep up with the growth of the business. If we stopped growing and simply modified our prices to balance that out, I could easily live off that,” he said.
Rachel works full time for the winery, but Wilbert said that it is not making enough to pay full time salaries for him and Berretta as well. However, they are set to open a distillery in 2016.
“The building will be done and we will be ready to go the first of July if we have all of our permits back. The permitting process can take anywhere from a month to eight or nine months,” he said.
Best Vineyards will be producing spirits for themselves and offer product distillation for other distilleries to use the capacity of the stills until their product line grows.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking. You go to work and get a constant pay check. Now it’s like, 'well I hope I get a paycheck.' So that’s where we’re at right now,” Wilbert said.
The location of the Vineyard is both helpful and hurtful to growth of the business.
“It helps from the aspect that people can get out here; they’re away from the madness. They see the countryside. Really it’s mainly undeveloped countryside. But, people like the fact that we’re not a heavily commercialized winery. Our winery and distillery will stay that way,” Wilbert said.
He compared Best Vineyards to Huber’s Winery, a larger operation in Starlight, Ind.
“That’s really the main difference between us and Huber’s. They’re a very developed area up there. Distance wise it might seem a little further coming to us because you’re on a state high way as opposed to the county road, which has all the stops and turns,” Wilbert said.
He said that the perception that Best Vineyards is a long distance is false.
“We’re three miles from Horseshoe Casino, 12 miles from the interstate, which is the same mileage as Huber’s. But Huber’s is a destination. With the addition of the distillery, we’ll have a small commercial kitchen, so we’ll be able to do some food,” Wilbert said.
One strategy Wilbert uses to expand his customer base and let people know where they are is as a vendor at the New Albany Farmer’s Market.
“Starting the Saturday after Derby, the full market starts. We’ll be there pretty much every weekend through October. There’s a couple weekend that we have huge wine events that takes every staff member we’ve got. I literally have no one to staff the booth at the market,” he said.
Both Vintage Indiana and Story Indiana Wine Festival are two big events that Best Vineyards participates in.
When implementing marketing strategies, Wilbert said it doesn’t help him to look at what other businesses are doing.
“I’ve discovered that every business has their own unique path to marketing. There’s no one size fits all. I wish there was,” he said. “I work with a number of new start up wineries and I tell them all go out to the festivals.”
Another strategy for gaining awareness in the community is membership of Indiana Uplands Wine Trail.
“It was a huge, huge benefit for us. We had been open right at a year. Uplands is an agricultural co-op and you had to be in business for x number of years before you can join. The fact that we are a commercial vineyard selling those guys grapes allowed us to join the trial a little bit earlier than a just a straight start-up winery,” Wilbert said.
He said that having the other wineries send their customers to Best Vineyards because of the Trail helped them gain visibility.
“As a new business, that’s your struggle—letting somebody know you’re there. And let’s face it,” he laughed, “who knows we’re out here? There’s still people in Elizabeth who don’t realize there’s a winery out here.”
To combat that struggle, Wilbert said he has partnered with the Elizabeth Lion’s Club to host the Southern Indiana Blues and Baking Festival.
The Indiana Uplands Wine Trail hosted a cheese and wine pairing event on April 16 and 17. People were able to travel from winery to winery for samples for free.
“We’re doing a spinach artichoke and cheddar dip and then a spicy queso style salsa. This year we’re going a little crazy. I think those are huge; we get a really good turn out. Dawn, over at Winzerwald, is from Wisconsin and she knows cheese. She always does a spectacular variety of cheese for those types of events,” Wilbert said.
He said that he could not be happier with the cooperative marketing efforts of the wine trail.
“It’s a struggle because we’re all competitors. We’re all trying to work together to cooperatively market our business. The dues that go in is about a quarter of our marketing budget,” he said. “We all police each other and talk to each other to make sure everyone is doing good wines. The worst thing any one of us can have is a bad wine on the shelf.
“Not every wine is made for every person, but there are a set of flaws: it’s oxidized, it’s unbalanced, there’s a whole litany of things. I think all the wineries in the entire state work closely together to ensure that we all have good products. At the end of the day we are competitors but we have the battle that Indiana wines can compete with California wines, French wines, and Australian wines,” Wilbert said.
Despite the popularity of wineries in Indiana, he does not recommend new players to join the scene.
“I don’t think there’s much room for expansion in the wine industry right now. Anyone who is thinking or looking to get into this. We’ve got 84 wineries in the state and five or six more opening this year. The market’s almost saturated. If you look at the wine sales over the last couple years have been flat across the state. Well my sales are growing. Monarch Beverage’s sales are growing. So if the wine tax revenue is flat, someone somewhere is losing,” Wilbert said.
The lack of growth opportunity is another reason that the Bests are entering the distillery industry.
“It’s a very different business model. It’s certainly a different upfront capitalization problem. You can start a winery on a shoestring budget. It’s very cheap to start a winery. It’s not very cheap to start a distillery’ it’s very, very expensive,” Wilbert said.
He said his expectation was that the business would do 30 or 40 thousand dollars a year.
“The profits have gone back into the business but we’ve had double digit growth every year. It’s been far more successful than I thought it ever would be. I’ll be honest, I’m just amazed,” he said.
Wine sales in the state of Indiana are stagnating, but Best Vineyards is undergoing explosive growth.
Wilbert Best purchased the land in Elizabeth, Ind. in 2000 when he was searching for rental property. The vineyard had already been planted on the land so the Wilbert and his sisters, Rachel and Berretta, established a commercial wine business in growing and selling grapes to local wineries. Soon wineries requested that they process the grapes and sell juice.
Their plan for the business change and the Best Vineyards opened in 2008 as a winery. They celebrated their eight-year anniversary on April 5.
“We are already far, far larger than I ever thought we would be,” said Wilbert. “This was actually my retirement project and it’s getting ready to turn into my full time job. It’s going kind of crazy,” he laughed.
Currently, Wilbert works full time at UPS.
“My vision when we put up this 40 by 60 winery building with that 20 by 32 tasting room with a couple bathrooms with a 40 by 40 production facility was that would last us seven years. About two and a half years in we ran out of space. So we had to put the building up across the drive way in the back. It’s not enough to support me as an individual but that’s because I’m constantly putting up new buildings and buying new equipment to keep up with the growth of the business. If we stopped growing and simply modified our prices to balance that out, I could easily live off that,” he said.
Rachel works full time for the winery, but Wilbert said that it is not making enough to pay full time salaries for him and Berretta as well. However, they are set to open a distillery in 2016.
“The building will be done and we will be ready to go the first of July if we have all of our permits back. The permitting process can take anywhere from a month to eight or nine months,” he said.
Best Vineyards will be producing spirits for themselves and offer product distillation for other distilleries to use the capacity of the stills until their product line grows.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking. You go to work and get a constant pay check. Now it’s like, 'well I hope I get a paycheck.' So that’s where we’re at right now,” Wilbert said.
The location of the Vineyard is both helpful and hurtful to growth of the business.
“It helps from the aspect that people can get out here; they’re away from the madness. They see the countryside. Really it’s mainly undeveloped countryside. But, people like the fact that we’re not a heavily commercialized winery. Our winery and distillery will stay that way,” Wilbert said.
He compared Best Vineyards to Huber’s Winery, a larger operation in Starlight, Ind.
“That’s really the main difference between us and Huber’s. They’re a very developed area up there. Distance wise it might seem a little further coming to us because you’re on a state high way as opposed to the county road, which has all the stops and turns,” Wilbert said.
He said that the perception that Best Vineyards is a long distance is false.
“We’re three miles from Horseshoe Casino, 12 miles from the interstate, which is the same mileage as Huber’s. But Huber’s is a destination. With the addition of the distillery, we’ll have a small commercial kitchen, so we’ll be able to do some food,” Wilbert said.
One strategy Wilbert uses to expand his customer base and let people know where they are is as a vendor at the New Albany Farmer’s Market.
“Starting the Saturday after Derby, the full market starts. We’ll be there pretty much every weekend through October. There’s a couple weekend that we have huge wine events that takes every staff member we’ve got. I literally have no one to staff the booth at the market,” he said.
Both Vintage Indiana and Story Indiana Wine Festival are two big events that Best Vineyards participates in.
When implementing marketing strategies, Wilbert said it doesn’t help him to look at what other businesses are doing.
“I’ve discovered that every business has their own unique path to marketing. There’s no one size fits all. I wish there was,” he said. “I work with a number of new start up wineries and I tell them all go out to the festivals.”
Another strategy for gaining awareness in the community is membership of Indiana Uplands Wine Trail.
“It was a huge, huge benefit for us. We had been open right at a year. Uplands is an agricultural co-op and you had to be in business for x number of years before you can join. The fact that we are a commercial vineyard selling those guys grapes allowed us to join the trial a little bit earlier than a just a straight start-up winery,” Wilbert said.
He said that having the other wineries send their customers to Best Vineyards because of the Trail helped them gain visibility.
“As a new business, that’s your struggle—letting somebody know you’re there. And let’s face it,” he laughed, “who knows we’re out here? There’s still people in Elizabeth who don’t realize there’s a winery out here.”
To combat that struggle, Wilbert said he has partnered with the Elizabeth Lion’s Club to host the Southern Indiana Blues and Baking Festival.
The Indiana Uplands Wine Trail hosted a cheese and wine pairing event on April 16 and 17. People were able to travel from winery to winery for samples for free.
“We’re doing a spinach artichoke and cheddar dip and then a spicy queso style salsa. This year we’re going a little crazy. I think those are huge; we get a really good turn out. Dawn, over at Winzerwald, is from Wisconsin and she knows cheese. She always does a spectacular variety of cheese for those types of events,” Wilbert said.
He said that he could not be happier with the cooperative marketing efforts of the wine trail.
“It’s a struggle because we’re all competitors. We’re all trying to work together to cooperatively market our business. The dues that go in is about a quarter of our marketing budget,” he said. “We all police each other and talk to each other to make sure everyone is doing good wines. The worst thing any one of us can have is a bad wine on the shelf.
“Not every wine is made for every person, but there are a set of flaws: it’s oxidized, it’s unbalanced, there’s a whole litany of things. I think all the wineries in the entire state work closely together to ensure that we all have good products. At the end of the day we are competitors but we have the battle that Indiana wines can compete with California wines, French wines, and Australian wines,” Wilbert said.
Despite the popularity of wineries in Indiana, he does not recommend new players to join the scene.
“I don’t think there’s much room for expansion in the wine industry right now. Anyone who is thinking or looking to get into this. We’ve got 84 wineries in the state and five or six more opening this year. The market’s almost saturated. If you look at the wine sales over the last couple years have been flat across the state. Well my sales are growing. Monarch Beverage’s sales are growing. So if the wine tax revenue is flat, someone somewhere is losing,” Wilbert said.
The lack of growth opportunity is another reason that the Bests are entering the distillery industry.
“It’s a very different business model. It’s certainly a different upfront capitalization problem. You can start a winery on a shoestring budget. It’s very cheap to start a winery. It’s not very cheap to start a distillery’ it’s very, very expensive,” Wilbert said.
He said his expectation was that the business would do 30 or 40 thousand dollars a year.
“The profits have gone back into the business but we’ve had double digit growth every year. It’s been far more successful than I thought it ever would be. I’ll be honest, I’m just amazed,” he said.
