september 2017
Emma Fillenworth, 14, walks with her cousin, Addie, 8, in the vineyard.
Grape expectations
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Fillenworths bring their vineyard visions to life
ELIZABETHTOWN — Experimenting with a new crop is expensive, time-consuming and just plain disappointing at times, but Cindy and Alan Fillenworth haven’t turned in the pruning shears just yet. Growing wine grapes takes a lot of effort, after all. There’s the constant training and pruning of grape vines, the Swiss cheese effect of Japanese beetles on leaves, and the race to pick ripe grapes before yellow jackets and birds get to them. But the Sandcreek Township row-crop farmers didn’t get into this just to turn a buck, even though that’s exactly what’s happening now that an area winemaker has agreed to purchase the Fillenworths’ entire harvest. Instead, they are realizing a dream and perhaps, with continued persistence and an insatiable drive to learn, taking the first baby steps into what might grow into a substantive family tradition that can be passed to future generations. “The whole family is invested in this,” said Cindy, who enjoys the help of her adult sons, Tyson and Kyle; Kyle’s wife, Heather; and three grandchildren. Although she performs 90 percent of the pruning and training of the vines, Cindy said, “Everyone is learning this as a family. It would be a heck of a lot easier to have someone else come in and do this for us, but we want more out of it than that.” Alan, a commercial truck driver, grew up on a family farm down the road and purchased their current 80-acre farm with his parents one year after he graduated from high school. He and Cindy married 41 years ago, and they have grown a variety of crops over the years but
By Paul Minnis For The Republic Photography by April Knox now lease their acreage to another farmer who grows corn and soybeans. Through it all, the couple’s appreciation for wine bubbled beneath the surface, generally in the form of a glass at dinner. That interest grew into something more substantial as romantic visions of vineyards began to drift into Cindy’s mind. “I always thought vineyards were the most beautiful fields in the world,” she said. For the first time, the Fillenworths began to entertain thoughts of starting their own vineyard. Only practicality would stand in their way, since they both have full-time jobs.
Cindy said she and her husband immersed themselves in the ins and outs of growing wine grapes. They attended classes, researched vineyards online, asked questions and cultivated relationships with respected winemakers across the region. Their son Tyson even researched family genealogy and found a relative in a grape-growing area of France with whom he conversed primarily through social media to glean advice. Back on the farm, the Fillenworths had their soil tested and decided five years ago that it was time to grow some grapes. It wasn’t easy. They struggled (Continues on page 3)
Alan and Cindy Fillenworth’s vineyard is in its fifth year of operation.
Addie, and her mother, Heather Fillenworth, prune vines.
Farm Indiana is a monthly publication of AIM Media Indiana.
Publisher Chuck Wells Editor Doug Showalter
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