Brown County Winery

from Jan./Feb. 2023 OUR BROWN COUNTY

Brown County Roads

~by Paige Langenderfer

**Dave and Cynthia Schrodt. courtesy photos**

I decided to make wines that were very simple, fun, country wines. They tasted good, were fun to drink, and had a wide ranging appeal.

—Dave Schrodt

As they approach their winery’s 40th anniversary, Dave and Cynthia Schrodt look forward to handing the reins of the business to their sons.

Dave started Brown County Winery in a rented garage in 1985.

“We were too poor to have our own garage, so we had to rent one,” Dave said. “It was a real struggle at first. We didn’t have a lot of resources. Everything we had, we put towards the business.”

Another challenge the winery faced was a strong “anti-alcohol” outlook in the community.

“There was a lot of resistance from a lot of different levels,” Dave said. “There was a letter to the editor in the newspaper every week about it. That made it really tough, but we made it through—I think because we weren’t a bar and we didn’t serve by the glass.”

In the rented garage, Dave produced five varieties of wine the first year.

“I was an experienced winemaker and I felt like there was an opportunity in Brown County to make wine and sell it,” he said. “I was one of only nine wineries operating in Indiana at the time. I could not believe that you could make a living doing something that was so much fun.”

**Jonas and Ben Schrodt at the Gnaw Bone location. photo by Paige Langenderfer**

Dave based his wine list from the fact that most people from the region were not familiar with wine.

“I decided to make wines that were very simple, fun, country wines. They tasted good, were fun to drink, and had a wide ranging appeal,” he said. “People didn’t quite know what to do with wine, so we began offering free tastings. They would say it was the best wine they had ever tasted.”

Very early on, Dave took an interest in making a variety of fruit wines, including blackberry, plum, and cranberry.

“Not all of those first decisions were good ones, but we still sell several of the first wines,” Dave said. “The fruit wines became our flagship. People love them because they are flavorful and aromatic.”

Experimenting with different flavors has been one of Dave’s favorite parts of the job.

“It’s fun to try new things and see what people think,” he said. “We really get instant feedback and can change things so that our products are what people want. And I tend to agree with them most of the time.”

Cynthia started working full time at the winery in 1994.

“We were making enough sales that we could afford for me to quit my job,” Cynthia said. “I took over the business side of things. He was in the back making wine and I was in the front selling it.”

Cynthia said the customers have been her favorite part of the job.

“We get people from all over the United States and from different countries. We have customers who have been coming back for 25 years. It has been a lot of fun meeting people and connecting with them as they come back every year,” she said. “People are usually in a good mood because they are on vacation and wine is an easy sell to make.”

Cynthia said she believes there is one main reason people continue to come back.

“We want people to have a good experience every time they visit us. We try to make the wine tasting very approachable so that people feel comfortable,” she said. “We tell them to trust their taste buds.”

The winery has grown considerably from the days in the rented garage.

Dave and Cynthia built the current winery location in 2000 and have added to it twice since.

In 2021, the winery sold 30,000 gallons of wine. That is 150,000 bottles.

**Ben presents wine for a tasting. photo by Paige Langenderfer**

Cynthia continues to work in the office a few days a week, but Dave has handed over the reins of wine making to their son Jonas.

Jonas, 38, said he remembers helping his parents with the winery at a very young age.

“My job was bottling and it was much less automated than it is now,” he said. “It was fun, but it was work too.”

Jonas said his parents never pushed him and his brother Ben to take over the business.

“Coming back to the winery and working was always an option, but they didn’t push it on us,” he said. “They just supported us in whatever path we chose.”

Jonas said his dad was a great teacher.

“He was really great at making a consistent product and building relationships in the industry,” Jonas said. “He was also very good at explaining the process and telling me why he did things a certain way. He is mostly retired, but I ask him for advice all the time. It really helps having that experienced adviser.”

Ben, 35, has taken over much of the office work, including payroll, taxes, and paying bills.

He also remembers bottling wine when he was very young.

“The winery is like two years older than me,” Ben said. “I basically grew up in the winery.”

After college and a 10-year career in the biomedical engineering industry, Ben said he was ready to go back to the winery.

“Being out in the world required me to move around a lot,” he said. “Coming back to the winery is more stable. Plus it feels cool to be helping run it now.”

Ben and Jonas agree that their parents built a strong, successful business and they hope to continue the legacy. While they hope to grow in some ways, they plan to keep most of the business the same.

“There are about a dozen wines on the list that have been there since almost the beginning and they will always be on the list,” Ben said. “One future goal we have is to expand distribution into Ohio and Kentucky.”

Currently, Brown County Winery wines are sold throughout the state of Indiana through distribution. The company has been shipping across the country since 2019.

The winery is located in Gnaw Bone, at 4520 State Road 46 E. There is also a downtown tasting room located at 47 E. Main Street in Nashville. Both locations are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information visit <browncountywinery.com>.