Butler Winery & Vineyard

When it comes to LHBS, Amy and the crew at Butler have an incredible amount of knowledge along with bounds of talented, yet humble, experience in brewing and wine making. The staff is always incredibly helpful and willing to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service. Plus their range of brewing and wine making ingredients and equipment totally rocks! Always an absolute pleasure and fabulous learning experience! Definitely the very best LHBS in the Indy area bar none!

What follows is mostly about the homebrew section of the Winery location on College Ave.
The wine is good, though tends to be more sweet than I generally enjoy. (I’m a dry red wine kinda gal.)
The homebrew shop, though? Amazing. I began homebrewing when I lived in Indiana and Butler was my LHBS. I always found the staff to be super knowledgeable without mansplaining (a hazard of being a lady into homebrewing). And Amy? Holy cow is she great. Probably the most knowledgeable person in all of Bloomington w/​r/​t troubleshooting homebrewing projects (of both the beer and wine varieties), according to personal experience and also the opinion of everyone in the Hop Jockeys homebrewing club. The selection of grains and hops was always plentiful and fresh; always had heaps on the sale rack; and had great kits assembled, at a reasonable price, for folks who were starting out. Couldn’t recommend this place more; hope my new LHBS in Albuquerque is half as great as Butler.

Wine guy: «Is your group a bachelorette party?»
Us: «Nah, we’re just a bunch of chicks who like to rally, drink wine and hit the farmers market on Saturday mornings for the heck of it.»
He was right. We did look like a bachelorette party on wheels with all eight of us filing in to the cozy tasting room midday. Who says a friend has to get married for a group of ladies to have an obnoxious amount of fun?
I have visited the actual Butler vineyard, so it was nice to mix it up this time with a tasting room visit. (Note: the actual vineyard is quite gorgeous — I highly recommend a visit). The price tag of six wine tastings for $ 3 didn’t hurt either. We had plans to visit a BYOB Turkish eatery for lunch so the tasting served as a fun hands-​on opportunity to select the perfect wine for our pide, baklava, hummus and red lentil soup.
Mr.WineGuy hostess was friendly and open to answering the plethora of questions our group was pouring on to him. During our visit, we were the only ones in the store so it ended up being a VIP/​private tasting of sorts. Speaking of which, this location is not only a great place to purchase and taste wine but a handy home brewers’ store with an extensive inventory.
I’ll admit that I’m not keen on most Indiana wines, but I did enjoy the Traminette (Indiana grape) and ended up buying a bottle for home/​lunch. The tasting room offered 4 dry wine options and several sweet options ranging from apple and blackberry to two dessert offerings (only one of these is available to taste at an extra cost = $ 1).

I have been to both the winery and the tasting room. Since this check in is for the tasting room, thats where i will b focusing this review.
I have been going to the tasting room in town for years. Its such a convenient location. It doesnt have the pain of parking downtown but it is still downtown. I can walk there as I live close by, but when driving was necessary there is always street parking… or CVS parking next door.
The price of their wine is reasonable (~$ 10 per bottle). You can purchase on Sundays which is an added +.
They also are completely stocked with beef and wine making supplies. Dont know how to make beer or wine? They have reasonably priced classes… which I’ve been meaning to do.

A cute little winery to visit. The directions might seem like they take some time but the drive is through the forest and is nice — coming from Bloomington, the Old SR 37 takes a bit longer but is a better drive than New 37. It also isn’t far at all from Musgrave Orchard so you can make a nice time of stopping at both locations.
Bits and Pieces: 1) Handicap accessible 2) Large parking lot that can accommodate many cars plus a bus 3) Credit cards are ok 4) Outdoor seating is better than indoor 5) I believe you can bring children but they have to stay in the indoor seating section or in the patio seating area. 6) Restrooms are all-​ages accessible 6) There are a few foods available but I would call and check what they have — it is mostly cheese, crackers, etc.
Room for Improvement: 1) Décor — little outdated, something more modern and less grandma’s kitchen would be better — it would make it more friendly to male guest, not to mention a wider age demographic. 2) Smoking — this is outside of the city limits so smoking is still allowed on the patio — very off-​putting to the majority of us — makes my group want to leave anytime somebody lights up while we are trying to enjoy (meaning — being able to taste/​smell) our wine. 3) Grounds — the grounds are one of the best features of the main Butler winery site — some picnic tables around the pond or off the patio and near the vines would be nice.
What they do so Right: 1) Sweet Wines — if you like sweet wines then this is the place for you — I am typically a dry wine drinker but I can’t knock a good dessert wine! 2) Grounds — I have seen a bald eagle out there twice! Plus it is just such a nice place to enjoy sitting outside with friends, but I would like more encouragement of exploring the grounds. 3) Group Friendly — they have been welcoming of groups — but I do recommend calling ahead if you will have any more than 6 or so, just so they won’t be overloaded.

Surprise, surprise the little one wins the Gold! As far as the Upland Tail goes, Butler Winery was my favorite. It was one of the smallest, but I wouldn’t call it small. I would call it quaint. A simple tasting room with traditional country décor, nothing over the top.
If Oliver’s was foie gras, this place would be a crusty croc of hearty mac and cheese! Comfort done right. The woman who prepared our tasting was so wonderful. She was super down to earth and answered any of our questions like we had known her for years.
The wines are moderately priced from $ 8-​$ 25 a bottle. I actually liked every wine I tasted and that doesn’t happen very often. They have a good variety of dry, sweet, dessert and fruit wines. After our tasting, we bought a bottle and we went outside on the back porch that overlooked the vineyard and the lake. The multi-​colored trees bounced off the lake like a mirror and the fog from the morning was still laying in between the vines. It was amazing. All of the grapes are Indiana grown, and if not from their vineyard, no more than an hour away. I would definitely recommend this for a Sunday afternoon.

Amazing little shop! I loved the tasting room, with a great selection and a WONDERFUL staff. The gentleman who helped us was a total peach and was very fun to talk to. He even helped up plan out what to buy, and gave us a cold bottle since we were going to be sneaking booze into our teetotaler hotel.
I have never had such perfect red wine come from the Midwest and I am definitely a convert to the Church of Butler… I just wish we lived closer to so we could come here all the time.
A definite highlight on the trip to the Heart of Darkness (as I think of our trip to Indiana as the equivalent.)

My husband’s family and I are big Uplands winery fans, completing passports for the past 3 or 4 years. Butler is always a stop we look forward to. Unfortunately, my husband was not as impressed with the dry reds as he has been in the past. Still, the wine is very good, and the employees are always super helpful and friendly. On our last trip, I happily bought two bottles of Vineyard White as well as two yummy Ice Wine scented candles. They had some burning when we walked in, and I was sold — yum!

AWESOME vinyard!!! Out in the middle of nowhere but cool place and views. The wine I wanted they were out of, and the second wine they recommended they ended up beign out of too… so that was a bummer cause they werent in stores either and I was only in town for a bit and trying to get them for my mom as a gift. But I’m sure they would have been fabulous like everything else. Cool place though, definitely make the little trek.

Oliver is outstanding, but Butler is better!
Super cute wine tasting room. Family run. The wines are amazing, and mostly (if not all) grown in Indiana. Everything there is to love about great local wine.
Favs:
Indiana White — must must must have
Blueberry — yummy and harvested from Plymouth, IN