By Pamela J. Spence (reprinted with permission from the Fall 1986 AMA Newsletter) 

For many years, brothers Ken and Jim Schuchter have been successful truck farmers. Since 1970, however, the family-owned operation has expanded to become the second largest vineyard in Ohio. 

"In truth, I was at a party and had too much wine to drink," says Ken Schuchter. "I decided that we could make wine ourselves here at the farm." 

Undaunted by the oft-quoted phrase "you can't make good wines in Ohio," Schuchter has won numerous awards with his wines, particularly his mead. 

Valley Vineyard Ken Schuchter believes in making a mead that sells"Over the last ten years we have taken our mead to at least fifteen competitions," he says, "and it has consistently won awards for us. 

The crowning achievement for Valley Vineyard Mead came this past February when it was judged Best in the Show–Sweet Wines at the Ohio State University Wine Short Course. 

"It's the toughest competition we enter," he says. "We don't have much trouble at the Eastern wine competitions but at this one they have out-of-state judges and they don't want to favor Ohio wines. They probably judge us harder for being an Ohio wine. But we won a silver medal which is the highest award they'll give for a sweet wine." 

The inspiration to make Mead came from former Ohio governor Jim Rhodes. "Governor Rhodes was very instrumental in the Lebanon (Ohio) Honey Festival," says Schuchter. "He suggested that we make honey wine as part of the festival. As it turned out, we couldn't sell the wine there because of tax regulations. We put it on the market here at the winery and it immediately became a good seller. Now we ship it all over the country." 

"Most of our advertising is by word of mouth or from publicity about our wine festivals and awards. Awards don't make sales but the publicity always helps. The mead really caught on with our customers. If they have it once, they'll order it again." 

Honey for the mead is purchased from Deer Creek Apiary in London, Ohio. 'They have given us consistent quality over the years," he says, "with the pure' white clover has been so successful – why argue with success? We thought about making a sparkling mead, but again, what we have sells so well, we haven't felt the need to diversify." 

Valley Vineyard Mead is aged for one and a half years. Schuchter says they use  stainless steel     rather than wooden barrels. “Stainless steel is much easier. With wood you've got too much loss through evaporation and too much change in flavor. You can't get a consistent tasting product.” 

“The only problem we've ever had in our mead making occurred about seven years ago. For awhile the honey we mixed into the mead for sweetening would separate. I don’t know what caused it and we haven't had that problem in a long time." 

“The formula for Valley Vineyards Mead a closely guarded secret. We bought it from an old German fellow who had a winery around here years ago. And I'll tell you the truth – we keep that formula in a locked safety deposit box. Over the years I've helped several  other wineries get set up. I tell them, ‘I'll tell you anything you want to know except how I make my wine.’” 

“Our mead is very sweet, a dessert wine:. You always, hear that Americans like a  dry white wine,  but tit isn’t so. We find that the general public likes a sweeter wine." 

"The old grandfather of wine tasters, Leon Adams, once told me that maybe one percent of the wine drinking public knows and Iikes a fine dry white wine.  He said to me, ‘What you really want to do is make a wine that sells.' That's the philosophy that works for us, We make a wine for the other ninety-nine percent. We make a wine that sells.” 

“You have to sweeten up the mead. If you drink it straight out of the barrel, it’s really terrible tasting stuff. They say that's what made the Huns so mean; they drank  unsweetened mead.” 

“If you want a good wine, you have to start with a good product.  And, of course, you need a good maker to keep things moving along. But let's face it, the only true winemaker is the Good Lord Himself."

Vicky Rowe
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