By Anna Skinner
Noah Herron originally wanted to bring a brewery to Westfield, but when his tastes deviated more toward wine, so did his building preferences.
Three years ago, Herron began making his own wine, doing experiments and testing different batches. Of course, his biochemistry degree from Indiana University aided in his efforts, too.
“I’ve always wanted to open a brewery, and I got to the point to start thinking about opening one, but I started moving towards wine and there’s not a winery in Westfield,” he said. “It’s a good market to hit, and I love wine. It’s a hobby of mine, and I love it, so I don’t really look at it as being work.”
Herron is excited to put his biochemistry degree to use, as well, with his work in Urban Vines. He owns Urban Farmer, 120 E. 161st St., as well, and said not much biochemistry goes into those processes.
“That’s one thing that’s nice with the winery. I’ve been starting Urban Farmer and haven’t had too much use with the biochemistry degree, but with the winery I’ll be able to start using it to find the balance of the wines and the sugars,” he said. “There’s a lot of chemistry going on behind with making a well-balanced wine.”
Construction recently began on the winery, and Herron expects the building to be finished in December. Once the building is completed and all equipment is moved into it, Herron has to be approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. He doesn’t have any doubts about not being approved, though.
The wine takes six months to two years to age, and Herron will begin his own vineyard across three acres behind the tasting room and winery, as well.
“Hopefully in December is what we are aiming for to have our winery license, and then we can start making wine,” he said. “We may have some of the faster aging wines available late spring to early summer. We will probably open in early summer and have limited availability of certain wines and slowly over the next year start having a full stock of what we want to offer.”
With Indiana climate, it’s not possible to grow dry red grapes to make cabernets or merlots. Herron plans on offering two sweet- to medium-range white wines, one sweet red and one dry red created with hybrid grapes. He also will receive grapes and juices shipped to him to make his own dry reds.
“I really do like dry reds, they’re my favorite, but since it takes three or four years for a vineyard to be established, we will be bringing in grapes and juices from New York and California, so we will have dry reds, merlots and cabs and the sweet stuff,” Herron said. He also wants to try meads, honey wine, blackberry wine, strawberry wine and even tomato wine.
The building will be 4,000 square feet with a tasting room, a bar and a back patio that overlooks the vineyard.
“I think we have an awesome location and great wine is another important factor,” Herron said. “Westfield is growing at a really fast pace, so I think the need for more entertainment or restaurants or places to relax and have a drink are needed. Westfield has younger demographics, and I think it’s a great age group for a winery.”
There are no other wineries or vineyards in Westfield. For more, visit urban-vines.com/about.html.
Get to know Noah Herron
Age: 33.
Family: Wife, Emily, 2-year-old daughter Olivia, and a son on the way, Carter.
Favorite wine: Merlot.
Hobbies: Hiking, going to the lake, spending time with friends and taking care of his daughter.
Urban Vines: 303 E. 161st St.
Behind the tomato wine
“Tomato wine sounds not that delicious, and I don’t know if it is because I’ve never had it, but right now we are harvesting a bunch of our tomatoes for Urban Farmer and all we want is the seed,” Owner Noah Herron said about making a tomato wine for his new winery and vineyard, Urban Vines. “So I didn’t want to throw away the flesh of the tomato, and one thing that popped up as a solution was tomato wine.”
Herron said tomato wine is interesting to make since there are so many different kinds of tomatoes.
Depending on the tomatoes used, the wine should taste like a sweet, blush wine with a slight tomato background.
