Meet Our Team

Our Winemakers

Both of our owners, Dan and Donna, come from German wine-making families. Dan’s ancestors were also barrel-makers. Legend has it that his great-grandfather could change the stave in a barrel without losing a drop of wine.

As they both grew up with wine, they enjoyed visiting wineries around the country and were first introduced to serious wine-making when Dan’s father suggested they attend a meeting of the Indiana Winegrower’s Guild. Dan’s parents live in Tell City, Indiana, 30 miles south of the winery. The guild is made up of commercial wine-growers, Indiana winery owners and home wine makers. They represent the Indiana wine industry and lobby on behalf of wine interests in the state. They provide education, in partnership with the Indiana Wine Grape Council on growing grapes, fermenting wines, and marketing of the industry. The substantial support of the wine industry by the Guild, the Council and Purdue University along with a longer and more favorable growing season convinced the Adams to move to Indiana to start their winery.

Donna

Originally Donna Lee Mittelstadt, Donna was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and has eight brothers and sisters. Her German heritage was evident in her father’s love of home wine-making. She studied community development at the UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee and met her husband, Dan during her first job after graduate school in a suburb of Chicago.

Dan

Dan is a graduate of Indiana State University where he studied chemistry, biology and public health and he holds a Juris Doctorate from John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Dan and Donna moved to Wisconsin after living in Chicago where Dan joined the staff of the Wollershein Winery in Prairie du Sac.

In addition to Donna’s job as the Director of the Perry County Chamber of Commerce and Dan’s job as the Director of the Perry Country Park and Recreation Department, they were blessed with the birth of their second daughter, one month earlier than planned! Danielle Lee, born September 19, 2001, 6 lbs 14 oz, 18.5 inches, joins her 7-year-old sister, Isabel Delia as one of the greatest grape-lovers east of the Mississippi!