If you aren’t hype for Daylily, you aren’t paying enough attention. I’ve already written two blogs about these wine wizards and their mission to change how people think and feel about local wine–Hoosier wine, in particular. Hint: I’m a fan. You would need to drive for hours if not days to find anybody even half as invested in biodynamic winemaking. So, here’s a third blog about them. The first was about visiting their property within the first year of their groundbreaking, which turned out to be all too fitting a word. The second was about a wine pairing dinner collaboration with Rune, Fort Wayne’s favorite neighborhood eatery. This one is about my trip to their currently wine-club-exclusive tasting events. Full disclosure, the wine club is no longer accepting new members and the tasting room is not yet open to the public, but that’s coming soon! For the time being, you might be able to get a sneak peak if you schedule an order for pickup at their location. If you just want to have a great conversation about natural wines, you can find them most Saturdays at Fort Wayne’s YLNI Farmers’ Market. Ask your local watering hole whether they have any Daylily wines until they say yes. Oh, and if after you finish reading this, you want to know more about what I’ve had to say about them, you are permitted–encouraged, even–to go dig through my back issues and catch up or even just refresh.
So why do I want you to get on board the Daylily hypetrain? There’s a ton of reasons but a lot of them boil down to one core tenet that pervades every sip: Daylily isn’t trying to make you forget where these wines come from. They’re not trying to make French Champagne or even a Californian Cab–their wines are distinctly Midwestern and they’re proud of their heritage. A visit to their tasting room does not ask you to suspend your disbelief and imagine that you’ve left Indiana; au contraire, the experience will ferry you to a more beautiful, more peaceful, and more welcoming Indiana than you have ever known. Somehow, the entire experience is simultaneously transportative and grounding–an accurate snapshot of this exact moment in time and space which nonetheless elevates the wines, the growers, the makers, and even the sippers and sharers.
Before I moved here, I didn’t think much of Indiana–it was less of a state and more of a black hole in my mind. Honestly, I saw it as a bitter angry red state without much to offer anyone–just cheap stale beer and sticky dive bar floors. (And not even the really fun kind of dive bar–the kind your uncle would frequent and talk sports or politics to bored old men with their eyes glazed over.) Ask me what Indiana tastes like and I’ll have to ask a clarifying question. Do you want to know what I thought it tasted like before I experienced Daylily or after? Before, I might have reached for impractical pork tenderloin sandwiches that don’t make much sense and cloyingly sweet wines with notes of previously chewed bubblegum or Pinesol–laced with Glyphosate. But now I know, even on bad days, that Indiana has more to offer than I previously believed–and you’ll find the kindest, softest, most considerate version of Indiana at Daylily Estates. Traipse the loamy earth where their young vines persevere despite the circumstances of reality and harsh Midwest winters. Have you ever thought about what clay tastes like? Earthy. Dusty. A flowerpot wet with rain; nothing like cleaning products or bubblegum from the underside of a table.
Imagine soil, harvest, weather, time, intellect, and love all marrying together in a beautiful symphony and then fermented until it’s all quaffably consumable. At Daylily, they capture these ephemeral things and bottle them–like magic. The wines they craft don’t just tell a story. That would be far too simple. They are more like a bookmark on a specific page of a specific chapter–highlighting a favorite paragraph where the words are perfect, the timing is just right, the topography is lush and beautiful, there’s a reassuring promise of a happy ending in sight, and suddenly life in Indiana makes complete sense. These wines aren’t just ‘Midwest Nice.’ They are kind, soft, considerate, dripping with good intentions and–perhaps most importantly–love. And that’s because the people behind these wines are not just ‘Midwest Nice.’ They understand that hospitality is so much more than a handshake and a smile while exchanging cash for product. I want you to try all of Daylily’s wines; because I truly believe there’s something for everyone in their repertoire and that each and every bottle they produce may well be everything to someone.
But if you really care about wine, I encourage you to do the following: go buy a bottle of Daylily’s Brianna Pét Nat as well as a bottle of their newer, non-sparkling Brianna. Pour yourself a small glass of each. Be a bit pretentious: give them a swirl, a really good sniff or three, and sip them like you’re a scientist about to discover a new galaxy in the droplets of these wines. Then we can talk about how one winemaker managed to craft two vastly contrasting wines with the same grape: one super lush, playful, vibrant, and juicily ripe, the other exquisite, elegant, and underripe in the most refined way imaginable.
While Daylily strives to create biodynamic wines–clean wines for those who don’t know the lingo–they ardently shy away from greenwashing their brand. This doesn’t stop the tasting room from feeling like a cozy, quaint, naturally designed third space. With a maximum capacity of twelve people, the tasting room at Daylily Estates will never be an overly crowded, loud, or impersonal experience. The dark blue limewashed walls, hand-crafted wood tabletops, and lovingly built limestone bar create an intimate, earthy, warm backdrop for sipping these regeneratively farmed wines that are birthed into existence with an abundance of TLC. Though unfinished at this date, and only open to wine club members for the time being, the tasting room is giving vibes of Bar Chenin on a slow night. For those who haven’t been to this recently James Beard nominated Detroit hotspot–it’s the fucking hippest wine bar and it’s almost unimaginably tiny. When packed with a shitload of people, it’s a party spot–but what about when it’s not busy? (If it’s ever not busy.) Daylily Estates tasting room is the answer for people like me who appreciate the warmth, artistry, and vibes of hip little spots that prioritize really good wine without shirking on ambiance but hate being anywhere that’s too peopley. Though they currently only have a small tasting room, there are big plans for an additional dining area, landscaping and patio, snacks from Rowdy Rooster, and even eventually a full kitchen–because what’s a little sip without a little nosh to go with it. The hope is that, come August, they’ll be able to open their doors to the general public. Let’s all mark our calendars and keep our fingers crossed.
Plonk & Pleasure 
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