The first documented distillery of the modern era — and the county's first documented vines

2011 and after · SOUTH BEND (BOUNDARY); “FIRST” CARRIES “DOCUMENTED” THROUGHOUT

“First” in this article always carries “documented,” as the row requires. The first documented modern distillery in the county record reached is the Indiana Whiskey Company, 1115 W. Sample St., South Bend — the St. Joseph County distillery carried in the Indiana State Department of Agriculture's wine-and-brew agritourism listings (2019 booklet: “The Indiana Whiskey Company, 1115 W Sample St., South Bend, St. Joseph Co.”), a small-batch whiskey maker whose documented presence in the state listings is the earliest modern distilling seat found for this county; its founding is carried in the trade record to the early 2010s, and no earlier modern distillery for the county was found — the claim printed is exactly that: first documented, at the strength of the listings and directories searched, not first ever. It is a South Bend seat. Osceola, per art-58-9, has no distillery of any era.

The county's first documented vines, at the same discipline: Ironhand Vineyard, 1025 Northside Blvd., South Bend, is the county's documented vineyard-winery in the state listings (ISDA 2019) — a vineyard and winery on the St. Joseph River's north side in South Bend. No planting date for Ironhand's vines was established from open sources, so no “first vines by year” claim is printed; the documented fact is the vineyard's standing in the state record, and the planting-date settler is the vineyard's own record and the Indiana Wine Grape Council listings. No vineyard, winery or vines of any date were found seated in Osceola or Penn Township — the township's grapes, if any grow, grow as farm fruit, not as a documented wine planting.

Sources: ISDA, Indiana Wine & Brew agritourism booklet (2019): Indiana Whiskey Company, 1115 W. Sample St.; Ironhand Vineyard, 1025 Northside Blvd. — both South Bend, St. Joseph Co.; searches stated in the article.