Purdue’s PROPEL Team Visits The Rejoicing Vine to Explore More Sustainable Indiana Wine

Digging in the dirt to uncover improvements in sustainability for Indiana wineries

Exploring Sustainable Indiana Wines

We recently had the pleasure of welcoming a brilliant group of researchers from Purdue University’s PROPEL Lab to our Indiana vineyard, where sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. The visit was part of the PROPEL Lab’s ongoing mission to enhance food security, safety, nutrition, and sustainability for the food industry—including Indiana wine.

Led by Dr. Deandrae L. W. Smith, the Purdue PROPEL (Product and Process Engineering Lab) team is focused on building a more sustainable future for food science. Learn more about their important work in the link above.

During their visit to our regeneratively farmed vineyard in Indianapolis, the PROPEL team got an up-close look at what it means to produce wine with minimal environmental impact. We toured our Indianapolis vineyard and sparkling winery discussing the grape growing and winemaking processes along with special challenges facing Indiana vineyards. From there we discussed strategies for reducing waste throughout the winemaking cycle—from grape to glass. Probably the biggest surprise (to me as well) was just how much life was in a handful of our compost - a welcome sight for someone on mission to CULTIVATE LIFE!

Some of the topics we explored together included:

• Alternative uses for grape pomace (the leftover skins and seeds after pressing)

• Composting and soil regeneration in Midwestern viticulture

• The benefits and challenges of wine kegging as a packaging solution

  
  

As the only winery in Indiana growing grapes using regenerative farming practices, we were thrilled to share our approach with one of the state’s most forward-thinking research groups. 

On top of all the things we're doing, we were excited to learn about Ph.D. student Felicitas Tuku Ewunsoh's vision to collaborate with Indiana wineries like The Rejoicing Vine for her dissertation. Her research aims to increase the value of wine pomace—a nutrient-rich byproduct of winemaking—using innovative radiant heating technologies. Wine pomace contains valuable bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, flavonoids, and dietary fiber, which have potential applications in food, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals. These compounds include anthocyanins which give wine their color, I touched on those and their magical color changing powers in our Earth Month Cocktail recipe: Purple Rain.

As an aside, I have to admit even as a self-proclaimed super nerd, I had a hard time keeping up with the PROPEL team as they discussed all their amazing projects. Guess it's time to hit the books!

Collaborations like this with Purdue University help bridge the gap between academic research and on-the-ground innovation—improving Indiana's position in sustainable food and beverage production. Check out our past collaborations with Purdue including

• Lecturing on Sparkling Wine Production for Dr. Chrisitan Butzke's Wine Appreciation Class

• Discussing Regenerative Farming with Purdue's Horticulture students

We’re excited about the potential partnership and to see what this project uncovers. Together, we’re fermenting new ideas (pun intended) to make Indiana wine production cleaner, greener, and more resilient.

Stay tuned by subscribing to our newsletter as we continue working with Purdue’s PROPEL Team to push the boundaries of sustainability to make more Sustainable Indiana Wine.