It’s unique at Chateau de Pique.
The facility at 6361 N. County Road 760E, Seymour, grows its own grapes for wine, brews its own beer and makes hard cider.
The tasting room offers an opportunity to sample before you buy or rent for a small event, and there’s a patio outside the front door.
There also are outdoor and indoor venues that can be used for weddings, and the large tent can accommodate a wedding, party or other gathering.
The plan — hopefully in 2023 — is to get started on a recreational vehicle park with cabins.
All of this is right here in Jackson County.
“You can’t beat sitting out here and having a glass of wine just to watch the sun go down. There’s nowhere else like this in Seymour,” General Manager Todd Storey said. “In that tent, my wife and I sit up there all the time in the summer and late fall and you will never see a prettier sunset. It’s just unreal. It’s neat.”
With the holidays coming up, Storey said Chateau de Pique can be rented for Christmas parties. The tasting room inside the old two-story barn seats up to 125 and is available year-round, so it also could be used for group meetings, bridal showers, birthday parties and more.
“It’s a small, intimate venue, not a big venue, so smaller crowds,” he said.
The room also has an area to sample the varieties of wine and beer and also buy bottles of wine. Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.
The white wines (Estate Chardonel and Estate Vignoles) and red wines (Estate Cabernet Franc and Estate Chambourcin) came off of Chateau de Pique’s vineyard.
“We actually have eight different varieties. Right now, we only have four bottled,” Storey said. “We’re getting ready to bottle the rest of them, but these are grown here, made here.”
The winery also has two semi-sweet wines and nine sweet wines.
“We bring in different ingredients and then make them our own,” Storey said.
Peach Bum is the best seller. It’s described as “sweet, peachy and delicious,” and Storey said it’s really popular in the summer during weddings.
“You may have a peach wine somewhere. Great. It won’t taste like ours. Ours won’t taste like theirs,” Storey said.
This time of year, Winter Welcome, a blend of strawberry and rhubarb, is popular.
“People love it,” Storey said.
Blackberry is very popular, too, but he said they are about to run out of it for the year.
“We will have more in the spring,” he said. “We’re getting ready to bottle 2020’s harvest, so we’ll hope to have that sitting here, going in there (the tasting room) and we hope to sell through that, and this time next year, we’ll do 2021’s harvest and bottle it. We’ll be harvesting 2023 but bottling 2021, so we’re always like a year and a half behind.”
Around Christmastime, Storey said the plan is to have two new ports. St. Croix is sweet, and Marquette is dry.
“We planted them four years ago, and it takes four or five years to get a crop, and for the first time ever, we’re going to have these bottled,” he said.
Chateau de Pique also has two of its own beers on top — pale ale and porter. Storey said they are trying to expand that, too.
Storey encourages people to stop by before they head out to a local restaurant.
“We want to be somewhere on your journey on a Friday night,” he said. “Start here and have a couple wines, enjoy yourself and then go out. There are plenty of establishments in Seymour to go eat. Go frequent them. We want to be partners with them. … Whether it’s the beginning of your night or the end of your night, I don’t care. You’re helping another business in Seymour. You’re helping all of us out.”
For those planning to get married in 2023, reservations are accepted for renting any of the venues on the property. The large tent opens in April and remains available through October.
For information, call 812-522-9296, email [email protected] or visit chateaudepique.com or facebook.com/cdpwinery.