LAOTTO, Ind. — While it may seem as if the Country Heritage Winery & Vineyard sprouted pretty quickly in a farm field north of Fort Wayne, the business was actually years in the making.

Jennifer and Jeremy Lutter opened the winery in April 2011 in the southwestern corner of DeKalb County near LaOtto. The couple also owns Blueberry Acres, a regional U-pick operation. They raise honeybees, with 850 hives, and grow corn and soybeans.

Over the years, the Lutters sold their extra fruit to wineries and as they toured those facilities, the idea for their own winery and vineyard was born. They researched the winemaking process for five years before anything happened, Jennifer Lutter said. It took 18 months to get various local, state and federal permits for the building and the liquor license.

“We originally purchased Blueberry Acres 11 years ago so that I could be a stay-at-home mom,” she explained. “As we looked at the various wineries, it just kind of snowballed from there. We talked to people who grew grapes. We took soil samples and bought grape plants based on what would grow well in our soil and in the climate here.”

The Lutters have seven acres of grapes at the winery and another 23 at their home. They grow several varieties including Traminette, Cayuga White, Vignoles and Concord. They first planted grapes at the winery site in May 2011 and harvested for the first time in mid-August this year. They also purchase grapes for their dry red wines from California and for their white wines from upstate New York.

They make all their own wine with the help of a winemaker. From the time the grapes are picked until the wine is ready to serve can take from six months to a couple of years, depending on the variety, Lutter said. About 2.5 pounds of grapes are needed to make one bottle of wine.

The number of varieties of wine they offer fluctuates and as of mid-August, they had 24 available, Lutter said. Last year, they sold 7,000 gallons of wine, she noted.

“Every year, that should go up,” Lutter said. “Each year, we’d like it to be 50 percent higher than the year before. Our longer-term goals are to wholesale to smaller restaurants in the area and maybe to open a tasting bar in Fort Wayne somewhere.”

In addition to grape-based wines, the couple makes wines from fruits such as blueberries, red raspberries, peaches and apples. The couple grows their own blueberries and red raspberries and gets other fruits from people they know and trust, Lutter said.

The winery, situated on busy Indiana Route 3, drew a lot of attention from passersby long before it opened, she said.

“This is a small farm community and everyone knows what you’re doing,” she said, with a smile. “But they didn’t know if this was going to be a church or a stable, or a factory. It was probably better advertising than actually advertising. People were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what it was.”

The vineyard and winery are on land that has been in her husband’s family for more than 100 years. Despite all the research and planning before they opened, Lutter said they are still experiencing some growing pains.

“The biggest challenge our first year was that we didn’t make enough wine,” she said. “We had trouble keeping the wine on the shelf. And, when we built the building, we wondered what we would do with all this space, but there are times that we’re packed. We truly expected it to take a while to take off. We expected it to take longer than it did.”

The number of wineries in Indiana and the region has increased steadily since the mid-1970s, according to data from The National Assoc. of American Wineries. The Hoosier state had six wineries in 1975 and 62 in 2010. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee had a total of 70 wineries in 1975 and 671 in 2010. Nationally, there were 579 wineries in 1975 and 6,672 in 2010.

“I think this goes back to people liking the idea of buying locally grown products,” Lutter said. “In the past, wine wasn’t so prevalent in this area. There hadn’t been many wineries in this part of the country.”

The weather this summer forced the Lutters to irrigate with a drip line, something they normally don’t do. “Grapes kind of thrive a bit in dry weather,” she said. “But with the drought, we needed to irrigate this year.”

Country Heritage sells the driest of red wines to the sweetest of dessert wines and everything in between, Lutter stated. “You have to offer the traditional wines such as merlots and chardonnays. We say that we love to make dry wines, but the sweet wines pay the bills.”

The Lutters try to encourage customers to explore different wines by offering free tastings. A customer may try their wine of the month plus five other choices. Servers are also trained to suggest which particular wines might go with various meals or events.

In addition to wine, they also sell locally made chocolates, pickles, jams and honey. Country Heritage is at Indiana 3 and DeKalb County Road 68. For hours, a list of available wines and upcoming events, visit www.country heritagewinery.com