Indianapolis is renowned for several things, especially its sporting heritage, from the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hall Of Fame Museum where you can tour the famous race track through to the Pacers basketball team and the Colts Football team. Until recently, however, it has not been widely recognized for its many wineries. The opening of the Gaia Wines Contemporary Winery in 1996 has sought to change this state of affairs, bringing the art of the winemaker squarely to the Indiana area.

As Indiana’s 19th winery, Gaia has needed to fit in to its surroundings, whilst creating its own niche in the marketplace. Nestled centrally in the up market historic gallery and theater district on Massachusetts Avenue, just 2 minutes walk from the exclusive luxury Conrad Hotel, the company has needed to quickly gain a high class reputation in order to suitably fit into the area. In the short time since it set up, Indiana’s newest winery has succeeded spectacularly by managing to create 14 new award winning wines, introducing tours, wine tasting, as well as providing meeting rooms and hosting private functions.

Gaia Wines is owned and run by Angee Walberry and Margaret Broderick, making it the only solely woman-owned winery in the United States, and upholds an ideal to provide an enjoyable and educational winery experience within a contemporary, urban environment.

Margaret Broderick believes, “If we, as a winery, are going to succeed it is vital that we educate and make more Americans aware of the benefits and pleasures of wine.”

With gifts and accessories, wine appreciation classes, and additional entertainment such as Sunday Jazz and comedy shows, as well as monthly specials, this small winery fits nicely into the growing wine tasting scene which has begun to emerge over the past few years.

Other highly recommended wineries worth visiting in Indiana include the Chateau Thomas Winery and the Easley Winery, with both offering free tasting sessions and regular guided tours, as well as meeting rooms, events and activities.

Although often not widely recognised outside the state, the Indiana soil and climate provide great growing wine conditions, especially for the ever popular and dependable Cabernet Sauvignon grape varietal. The strength of these wines has however now gradually started to be noted by the wider vintner community, with the Easley Winery recently receiving a well deserved Gold Medal for their lively Cabernet “packed with fruity overtones and black currant aromas”, although some of their sweet blush wines are also definitely worth a taste to see what the region can truly provide in the way of rich vibrant tastes.

Though it may not currently be as widely regarded as California’s Napa Valley for the consistent quantity, quality and depth of the wines produced, Indiana is certainly an up and coming region with some forward looking producers, who are managing to create some interesting wines which deserve to be taken seriously, and are well worth visiting if you get the chance.

Andrew Regan is an online journalist who enjoys socialising at his local Edinburgh rugby club.

Do you know that Beijing, Xian, Guilin and Hong Kong are the most visited cities in China?

A lot of people refer it as the ‘golden route’ or ‘presidential route’ after Bill Clinton visited these cities in 1998.

Certainly the golden route has a good combination of everything: great historical heritages, beautiful landscape, delicious Chinese food, great shopping and so on.

Best time to visit China is spring and autumn when China has beautiful weather and fewer tourists.

If you are a first-time visitor to China, the golden route is your top pick. You would need at least two weeks to complete the tours.

Beijing – you would need at least four nights to complete what you need to see and do.

Great Wall of China – the longest man-made architecture on earth. This should be your number one destination in Beijing.

Forbidden City – the former palaces and offices of Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is currently a museum with countless treasures.

Summer Palace – the most well preserved royal resort of Qing Dynasty.

Temple of Heaven is the symbol of Beijing. Ming and Qing emperors worshipped Heaven here.

Please do include a hutong tour in order to have an old Beijing feel. After all, don’t forget a Beijing duck feast.

Tip: Beijing travel requires a lot of walking. Please be prepared for it.

Xian – everyone should visit Xian at least once in life, Chinese and foreigners alike. Spend three nights here is necessary to cover the most important sightseeing.

Xian has been a capital city for 13 dynasties, totaling 1,100 years. It was the world’s most prosperous city in Tang Dynasty, 1300 years ago.

The Terra Cotta Warriors is a full-scale replication of the Qin Dynasty army. There is no other place in the world you can see a life-size army of over 2,000 years old.

Banpo Neolithic village is a famous site of 6,000 years old which has typical features of a matriarchal society. You’ll also see clues of ancient burial, marriages, creative tools and artifacts.

In Xian, don’t forget to go for a dumpling feast which usually goes with a first class entertainment show of Tang Dynasty music and dance.

Guilin is ranked second on China’s list of top 10 tourists’ destinations. It has beautiful landscape integrated with fabulous countryside. Make sure you won’t miss the Reed Flute Cave, the Crown Cave and some of the beautiful peaks.

Don’t forget to make a day trip to Yangshuo where the best hills and waters are. Go there on a Li River cruise and return by bus. If you choose to stay overnight, you would be able to watch the spectacular ‘Liu Sanjie’ performance, which takes place on the Li River. Yangshuo is truly a place for you to relax and enjoy.

In Guilin, make sure to go for a rice noodle feast. Or you can just eat it as a street food at

I was a little paralysed over the phenomena, which had suddenly developed in the region by the tsunami tidal waves.

But I took firm hold of my mind and started to speak to people as to what we could do for those who had been affected.

I started to phone all my friends who are in influential positions and one was Karu Jayasuriya, a former minister of the Sri Lankan Government for Power & Energy and the Deputy Leader of the main Opposition United National Party.

I knew him since he was the Mayor of Colombo.

I asked him for urgent help for the Mullaitivu area where at least 4000 – 5000 people had died.

I had visited that area a number of times when I was an officer at CARE International in the war-torn period.

Mr. Jayasuriya said Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, a former Minister for Refugees and Resettlement was coordinating the Party’s Northern relief mission.

When I contacted Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, he showed a great interest and told me there was a German NGO unloading plane load of goods and medicines from Germany to distribute among the tsunami affected people.

He told he was planning to visit to North and asked me to coordinate with the Northern Relief Mission.

As the Mullaitivu region was under LTTE control, I spoke to Thaya Master, the LTTE media spokesman and a member of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat.

The Peace Secretariat was formed after the Ceasefire Agreement was signed by then Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE’s leader Vellupillai Prabakaran.

I finalized with him the arrangements for our visit which would take place in a couple of days time regarding the accommodation for visiting German team.

Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene asked me to visit where the plane-bound cargo containers were being sorted for various tsunami-affected areas in different shipments.

When I visited there I was surprised, there were no labourers, only the German intern students were sorting out and packing goods and medicines.

The following morning we were bound on our northern mission, which recalled my days in the CARE International nearly a decade ago as an officer in the UNHCR funded micro projects to assist locally displaced people by the on-going war.

It was so hard to accept an offer to work in a war-torn area leaving my career at a consulting firm, which was headed by Dr. C. Perumal Pillai, a retired Senior Official at the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization.

There were many things I gained at Dr. Pillai’s consulting firm.

While on my fund-raising missions, I met the CEO of Colombo-based Deutsch Bank.

He invited me very cordially for a discussion and that was my second encounter with Germans.

I explained to him the mission of the NGO, an affiliate of the consultancy firm and its various activities.

After he listened to the facts he offered a substantial amount as donation within a few minutes of our meeting.

My first experience with German generosity and kindness nearly a decade ago has gone a long way and when I joined with the German relief mission it once again evoked memories in me.

As I traveled with Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, he introduced me to the German team in Dambulla, a sleepy town in the central part of the Island.

The first meeting itself helped me a lot to make friendlier encounter with many of the students.

I couldn’t meet them the previous day, as they were busy unloading and sorting out goods.

I met Dietmar Doring, the founder Director of the Asian – German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP) which was responsible for the shipment of the plane load of goods and medicines from Germany.

I spoke to Ramige, a veteran German documentary filmmaker and his team.

We have reassessed our plans once again and moved towards the Northern frontiers.

Our six-vehicle convoy was moving in the Alpha-9 highway, which was famous when the military operation was in full swing some years ago.

While I was traveling with the German Praktikum (Internship) students, I was wondering again as to what motivated these young students to serve the affected masses in far away destinations in Asia.

The same question assailed my mind a decade ago when I met Maura Barry, then Area Director for Kilinochchi for the CARE International at the first interview at the Colombo head office.

I asked her what made her to leave New York, the world’s busiest and technology savvy city to Sri Lanka and especially to Kilinochchi, a war-torn area and the Administrative capital of the LTTE, which was so vulnerable to any aerial attacks.

Her answer was more to analyse than to accept the human instinct to help other wherever they were from.

Rajkumar Kanagasingam is author of a fascinating book on German memories in Asia and you can explore more about the book and the author at AGSEP