Lake Erie (PA/NY) Wine Trail Review

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

PAwinedude

Seed Separator
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
156
Reaction score
0
I spent last weekend (Labor Day) visiting wineries/vineyards located along Lake Erie, PA. Previously, I have visited AVA's, wineries in Sonoma/Napa. Oregon, Virginia as well as North Carolina.

Places Visited:

Blueberry Sky Farm Winery (fruit wines...unremarkable)

Johnson Estate Winery (first, oldest winery in NY...great whites/chancellor)

Noble Winery (NY winery, largest tasting room on the trail...many white blends

Vetter Vineyards (NY winery, decent Pinot Noir, good Pinot Gris)

Presque Isle (PA Winery, first, oldest in PA..big juice/grape supplier for Winemakers...great Dry Riesling and white blends, port)

Mazza (PA winery, great Cab Franc)

South Shore WIne Company (PA Winery, owned by Mazza, good Vidal Blanc)

Arrowhead Winery (PA Winery/Juice supplier, great Vignoles)

Lakeview WIne Cellars (New PA winery....probably the best wine we tasted...great chardonnay, riesling and cab sauv/cab franc blend.....Their reds are aged in barrels made from PA oak (Keystone Cooperage)

Impressions:

The whites, specifically, the Dry Riesling, Seyval Blanc, Traminette, Vignoles and Vidal Blancs were some of the best I have ever tasted. I would highly recommend the Traminette and the Dry Riesling.

The Reds: Chancellor stole the show here! If you have never seen/tasted a chancellor, you are missing out. The wine is much darker then a Syrah or Cab Sauv but has a phenomenal taste (at least the Johnson Estate version did). Many of the wineries sold cab franc, cab sauv and merlot but they were unremarkable.

Prices: My wife and I thought one winery was joking when they told us our bill was 56.00 for six bottles of wine! Most prices were 10-20 bucks for whites and 12-24 for reds. Some tastings were free and others charged 1 dollar for six samples.

Other notes: Very few (maybe 2) of the wineries visited had their own vineyards. Most were limited wineries (PA legal speak for small winery) sourcing grapes and juice from the local Lake Erie growers.

Lodging: We stayed at a B&B on Lake Erie, but their seems to be no shortage of places to stay.

Eats: Go to the Freeport Restaurant located just outside North East (name of the town) PA. WOW! Great food!

Check out Presque Isle's website for juice buckets/grapes http://www.piwine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=97

Not an expert here, but I thought I would share my experiences with you. We will visit Lake Erie Wine trail again. It was a great experience.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top