Ohio… The next Napa Valley?… Maybe?

More and more wineries are calling Ohio home. Could we be seeing a trend? With Lake Erie to the North and the Ohio River outlining the Southernmost part of the state, Ohio has prime grape growing weather. Add to that the proper mix of lake and river bottom soils and you have the unique properties that can grow wine grade grapes like no other place in the world.

Here is an article from the Family Circle Guide to Wine from 1973.
Chapter 6 – Wines of the World.

More than a hundred years ago, an English visitor prepared a report on the progress of American wine making, and pointed out that vineyards had been planted in no less than 22 of the 32 states. One of the leaders was Ohio, which then produced a third of the wines made in the United States, twice as much as was being made in California. Ohio is less important as a wine region than it was, but a variety of wines continue to be made. Concord and Catawba are the most widely planted in Ohio, but there are new vineyards devoted to hybrids and to vinifera varieties as well.

And now, almost 40 years later, there are new wineries opening in Ohio on a regular basis. Have Vinters rediscovered the wonderful weather and soils that made Ohio a great wine state in the 1800’s? Only time will tell, but I believe we are already seeing the answer!