An Inside Look at Lake Erie Wine Country

There’s more to wine country than what you find in the tasting

room.

Behind the Vines invites you

to experience Lake Erie Wine Country from the inside, through a series of

intimate, interactive experiences created especially for this event. Choose

from one of three carefully curated journeys, each taking you to three wineries

for experiences you won’t find on an ordinary visit.

With groups limited to just 12 guests, you’ll have the

opportunity to meet and interact with the winemakers, growers and other people

who bring Lake Erie Wine Country to life. Taste wine from the barrel. Walk the

vineyard. Explore how sparkling wine is made. Challenge your senses with a

black-glass tasting. Discover what concrete can do for a wine. These aren’t

lectures—they’re conversations, demonstrations and hands-on experiences

designed to take you deeper into the craft, agriculture and personalities behind

the wines.

At each winery, you’ll spend 90 minutes exploring a different

aspect of grape growing, winemaking or wine appreciation. Along the way, you’ll

taste, ask questions, experiment and discover—and come away knowing a little

more about what goes into the glass and the people and places that make it

possible.

Behind the Vines

is $125 per guest and includes all three winery experiences and associated

tastings. With just 12 guests in each group, space is intentionally

limited to keep every experience personal, interactive and conversational.

You’ve visited wine country. Now come see what

happens Behind the Vines.

Winery Experiences

& Profiles

Experience #2

Your experience starts here.

Noble Winery

From Vineyard to Glass

Begin where every wine begins: in the vineyard. With insight from a Cornell expert, explore the vines and learn more about the relationship between grape growing, the Lake Erie region and the wines ultimately produced from its fruit. Weather permitting, the experience will include a guided vineyard visit, followed by a special wine-and-food pairing. It’s an opportunity to connect what grows in the vineyard with what you smell, taste and experience in the finished glass.

About the Winery

Perched above acres of vineyards in Westfield, New York, Noble Winery pairs locally grown grapes with one of Lake Erie Wine Country’s most memorable views. Its expansive porch overlooks the vineyards and Lake Erie beyond—on clear days, the view stretches all the way to the Canadian shoreline.

21 Brix Winery

Cabernet Sauvignon: From Vine to Reserve

Explore Cabernet Sauvignon from beginning to end—and several fascinating points in between. At 21 Brix Winery, you’ll follow Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyard through the winemaking process, tasting current bottled selections, experimental trial blends and a special reserve. Weather and harvest permitting, you may even begin with the grape itself. It’s a rare opportunity to experience how one grape variety evolves through the hands of the winemaker and ultimately becomes the wine in your glass.

About the Winery

21 Brix grew from a third-generation family farm whose 450 acres of vineyards trace their grape-growing history to the 1950s. Opened in 2011, the winery brings together generations of farming knowledge with winemaker Kris Kane’s experience in both the Lake Erie region and Australia, producing wines from 18 grape varieties grown on the family farm.

Liberty Vineyards & Winery

Black Glass Tasting

How much does what you see influence what you taste? Find out during Liberty Vineyards’ Black Glass Tasting. Begin by learning the fundamentals of tasting wine using all your senses—then take one of those senses away. Using opaque black crystal glasses, you’ll sample a selection of mystery wines ranging from red, white and rosé to dry and sweet. Without color to guide you, familiar wines can become surprisingly difficult to identify. Prepare to question what you think you know about wine—and your own senses.

About the Winery

The Burmaster family has been growing grapes in Sheridan, New York, for nearly 150 years, and today Liberty Vineyards continues that tradition on a 93-acre farm growing 14 grape varieties. Remarkably, the family still harvests grapes from a Concord vineyard first planted by their ancestor Sheldon “Rufus” Butler in the 1860s.

Itinerary:

9:30-11:00         Noble

Winery, From Vineyard to Glass

11:30-1:00         21

Brix:  Cabernet Sauvignon:  From Vine to Reserve

1:00-2:30           Lunch

(on your own):  We recommend: 21 Brix

2:30-4:00           Liberty

Vineyards, Black Glass Tasting