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 #3

Your experience starts here.

Arrowhead Wine Cellars

Exploring Concrete

Wine can be fermented and aged in stainless steel, oak—and concrete. Go behind the scenes at Arrowhead Wine Cellars for a guided winery tour and an up-close look at the concrete tanks used in its winemaking. Learn what makes concrete distinctive and taste wines aged in these unusual vessels. The experience concludes with an elevated food pairing created by local restaurateur Dawn VanScotter and winemakers Chris Steele and Bob Green, demonstrating how thoughtfully chosen food can reveal and enhance the character and nuances of each wine.

About the Winery

Located on the Mobilia family’s historic fruit farm in North East, Arrowhead Wine Cellars carries on four generations of grape growing and winemaking. The family combines its agricultural roots and generations of winemaking experience with fruit grown in the distinctive soils and climate of the Lake Erie region.

Burch Farms Country Market & Winery

Farm to Glass

Discover what “farm to glass” really means at Burch Farms, a seventh-generation family farm. Explore the farm’s long history of growing grapes, apples and peaches and, weather permitting, take a hayride to a scenic overlook. Then taste apple wines alongside the very apple varieties from which they were made. Finally, put your senses to work in a playful tasting challenge featuring some of the farm’s signature fruits—including apples, grapes and Red Haven peaches.

About the Winery

At Burch Farms, wine is part of a much larger agricultural story. The multi-generational North East farm grows grapes, apples and peaches, while its winery turns fruit from the farm and other Pennsylvania growers into traditional grape wines as well as distinctive apple and specialty fruit wines.

South Shore Wine Company

Get into the Bubbles

What puts the sparkle in sparkling wine? Explore the history, science and craft behind the bubbles at South Shore Wine Company, the Mazza family’s historic “Sparkling House.” You’ll discover different methods of sparkling wine production, learn how those choices influence flavor and character, and taste the results for yourself. It’s an up-close look at a fascinating winemaking tradition in a setting with its own special connection to the history of Lake Erie wine.

About the Winery

History is literally built into South Shore Wine Company. Originally established in the 1860s as Erie County’s first commercial winery, the property was restored and reopened by the Mazza family in 2007 and features a remarkable Civil War-era stone wine cavern—a fitting home for a winery with a special emphasis on sparkling wines.

Itinerary:

9:30-11:00         Arrowhead

Wine Cellars, Exploring Concrete

11:30-1:00         Burch

Farms, Farm to Glass

1:00-2:30           Lunch

(on your own):  We recommend: The Skunk & Goat Tavern

2:30-4:00           South

Shore Wine Company, Get into the Bubbles