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South of Lake Erie, Ohio’s canal region of wineries reaches from Cuyahoga Falls to Coshocton and into Wooster — an area with over 40 wineries. More than 50 wineries stretch along the Lake Erie shoreline in Ohio, part of the Lake Erie Appellation born in the 19th century in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, a premier wine-producing region.
But canal country wineries have their own history — one of farming and finding the means to move goods from the Ohio River to Lake Erie through a series of canal locks and the advent of the train system that changed rural life from disconnected to connected.
A tour of the region would take days. The closest one to downtown Cleveland is probably Sarah’s Vineyard in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park across from Blossom Music Center. Mike and Margaret Lyst leased the property from the National Park System when Mike decided to show off his wine-making hobby and find his dream life of running a winery.
Hybrid grapes, including Chambourcin, Niagara, Vidal, Seyval, Cayuga, Traminette and Rubiana, grow in the vineyard. The winery’s estate-bottled wine includes a blend of Merlot, Sangiovese and Zinfandel sourced from other locations. Because Sarah’s Vineyard pours wine from reconditioned beer kegs, with nitrogen to push the wine, the wines contain low amounts of sulfites.
The Lysts respect the fact that they’re located in a national park and use green methods as much as possible — the winery bottles the wine as it is needed. In addition to making and selling wine, Sarah’s also sells the local art that appears on the walls and shelves along the perimeter of the tasting room. Much of their wine is sold to Blossom Music Center patrons before outdoor Cleveland Orchestra concerts, but you don’t have to wait for one of your favorite performances to enjoy a glass of wine in the garden outside Sarah’s Vineyard. Wineries not far from Gervasi include Red Horse Winery and the Winery at Wolf Creek.
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Further south, visitors are welcomed to Gervasi by an archway stretched over their gateway driveway in the City of Canton. Gervasi Vineyard & Italian Bistro has taken over a 55-acre property on which a working saw mill and tree farm used to stand. The 1823 barn has become the upscale, spacious and candle-lit Bistro Restaurant.
When Ted Swaldo purchased the property, he envisioned a small winery that served wine with cheese and crackers. But as the family-run operation saw customers’ reactions, they added walkways around the pond, luxurious Tuscan villas for overnight stays, a marketplace, a casual dining space called the Crush House, an outside patio and a covered area for weddings.
During seasonable weekends, young mothers tend their children on blankets by the water and old men play bocci on the lawn. The winery now also offers vineyard tours and culinary classes. Wines at Gervasi include an Italian-style blend with Sangiovese, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, late-harvest Riesling, Riesling, Pinot Grigio and Vidal Blanc, with some wines made from estate-grown grapes and others from grapes sourced from the finest grapes available. In Canton, visit Meniru Meadery as well; it takes a while for the tongue to adjust to honey wine, but when it does you’ll be impressed by its subtleties.
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Viking Vineyards in Kent has been around since 1999, making it an older winery in this young wine region. Just east of Mogadore on a country road, visitors have to approach the winery on a narrow causeway road over a lake.
Here you’ll hear a typical story — the owners, Jeff and Dana Nelson, got tired of the rat race and started over again. They decided to share their love of wine and vineyards by purchasing the 20-acre property with a house and pole barn in 1998. They planted hybrid grapes — Vidal Blanc, Traminette, and Lemberger — and started making wine and inviting people to enjoy it with them.
In addition to leaving the rat race and following a dream, the other common denominator for winery and vineyard owners is the desire to have other people experiene their intimate space and well-crafted wines. This award-winning winery also features Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Vidal Blanc, and Chambourcin. Nordic Myst and Salmon Run are nice blends that show off winemaker Jeff Nelson’s talents.
Live music, painting classes, and girls’ nights’ out make visiting the winery into an event. Inside walls are graced with original photography shot by Jeff, Dan and their friend Jim Nelson. In Kent, you can go to Ray’s Place for a beer after visiting the winery, but it would be a change of pace to visit Thorncreek in Aurora on the way home; if you time it right, Thorncreek’s a great place for a light dinner.
On a cattle farm in Doylestown, cows grazed, hay was harvested and a cut-your-own tree farm replete with hay rides flourished. But Christine Sabo and Ed Sunkin saw vineyards and a winery. They planted their vineyard in 2005, broke ground on its winery in 2008 and celebrated the winery’s grand opening with a party in 2010. They won their first two medals in the Ohio Wine Competition in 2011.
The winery makes and sells five red and five white wines, a couple of blush wines and a few sweet wines. Dry wine drinkers will go for the Rogues Hollow or Trading Post hybrid mix, and sweet drinkers may want to enjoy Canalways, a Catawba wine. The husband-and-wife team keep the history of the land that they own and the surrounding area fresh by featuring local history pictures on their wine labels and walls.
Christine and Ed like to tell fun tales of the area to visitors. For example, the Rogues Hollow Red wine label tells this story: “Legend has it that Jessie James and his gang of outlaws hid out in the coal mines from the Sheriff in Rogues Hollow, which was ‘the watering hole’ w/poker playing taverns frequented by the hard-working coal miners back in the day.” After all that fun, find Jilbert Winery in Valley City on the way home, maybe when they’re hosting one of their bountiful dinners.
Those are just a few of the wineries in the newly-released book Ohio’s Canal Country Wineries, which includes a map of the wineries. Author Claudia Taller will be at Sarah’s on Sun 8/ 2, Gervasi on Sat 8/8, Viking on Sun 8/9, and Silver Run on Sat 8/22, a wine-drinking book tour that should be a lot of fun. For the full schedule, go to claudiajtaller.com.
1294 West Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223
Kent, OH 44240
Kent, OH 44240
Canton, OH 44721