North East and the Grape Belt

North East, Pennsylvania sits at the heart of one of the most concentrated grape-growing regions in the country. It started in eighteen eighteen, when Deacon Elijah Fay planted the first grapes of this lake belt just across the state line in New York, taking advantage of the temperate microclimate Lake Erie creates along its southern shore. Summer breezes off the water cool the vines, and the lake's thermal mass delays autumn frosts just long enough for the fruit to ripen.

By the latter half of the nineteenth century, Pennsylvania ranked among the top five wine-producing states. Prohibition ended that era, and growers shifted heavily to Concord grapes for juice, a crop that found a major buyer in the Welch's company. Today the Lake Erie grape belt holds roughly forty-two thousand acres of vineyards across three states, and its wine appellation is the largest east of the Rocky Mountains.