Well, we do travel a lot, pursuing hobbies. In particular, Catherine and I have been in the habit of visiting wineries in Ohio and nearby states for about a decade. We started by visiting some wineries in Ontario, south of Windsor and in the London area, while on a vacation trip. On the way back from that trip, we stopped at our first Ohio winery, Johlin Century Winery, in Oregon, which is near Toledo. We've been visiting Ohio wineries ever since.
Given an address and the proper software, the GPS usually makes finding a new winery a trivial task. There are dozens of wineries in Ohio and Pennsylvania - there are by my count seventeen in the East Central Ohio Mensa region alone, although they aren't spread out evenly in each county. As I look at my GPS, I have 79 winery locations stored, all but two in Ohio.
How does one find them? There are a number of ways. Finding one can often lead to the others. In Ohio, for instance, many of the wineries belong to the Ohio Wine Producers Association. They publish a tabloid, Ohio's Grapevine, three times a year which has addresses and maps of all member wineries. Most of the member wineries have copies available for free. Wineries are typically happy to share information about nearby wineries. They feel that you're more likely to come back if you have several wineries to attract you. Many Ohio wineries, especially in the northeast part of the state, post signs to other nearby wineries.
To find the first one, there's always the web. The Ohio Wine Producers site is at www.ohiowines.org. You can also find help from the Ohio Grape Industries at www.ohgrapes.org, the Lake Erie Quality Wine Alliance at www.lakeeriewine.com, Pennsylvania Wine & Wineries at www.pennsylvaniawine.com and My Ohio Wine at www.myohiowine.com. These web sites all have lists and maps of participating wineries, and much other detail about grapes, wine, and winemaking. If you are more interested in these kinds of details, the Ohio Grape Web is a good information source, maintained by The Ohio State University Extension service at www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/grapeweb/. If you're going farther afield, check the web for these kinds of groups. I understand that wine is now made in every state in the US and if there are more than a handful of wineries in a state, there probably is a producers' group with a web site. Type in a state name you're interested in, and "wine" into your favorite search engine and you'll probably get an official booster group in your first few hits.
Once you've found a few candidates to visit, I have one more piece of advice to offer. Unless you don't mind a fruitless visit, call ahead. Some wineries close for special events, change their hours of business, or in some cases, close permanently. This has been a busy year for closings in Ohio, but it's also been a busy year for new wineries, so the total number has grown yet again.
One other twist that makes it good to call ahead: a few of the wineries in the state, including three of the four in Summit County, are do-it-yourself wineries. Some, like Verderico, also have wine to sell, while others, like Grape and Granary, do not. If you're looking to sample some wines and you go to a place that doesn't actually sell wine directly, you may be disappointed.
Mahoning - Mastropietro and Myrddin in Berlin Center (these weren't in the original article)
Medina - Jhelbare in Valley City
Portage - Candelight in Garrettsville, Dankorona in Aurora, Viking in Kent
Stark - Maize Valley in Hartville, Perennial in Navarre
Summit - Grape and Granary in Akron, It's Your Winery in Fairlawn, The Winery at Wolf Creek in Norton, Verderico in Twinsburg
Tuscarawas - Breitenbach and Swiss Heritage in Dover, Rainbow Hills in Newcomerstown
Wayne - Troutman in Wooster
Ashland, Columbiana, Crawford, Holmes, Richland, Trumbull - none
CATBAR - Brain Candy #97 - GPS and Wine / Brian Rock / Aug 18 2005