Image courtesy of Mazza Vineyards

“Let’s go taste the regent, and then we’ll go back and taste some wine.”

Lovely words, heard in the very vineyard that birthed those wines. The regent grapes we tasted right from the vine were almost ready for this year’s vintage. The wines waiting for us came from past harvests.

This was a tour of Erie wine country. Hosted by Mazza Vineyards, the venerable Pennsylvania winemaker, I sipped Mazza’s portfolio of wines crafted in close partnership with local grape growers.

In the Beginning

Come to Erie, where grape-friendly conditions are infused into soil formed by glaciers and into air moderated, temperature-wise, by the 9,900-square-mile Lake Erie.

Everywhere you go, there are grapevines, in sprawling expanses or tucked between homes. The industry jumpstarted with Welch’s and its circa-1897 juice plant built in Westfield, N.Y., just over the Pennsylvania line.

But grape growers can sell only so much juice, and, in the 1960s, Doug Moorhead led a successful campaign allowing wineries to sell directly to the public. In the wake of the Pennsylvania Limited Winery Act of 1969, Robert Mazza founded his family winery in 1972.

In this region, every bottle sings with history. The setting helps. I took my first sips of Mazza’s The Perfect Rosé while standing on a ridge overlooking the vastness of Lake Erie. Just beyond the cliff, a young bald eagle swooped past.

Our cliffside lodgings were at Lakeview on the Lake, a charmingly retro, family-owned lodge with motel rooms and cottages spread around a grassy quad. I stayed in an auto court cottage straight out of the classic movie, “It Happened One Night”—not the donut-dunking one, but the knotty pine-walled, “Take me with you” one. I was tempted to hang a “Walls of Jericho” blanket.

Grape to Glass

Lake Erie’s cooler climate and breezy days compare to wine regions in Germany, nurturing the whites Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris, plus red Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir.

It all starts with the growers, close collaborators with Mazza in planning each year’s harvest and vintages.

Bill Semelka, whose father originally grew juice grapes, now grows regent, Riesling, Cabernet Franc and Itasca, a new cool-climate variety from Minnesota for a fruity, dry white. There on a bluff, air movement keeps the vines dry, for grapes that ripen earliest.

Standing in the vineyard, we sipped wines made with “right-here grapes,” in the words of Mazza Brand Ambassador Blaine Ballard. The regent plays well as a blend, I learned, giving a lift to Cab Franc or Merlot. The regent-chambourcin was rich and lively, closing with a hint of apple.

At Szklenski Farms, in Harborcreek Township, Blaine again set up a tasting table from the back of his truck. This time, he lined up dozens of glasses in rows of four.

This was a “vertical tasting,” comparing one wine across vintages. We sipped the Cab Franc made from Szklenski grapes in 2016, ’17, ’19 and ’20. The two elders were the clear winners, left to age gracefully and reach their full mellow.

The ’19 and ’20 were no slouches, though. As explained by Mario Mazza, second-generation general manager and vice president, the tasting proved that the Szklenski Cab Franc is no fluke. In agriculture, there will always be crop failures, like the season at Semelka’s farm when the regent grapes, “you just looked at them funny, and they’d fall off.” But a good wine from year to year demonstrates the consistency in farming practices needed to create “a commonality of structure and architecture,” Mario said.

As a later tour guide, Director of Distilling & Brewing Joe Nelson, would say, every glass brims with the symbiosis of grower and maker.

“We do what we’re good at,” he said. “We hire people who are good at what they do.”

A Travel Guide

A vineyard is a unique place to taste wine, but a cavern? Now we’re talking character and mystery.

Mazza operates three Lake Erie wine country sites, each a unique destination. Let’s start with the cavern.

In 1864, the owners of Erie’s first commercial winery built a stone cave where horse-drawn carts brought grapes for storage. Fast forward to 2006, when Robert Mazza bought the decrepit property in North East and restored it as South Shore Wine Company.

Descend into the cavern for a taste of Mazza’s Coupe Collection of sparkling wines. Our breakfast mimosas paired beautifully with bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches from an Erie eatery, and that was fine with Mario. You don’t need a special occasion to enjoy sparkling wine, he said. Open a bottle and take the tedium out of Tuesday.

Mazza’s logo features grapes, grain and hops. Why? Because Mazza established New York State’s first combination winery, distillery and brewery. Just over the Pennsylvania-New York line, in picturesque Chautauqua County, you can while away the evening on the patio or in the tasting room at Mazza Chautauqua Cellars/Five & 20 Spirits and Brewing, a.k.a. The Westfield Wonder.

Sip on rye whiskeys and bourbons in straight traditional or finished in different barrels for added levels of complexity, all made with local grains. On the brewing side, choose from pale ales, stouts, seasonals, a cream ale that hearkened back to my college days and the uniquely Erie-ish Grape Lakes American Wheat, flavored with a hint of concord grape.

Finally, explore Mazza’s origins by visiting where it all started—Mazza Vineyards in North East, the company’s first winery and tasting room. Here, we saw clusters from that morning’s harvest hand-loaded into a presser separating grapes from stems. I reached into the bin to feel and taste the sweet mash, grapes picked at just the right ratio of sugar and acid on their way to fermentation.

The tasting room exudes Old World charm, with red tile floors, stucco walls and bottles on a mantel decked out in mantles of wine-competition medals.

This room celebrates tradition, including Mazza’s La Famiglia line honoring winemakers who have come, over the years, from five continents. The collection is “technique-focused,” said Mario, such as the dry Appassionato made by drying the grapes on a rack.

“We are always building on their legacies,” Mario said. “You have to work as a team. I continue to learn from them all the time.”

Guide for Giving

A bit of knowledge helps when pairing the right wine or spirit with the right loved one.

• The Perfect Rosé: For the perky friend who always cheers you up. Nice and bright. Pairs nicely with spicy.
• Mazza Chautauqua Cellars Riesling (Nutt Rd. Vineyard): For the wisecracker in your life. Semi-dry, made from grapes all grown on the same block. This was where I learned that a distinct whiff of turpentine is desirable. I’m still trying to process that.
• South Shore Wine Company Lemberger: For the friend who’s ahead of the curve. Lemberger, a wonderful discovery for me, produces a peppery, dry red.
• Five & 20 Spirits and Brewery Déjà Vu Bourbon: For the whiskey aficionado who’s equal parts sweet and roasty. Begins life in new, charred American oak barrels. Then, it’s transferred for a 24-month stay to casks that recently held Five & 20’s Commiseration Imperial Stout.
• Mazza Vineyards Ice Wine of Vidal Blanc: Surprise the friend who swears on dry wines only. Harvesting day is all-hands-on-deck, when—and if—the temperature plummets to 17 degrees. Even community volunteers bundle up and pitch in. The tradition behind it gave me a new appreciation of ice wine. It was fruity and dense, with some acidity blunting the sweetness.
• South Shore Wine Company Pét Nat Riesling: For the hazy IPA lover who’s wine-curious. The ancestral Pétillant Naturel method creates fizz by bottling juice while it’s still fermenting. Increasingly popular for its lack of additives.
• South Shore Wine Company Sparkling Pinot Noir: Perfect for a certain writer for TheBurg. A cheery, dry sparkler with notes of black cherry and ripe plum.

For more information on Mazza Vineyards, visit www.enjoymazza.com. For more information on Five & 20 Spirits and Brewing, visit www.fiveand20.com.

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