Ohio-grown wines have matured into fine business
Much like craft beers, Ohio wines are benefiting from the buy-local movement.
A new report issued by the Ohio Department of Agriculture shows the Ohio Wine and Grape Industries had nearly a $6.7 billion impact on the state’s economy in 2022, supporting 40,399 jobs and generating more than $1.9 billion in wages.
The figure includes tourism, retailing, wholesaling, advertising, marketing and many other impacts of both the wine industry and sales of juices, jellies, jams and preserves.
Perhaps a more telling figure, though, is that the number of Ohiobased wineries has grown to 323, up from 265 when the previous study was done in 2016.
And Ohio now ranks No. 7 for economic output of wine sales, ahead of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois.
In northwest Ohio, one of the region’s older estate-grown wineries is the Stoney Ridge Winery, which opened in 2002 in rural Williams County near Bryan.
Owner Pam Ledyard and her ex-husband had purchased the 40-acre site through an auction a few years earlier without knowing exactly what they were going to do with the property. It had been used prior to their acquisition to grow more traditional crops.
The couple lived on adjacent property and was more interested in acquiring the land to maintain control over how it would be used, Ledyard said.
She jokes about how friends and neighbors thought she and her then husband may have been starting a Christmas tree farm.
Instead, they planted a few vines.
“We kind of played around with it as a hobby. It just kept going,” Ledyard said.
Today, Stoney Ridge’s vineyard encompasses 13 acres.
Ledyard, who received the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Grape Grower of the Year Award in 2017, said she’s “proud to be part” of Ohio’s growing wine industry, especially as one of northwest Ohio’s pioneers for estate-grown wines.
Many wineries, she said, call themselves wineries but don’t produce their own grapes.
“We were a pioneer in the wine industry in this area,” she said.
Her son, Ryan Towne, is Stoney Ridge’s winemaker, and her daughter-in-law, Abby Towne, is the winery manager. The couple met in the Cleveland area and relocated to Williams County to help out with the business 10 years ago.
Ledyard credited researchers at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster for helping them establish their business. That center
is the research arm of Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
She said they occasionally visit the site and are always available, as are members of the state agriculture department.
“Every two years they visit you personally. They ask what your problems are and how they can help. They really are trying to make us better [as an industry],” Ledyard said. “I can’t say enough good about how well the state has been working with us.”
Ohio’s goal shouldn’t just be to get more wineries, but “for all of us to get better at what we do,” she said.
“We are all pulling for each other,” Ledyard said. “We’re trying to help each other make better wines and not just compete against each other. And that’s where Ohio State comes in. They’re wonderful from that point of supporting us.”
Towne agreed that university research is important. Ledyard cited Cornell University and the University of Minnesota in particular for help in identifying cold-resistant grape varieties and development of hybrids.
“It’s still a learning process for our area to see what vines will work,” Towne said.
Laura Rufenacht and her husband, Doug Rufenacht, said Stoney Ridge’s success inspired them to create their Majestic Oak Winery & Neon Groundhog Brewery near Neapolis.
The couple had taken to agri-tourism in the past, traveling to different estate wineries throughout Ohio and other states, such as northern Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula.
“We got the idea in 2009 and it came from going to Stoney Ridge,” Rufenacht said. “We knew we wanted to do something agricultural. After visiting them, we knew we wanted to grow grapes.”
Majestic Oak opened for business in 2013. The couple’s Neon Groundhog microbrewery came along in 2015 as a companion business to give beer drinkers a locally brewed quaff, although the emphasis is still on wine. Beer accounts for about 20% of their overall sales, Rufenacht said.
“It does well, but we don’t promote it like the winery,” she said. “But it’s definitely growing.”
Majestic Oak sits on 11 acres in a rural setting, and — like some other estate wineries — became popular during the height of the coronavirus pandemic because their space allowed for more social distancing. It has both indoor and outdoor stages, and has been known to draw Toledo-area crowds for such popular acts as singer Ramona Collins.
“We like to make wines from grapes we can grow ourselves,” Rufenacht said, noting that both he and his wife grew up with agricultural backgrounds.
Rufenacht said it’s understandable that Ohio’s wine industry is doing well, given society’s shift toward more locally sourced food and drink.
Even so, she didn’t expect the number of wineries growing so fast.
“I’m surprised by the number of people getting involved in the industry, because it’s not an easy industry,” Rufenacht said.
Two people who took the plunge recently are Bill and Michele Hollister, the new owners of the Chateau Winery & Vineyard in rural Sandusky County near Helena.
On a whim last July, the couple purchased the business and all of the wine-making supplies, as well as the on-site vineyard, from longtime owners Bob and Mary Tebeau. The previous owners were thinking about retirement and told the Hollisters they were entertaining offers.
Putting together a business plan wasn’t so difficult, because both of the Hollisters teach business education at area high schools. Hollister teaches in the Port Clinton system, and Hollister teaches in the Fostoria system.
“We came in to get wine supplies,” Bill Hollister said. “Mary knew I made wine. She basically came right out and said, ‘You should buy this place.’ We thought she was kidding and kind of laughed it off.”
“And then,” his wife added, “we found out it actually was for sale and started doing our homework.”
The deal helped take them to the next level in their passion for wine.
Michele jokingly referred to herself and her husband as “professional wine tasters.” By that, Bill explained, they enjoyed traveling to wineries in this part of the country because they usually had their summers off.
They and others are aware that wine-growing is still an evolving science in Ohio. The Tebeaus had their Cabernet Franc vines destroyed by a polar vortex that swept down from the Arctic and put this part of North America into a deep freeze a few years ago. It probably won’t be replanted because of its sensitivity to cold, Bill said.
Bill Hollister said they hadn’t seriously thought about owning a winery until the situation presented itself, even though he’d been making his own wine at home for about 12 years.
“I don’t want to ruin your story, but no,” he said. “We would walk into places and say things like ‘Wouldn’t it be nice someday...’ But we weren’t serious about it.”
“We were always critiquing,” Michele added.
Taking over the business during a peak summer month was a “baptism by fire,” she said.
“We’re obviously still learning,” Bill said.
State officials don’t believe Ohio has hit its saturation point yet in terms of wineries, said Christy Eckstein, executive of a group formed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture that’s known as the Ohio Grape Industries Committee.
Small, estate wineries have a special charm because “the person who might be in the vineyard in the morning might be in the tasting room with you in the afternoon,” she said.
Ohio can be proud of the progress it’s making in dispelling the myth that Midwestern wines are mostly sweet and niche varieties, Eckstein said, adding that she and others in the wine industry are “pleasantly surprised” by Ohio’s latest numbers.
While Ohio’s not ever likely to compete with California’s Napa Valley, it can take great pride in the number of varieties being developed with dry, hardy grapes used to produce reds such as Marquette and Frontenac. They can tolerate cold, Midwestern winters, and produce flavors similar to what can be found in the more famous Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot varieties, Eckstein said.
“There’s always been interest in purchasing local and supporting your local economy,” she said.