Behind the Vines 2026
Behind the Vines
An Inside Look at Lake Erie Wine Country
There’s more to wine country than what you find in the tasting room.
Behind the Vines invites you to experience Lake Erie Wine Country from the inside, through a series of intimate, interactive experiences created especially for this event. Choose from one of three carefully curated journeys, each taking you to three wineries for experiences you won’t find on an ordinary visit.
With groups limited to just 12 guests, you’ll have the opportunity to meet and interact with the winemakers, growers and other people who bring Lake Erie Wine Country to life. Taste wine from the barrel. Walk the vineyard. Explore how sparkling wine is made. Challenge your senses with a black-glass tasting. Discover what concrete can do for a wine. These aren’t lectures—they’re conversations, demonstrations and hands-on experiences designed to take you deeper into the craft, agriculture and personalities behind the wines.
At each winery, you’ll spend 90 minutes exploring a different aspect of grape growing, winemaking or wine appreciation. Along the way, you’ll taste, ask questions, experiment and discover—and come away knowing a little more about what goes into the glass and the people and places that make it possible.
Behind the Vines is $125 per guest and includes all three winery experiences and associated tastings. With just 12 guests in each group, space is intentionally limited to keep every experience personal, interactive and conversational.
The date is October 10, 2026.
You’ve visited wine country. Now come see what happens Behind the Vines.
Choose Your Experience
Behind the Vines offers three distinct Experiences, each featuring three specially selected winery sessions. Each Experience is limited to two groups of no more than 12 guests. Both groups enjoy the same three winery experiences, following different schedules throughout the day.
Winery Experiences & Profiles
Experience #1
Johnson Estate Winery
It’s All About the Reds
Discover Chambourcin from the vine to the glass at Johnson Estate Winery. Weather permitting, you’ll visit the estate’s Jillson Road vineyards during harvest season to see—and perhaps taste—Chambourcin grapes on the vine. Then explore the remarkable versatility of this grape through Chambourcin, Ruby Dry Rosé and Chambourcin Ice Wine, accompanied by food pairings. Compare them with estate-grown Pinot Noir and Marechal Foch for a delicious exploration of the red grapes and wines of the Lake Erie region.
About the Winery
Founded in 1961 on a family farm dating to 1908, Johnson Estate is New York’s oldest continuously operating estate winery. Today the family grows more than a dozen grape varieties across approximately 115 acres, carrying forward a tradition that helped pioneer wine-grape growing in Western New York.
Lakeview Wine Cellars
What’s That Smell?
Not everything you smell in a glass of wine is supposed to be there. Lakeview Wine Cellars invites you to put your nose to the test with an exploration of nine common wine faults. You’ll actually smell examples of each fault while learning what causes them, how they affect wine and how experienced tasters recognize them. It’s a hands-on sensory experience designed to sharpen your awareness—and you may never smell a glass of wine quite the same way again.
About the Winery
Founded by Sam and Becky Best in 2008, Lakeview Wine Cellars is a small North East boutique winery built from the couple’s decades-long passion for winemaking. Using grapes from local vineyards, Lakeview specializes in oak-aged wines and reflects the Bests’ commitment to creating an intimate, environmentally conscious winery overlooking Lake Erie and the surrounding vineyards.
Mazza Vineyards
Barrel Tasting
Go inside the winemaking process with the team at Mazza Vineyards for a tasting straight from the barrel. Sample barrel-aged wines at different stages of maturation and discover how time and oak influence a wine’s aroma, flavor, structure and character. This behind-the-scenes tasting offers a rare opportunity to experience wines before they reach the bottle—and to explore some of the decisions a winemaker makes along the way.
About the Winery
Founded by brothers Robert and Frank Mazza in 1972, Mazza Vineyards is the flagship of a family winemaking tradition whose roots reach back to Calabria, Italy. More than 50 years later, the North East winery combines that heritage with an international approach to winemaking and a diverse portfolio reflecting the character of the Lake Erie region.
Experience #2
Noble Winery
From Vineyard to Glass
Begin where every wine begins: in the vineyard. With insight from a Cornell expert, explore the vines and learn more about the relationship between grape growing, the Lake Erie region and the wines ultimately produced from its fruit. Weather permitting, the experience will include a guided vineyard visit, followed by a special wine-and-food pairing. It’s an opportunity to connect what grows in the vineyard with what you smell, taste and experience in the finished glass.
About the Winery
Perched above acres of vineyards in Westfield, New York, Noble Winery pairs locally grown grapes with one of Lake Erie Wine Country’s most memorable views. Its expansive porch overlooks the vineyards and Lake Erie beyond—on clear days, the view stretches all the way to the Canadian shoreline.
21 Brix Winery
Cabernet Sauvignon: From Vine to Reserve
Explore Cabernet Sauvignon from beginning to end—and several fascinating points in between. At 21 Brix Winery, you’ll follow Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyard through the winemaking process, tasting current bottled selections, experimental trial blends and a special reserve. Weather and harvest permitting, you may even begin with the grape itself. It’s a rare opportunity to experience how one grape variety evolves through the hands of the winemaker and ultimately becomes the wine in your glass.
About the Winery
21 Brix grew from a third-generation family farm whose 450 acres of vineyards trace their grape-growing history to the 1950s. Opened in 2011, the winery brings together generations of farming knowledge with winemaker Kris Kane’s experience in both the Lake Erie region and Australia, producing wines from 18 grape varieties grown on the family farm.
Liberty Vineyards & Winery
Black Glass Tasting
How much does what you see influence what you taste? Find out during Liberty Vineyards’ Black Glass Tasting. Begin by learning the fundamentals of tasting wine using all your senses—then take one of those senses away. Using opaque black crystal glasses, you’ll sample a selection of mystery wines ranging from red, white and rosé to dry and sweet. Without color to guide you, familiar wines can become surprisingly difficult to identify. Prepare to question what you think you know about wine—and your own senses.
About the Winery
The Burmaster family has been growing grapes in Sheridan, New York, for nearly 150 years, and today Liberty Vineyards continues that tradition on a 93-acre farm growing 14 grape varieties. Remarkably, the family still harvests grapes from a Concord vineyard first planted by their ancestor Sheldon “Rufus” Butler in the 1860s.
Experience #3
Arrowhead Wine Cellars
Exploring Concrete
Wine can be fermented and aged in stainless steel, oak—and concrete. Go behind the scenes at Arrowhead Wine Cellars for a guided winery tour and an up-close look at the concrete tanks used in its winemaking. Learn what makes concrete distinctive and taste wines aged in these unusual vessels. The experience concludes with an elevated food pairing created by local restaurateur Dawn VanScotter and winemakers Chris Steele and Bob Green, demonstrating how thoughtfully chosen food can reveal and enhance the character and nuances of each wine.
About the Winery
Located on the Mobilia family’s historic fruit farm in North East, Arrowhead Wine Cellars carries on four generations of grape growing and winemaking. The family combines its agricultural roots and generations of winemaking experience with fruit grown in the distinctive soils and climate of the Lake Erie region.
Burch Farms Country Market & Winery
Farm to Glass
Discover what “farm to glass” really means at Burch Farms, a seventh-generation family farm. Explore the farm’s long history of growing grapes, apples and peaches and, weather permitting, take a hayride to a scenic overlook. Then taste apple wines alongside the very apple varieties from which they were made. Finally, put your senses to work in a playful tasting challenge featuring some of the farm’s signature fruits—including apples, grapes and Red Haven peaches.
About the Winery
At Burch Farms, wine is part of a much larger agricultural story. The multi-generational North East farm grows grapes, apples and peaches, while its winery turns fruit from the farm and other Pennsylvania growers into traditional grape wines as well as distinctive apple and specialty fruit wines.
South Shore Wine Company
Get into the Bubbles
What puts the sparkle in sparkling wine? Explore the history, science and craft behind the bubbles at South Shore Wine Company, the Mazza family’s historic “Sparkling House.” You’ll discover different methods of sparkling wine production, learn how those choices influence flavor and character, and taste the results for yourself. It’s an up-close look at a fascinating winemaking tradition in a setting with its own special connection to the history of Lake Erie wine.
About the Winery
History is literally built into South Shore Wine Company. Originally established in the 1860s as Erie County’s first commercial winery, the property was restored and reopened by the Mazza family in 2007 and features a remarkable Civil War-era stone wine cavern—a fitting home for a winery with a special emphasis on sparkling wines.
Leave the Driving to Someone Else
Want to enjoy the tastings without worrying about driving? Our transportation partners offer private transportation throughout Lake Erie Wine Country. Contact them directly to arrange transportation for your Behind the Vines experience.
Chautauqua Limousine Service
La Grande Elite
Rupp Limousine
Make a Weekend of It
Behind the Vines may be the reason you’re coming—but there’s plenty more to discover while you’re here. Whether your perfect fall weekend means hiking among spectacular rock formations, laughing with comedy legends, exploring Lake Erie’s maritime history or simply taking in the scenery, we’ve put together some of our favorite ways to extend your stay.
Get Outside
Peak n Peek Resort — https://www.pknpk.com/
Panama Rocks — https://www.panamarocks.com/
For Nature Lovers
Audubon Community Nature Center — https://auduboncnc.org/
Roger Tory Peterson Institute — https://rtpi.org/
Come for the Laughs
National Comedy Center — https://comedycenter.org/
Lucy & Desi Museum — https://lucydesi.com/
Explore Lake Erie
Erie Maritime Museum — https://www.eriemaritimemuseum.org/
Dunkirk Lighthouse — https://www.dunkirklighthouse.com/
Discover Local History
Robert H. Jackson Center — https://www.roberthjackson.org/
Fenton History Center — https://fentonhistorycenter.org/
Looking for more ways to explore?
Our friends at Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau (https://www.tourchautauqua.com) and VisitErie (https://visiterie.com) have plenty more ideas for building your Lake Erie Wine Country Weekend.
