Cincinnati Wine: An Effervescent History

Wine and Cincinnati were once a perfect pairing, so much so that the Queen City nickname was inspired by Sparkling Catawba Wine, the delectable libation that sparked the Catawba Craze of the mid-1800s. Longworth’s Golden Wedding Sparkling Catawba was the most celebrated, but Werk’s Golden Eagle and Red Cross, Corneau’s Cornucopia, Thompson’s Hillside, Bogen’s Diamond, Mottier’s National Premium and Schumann’s Queen Victoria also bolstered the city’s reputation as the American Rhineland. These winemakers passed their knowledge on to Lake Erie, the New York Finger Lakes, Pennsylvania, Missouri and California. Today, that knowledge has returned home, as Henke, Skeleton Root, Meier and Vinoklet hope to make the city a wine haven once again. Food historian Dann Woellert leads a tour through Cincy’s storied past and promising future with the grape and the vine.