Pennsylvania Wine: A History

From the banks of the Delaware River to the shores of Lake Erie, the fields and hillsides of Pennsylvania are home to a rich tradition of winemaking. Though both William Penn and Benjamin Franklin advocated for the production of wine, it was not until 1787 that Pierre Legaux founded the first commercial vineyard in the state and the nation. Veteran wine journalists Hudson Cattell and Linda Jones McKee offer more than just a taste of the complex story of the Pennsylvania wine industry–from the discovery of the Alexander grape and the boom of Erie County wineries in the nineteenth century to the challenges of Prohibition and the first farm wineries that opened in the 1970s. Join Cattell and McKee as they explore the Keystone State’s distinct wine regions and tap the cask on their robust history.