If you’re someone who likes to travel with guidebook in hand, two new books on Ohio wineries should be in your shopping cart.
Author and public relations expert Patricia Latimer has just released an updated edition of her 2005 book Ohio Wine Country Excursions (University of Akron Press, 261 pp., $24.95/paper). With a foreword by Markko Vineyard’s Arnie Esterer, the book offers historical background on Ohio’s wine heritage as well as individual entries for more than 80 wineries throughout the state. Latimer interviewed many colorful wine personalities for her book, making this both an entertaining and informative wine-touring companion.
Ohio’s Lake Erie Wineries (Arcadia Publishing, 128 pp., $21.99/paper), by Cleveland-area writer Claudia J. Taller, will be released on June 20. It also promises to deliver plenty of winemaking history, concentrating on the areas along the lake, including South Bass Island (Put-in-Bay), which was the home of 24 wineries in its vinous heyday. She traces the evolution from those early days through Prohibition to today’s renaissance. Winery owner and winemaker Lee Klingshirn has written the foreword.
Kudos to these two authors for bringing deserved attention to Ohio’s rich winemaking history and exciting new developments.