At Mazza Winery and Vineyards in North East, it’s a rush of activity. Workers are moving and pouring huge crates of just picked Niagara grapes into the presses, extracting the precious, flavorful juice for making white wines.
According to general manager Mario Mazza, they started picking and processing the large volume Niagara crop last week. “So we start off with some bigger volume, higher tonnage runs to get the team up and going, you know knock the cobwebs off. “It’s been 10 months since we’ve done this, and then we get into the some of the fun things from a winemakers perspective as well,” he said.
The area’s significant grape crop, which comprises most of the 13,000 acres in Pennsylvania, factors into the state’s two largest economic drivers — agriculture and tourism. “Our industry touches on those both and given that most of the grapes are grown in Erie County, we contribute significantly to that economic impact for the state,” Mazza said…