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Sarah’s Vineyard
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: August 27, 2013
There is a vineyard across the street from the main gate at Blossom. The first planting was in 2003, and the business started out quietly, with a little bit of hope from its owners that they would not have to just sit on the porch and consume all of their own wine.
Ten years later, and owners Mike and Margaret Lytz’s say Sarah’s Vineyard is a success beyond their wildest expectations. The business first opened its doors in May 2007.
The Lytz’s were in the first wave of people who contracted with the Conservancy for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to move in and use land in the national park for private projects. The park had opened itself up to limited, land-based redevelopment in 2002. The Lytz’s proposed a vineyard on an old farm site, the proposal was accepted and Sarah’s was born.
“This was the only piece of property in the Conservancy program that looked like a good place to grow grapes,” said Margaret, who said the land gets plenty of sun and sits on a hill that slopes from north to south.
Both of the Lytz’s had other careers, and were looking at retirement time, when they launched this project. Mike, a home winemaker, took agriculture classes at OSU Wooster. Margaret worked as a nurse.
The vineyard and fruit farm is named after Margaret’s late daughter Sarah, who died in a tragic auto accident in 1998. The business is carried on in her memory.
The first step in operating a winery is planting grapes. Sarah’s has three acres planted in a number of varieties, including Vidal, Seyval, Frontenac, Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin, Traminette, Cayuga, Niagara and Rubiana.
In addition to their own harvest, the winery also brings in grapes from other parts of Ohio, California and elsewhere. This helps hedge against something like the frost of last October, which damaged the grape vines at Sarah’s.
The main public building at the vineyard was constructed from Civil War-era wooden barn beams, and finished in cherry, aspen, poplar, walnut and maple. The main building houses a tasting room that also serves as an art gallery. There is also local art on virtually every wall, much of it themed around the national park.
Guests may also eat and drink in a loft area, on the main floor of the restaurant, or outside on the deck, which overlooks the grape vines, and which has a fire pit where “new friends are made all of the time,” said Simpson.
The property also contains a butterfly garden.
Pretty soon (depending on construction and permits), Sarah’s will open a new outdoor pavilion, complete with a three-story fireplace made of stones dug up from the streets of Cleveland.
Sarah’s offers a small menu, including pizza from a wood fired oven and various cheeses and sandwiches, but, in a rarity, allows guests to bring their own food in (most of the time). No outside alcohol is allowed.
Reservations are highly recommended. On a recent Wednesday afternoon visit, every table in the lower area of the restaurant was reserved for dinner.
In another truly innovative gesture, Sarah’s Vineyard may be the only winery in the country, and certainly in the state, to serve wine from taps, rather than selling and opening bottles at the winery.
The Lytz’s got the idea from wineries that they visited in Italy.
This is new technology, although it is actually simply beer tap technology adapted to the needs of pouring wine. “We use what are basically beer kegs to hold the wine,” said Sarah Simpson, the facility’s manager. “The difference is that we use nitrogen instead of CO2.”
Then the wine is served by the glass, by the half-carafe, or by the carafe. “That is how they do it in Italy,” she said.
Simpson said that using taps for wine is a part of the winery’s pledge to run the business in as green a way as possible. Countryside Conservancy farms are charged with creating as little environmental impact as possible, and the use of taps reduces the needs for packaging and transporting bottling materials, as well as reducing waste.
This also produces better value and a healthier product, because the sulfide level is much lower in wines that sit in the metal kegs, said Simpson.
Sarah’s Vineyard is open 12 months of the year. For more information,, visit www.sarahsvineyardwinery.com.