cover story
Written by Jill Cueni-Cohen | Photos by David Pinchot
 |
|
It took a while for Ted Miller to master his Avella vineyard, which is now home to seven acres of wine-producing grapes.
|
Locals don’t have to look far to find a great bottle of wine.
Washington County has much to offer — interesting historical sites, harness racing, antique shops, minor league baseball, arts and entertainment venues, covered bridges and fabulous local wines.
Wait a minute. Wines?
It’s true — residents of Washington County can enjoy a tempting variety of locally-made wines, and many come from vintage grapes grown and fermented right in their own backyard. Pennsylvania isn’t exactly known as wine country, but with a climate and landscape similar to that of the French countryside, our state is home to over 80 wineries and vineyards.
If this surprises you, then you’ll be shocked to learn that when it comes to growing grapes, Pennsylvania is ranked fourth in the country, according to the Pennsylvania Wine Association. Nearly 14,000 acres of Pennsylvania land is used for grape growing. Granted, some of these are juice grapes, but boasting the two highest elevation vineyards east of the Rockies, the Commonwealth is also one of the top ten producers of wine.
CT Miller Vineyards
Snuggled within the rolling hills of Avella, Pa. is CT Miller Vineyards, a 102-acre farm where Ted and Janet Miller practice the venerable art of winemaking.
CT Miller Vineyards was born from Janet’s desire to make a barrel of wine and inherit her Italian grandmother’s wine-making equipment. It was a venture that Ted, a cattle farmer and physician, would help to cultivate, so long as they grew their own grapes.
Ted found cattle farming a non-time intensive pursuit. He quickly learned that this does not apply to the vineyard. “I underestimated the amount of field work by at least 30 percent,” he says. “It’s labor-intensive, and there’s always something to do.”
In 1998, Ted planted 80 grape vines, and the couple watched them not grow. “It was kind of a defeat,” said Ted. So he planted 2,100 vines the next year and thought about making Janet’s barrel of wine and selling the rest of the grapes. Drought stunted that crop, but it didn’t dampen his spirits, and so he went back and planted 2,900 more vines the next year
“Almost everything grew, and vines that barely made it the first year were doing quite well,” recalls Ted, who decided not to sell his grapes after all and returned to the original plan of making wine for retail sale.
With more than seven acres of wine-producing grapes, CT Miller Vineyards opened for business in 2001.
Though it’s a painstaking process, Ted and Janet talk about growing grapes and making wine with a gleam in their eyes, and laugh about the fact that they haven’t taken a real vacation in many years. The vineyard consumes much of their time -- and they clearly love it.
