Discover Medina County Wineries

Sipping on wine is more than just an experience for your tastebuds – it’s an all-around adventure that allows you to spend quality time with friends and family, all while soaking in the sights and sounds of Ohio's beautiful scenery.

As National Wine Month winds down, consider taking a trip to three great wineries found within Medina County: High & Low Winery, Filia Cellars, and It’s Your Winery. All offer a fantastic selection of wines in comfortable Ohio countryside settings.

High & Low Winery is located in the City of Medina, and boasts that it is a place to meet all of your moods – whether you are looking for something casual or classy, laid back or upbeat, High & Low Winery has you covered.

The winery looks like a French chalet on the outside, and has a warm and modern feel on the inside. There's a fantastic menu to pair with the large selection of wines, including delicious paninis (try the Good Golly Miss Molly) and meat & cheese plates.

On a recent visit to High & Low Winery, me and some friends sat on the back porch, listening to local live acoustic music, and taking advantage of the great deals associated with their weekday happy hour! I tasted several wines, and would highly recommend the King Of The Heavies (a dry cabernet franc) or the Misunderstood (a rich merlot). If you're like me, you'll also appreciate the artwork found on the wine bottles, and you'll love the friendly staff!

Located just a few minutes down the street from High & Low (also in the City of Medina) is one of my new favorite spots, It's Your Winery. It has a small tasting room and retail area, and an enormous area for wine production!

It's Your Winery is named as such because it specializes specifically in offering patrons the unique experience of using state-of-the-art equipment to produce their own wine to take home with them in small batch form (30 bottles for a full case, or 15 bottles for a half case).

The winemaking process at It's Your Winery takes up to 10 weeks. You first come in to choose the wine you want to make, then begin the process with step-by-step instructions from knowledgeable staff. You come back in several weeks when the fermentation process has completed. This is when you bottle, cork, cap, and label the wine (with your own personalized labels)!

It's Your Winery has a HUGE selection of fruit wines. Everything from a cherry/peach sangria to a cranberry wine to a raspberry wine. Even if you don’t want to make your own wine, you can still come in and have a glass or some tastings!

Last on our tour of Medina County wineries is Filia Cellars, a new winery located in the City of Wadsworth. On a recent visit, the owners greeted me warmly, and I was told much about the history of the family’s wine business.

Wines here are made with grapes grown both here in Ohio (the white wines), and on the owner’s property in California (the red wines). The name, Filia, means “daughter” in Latin, and some of the wines are named after strong females in the family (Isabella, Hannah, Lillian).

Filia Cellars has a relaxing backyard atmosphere, complete with a duck pond, Adirondack chairs, and picnic tables with umbrellas. There is a small stage for live music, yoga sessions, paint parties, and even visits from local food trucks (Get Stuffed was there on my recent visit).

What I like best is that the outdoor section of the winery is dog friendly, so I was able to bring my little pup Slider with me, and my friends brought their French bulldog Beau! We sipped on the delicious dry reds and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

Adopt Your Own Wine At Camelot Cellars

Photos by OHventures

I have been coming to Camelot Cellars in the Short North in Columbus for years - in groups to celebrate a birthday, with a couple of friends for a special event, and even by myself for a quick glass of vino after a long day of work. All are enjoyable experiences, but what makes Camelot Cellars stand out in my opinion is that they offer customers the chance to handcraft (or adopt) their own wine!

The handcrafting process allows you the chance to make your very own wine using the equipment on site at Camelot. You come in and taste various wines to see which you want to make, then you are guided through the process - adding the chosen grape/fruit juice(s), correct amount of yeast, oak, etc. Then, you come back about 12 weeks later to complete the process, which consists of bottling, corking, capping, and labeling (you can design your own labels too).

The entire wine making experience can be read in full here on OHventures in Part I and Part II.

This year, instead of making my own wine at Camelot Cellars, I ADOPTED my own wine instead.

What does that mean? Well, if you don't have 12 weeks, you can skip the first step and "ADOPT" wine - meaning, they have the wine already fermented in a large container ready for you to just come in and bottle, cork, cap, and label!

The wine this year was "Blush Mime Blush Wine" (an inside joke) - an Australian Grenache Rose!

The wine label I created for my adopted wine (pink for breast cancer awareness in October)

Wine adoption was just as fun as wine making (just a tad less personal and a bit more expensive - but all worth it!). I brought my family with me and it was an awesome bonding time - and a memory creator for sure. I buy a case that I give out to everyone as Christmas gifts each year - personalized and unique!

So, there ya go! Camelot Cellars is your answer if you want to handcraft or bottle up your own wine without all of the crazy equipment at home. Do it now!

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Just like our blog, you'll find all kinds of exciting ideas of things to do in Ohio, including:

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Winemaking Part II

Photos by OHventures

At the end of June of this year (which was Ohio Wines Month), I decided to embark on a journey in winemaking. Rather than purchasing hundreds of dollars of equipment and brewing my own wine at home (like my father does), I opted to take advantage of the handcrafted winemaking experience offered locally at Camelot Cellars Urban Boutique Winery in the Short North in Columbus. My first visit just over three months ago involved many steps to get the red stuff going! I had to sample a variety of wines, choose the kind I wanted to concoct, mix together the grape juice, and add additional ingredients (such as oak chips, yeast, benzonite, and grape skins). Part 1 of my winemaking experience was documented on the blog. Now, after 12 weeks of fermentation, it was time for me to start Part 2!

I will admit that Part 2 of my winemaking process was much more enjoyable than Part 1! There were 5 major steps involved: cleaning, bottling, corking, capping, and labeling.

1. Cleaning: The very first step (after throwing on a snazzy Camelot Cellars apron, of course) was to clean and sanitize the bottles in which my wine would be going. It was a rather basic process: I placed the empty bottles on nozzles that squirted water and a cleaning chemical into the bottle, and then I placed the bottle on a rack to dry. It was a simple, but very necessary step to get rid of any dirt, dust, or germs on the bottles!

 

 

2. Bottling: Next, Rick from Camelot Cellars hooked up the huge glass container that held my wine (a South Australian Single Vineyard Shiraz) to an impressive looking machine for bottling. The contraption (pictured above) had four tubes running from the container of wine to four separate dispensers. Pushing the wine against the dispensers would essentially suck the wine from the container, through the tube, and into the bottle, stopping at just the right spot so that it didn't overflow. I am not sure of the exact science and mechanics behind this fancy invention, but I knew it was much simpler than pouring and funneling each bottle of wine by hand!

3. Corking: Probably the coolest and most fun of the five steps was the corking process. Another fancy machine helped achieve this with ease and perfection. I individually corked each bottle by taking Camelot Cellars cork from a bowl of cleaning solution, and placing it in the top of the cylindrical device (pictured above). I then placed a bottle in the bottom part of the device, closed the door, and watched as - like magic - the cork was shoved into the top of the bottle. The machine was probably rather simple, but it still was fun to watch!

4. Capping: Capping the wine was next. The caps are the plastic material (or in some cases, an aluminum-type material) that are placed over top of the corks on the neck of the wine bottles which are peeled or torn off before opening. I was given a variety of cap to choose from, and I opted for a traditional red-colored "sleeve" with golden grapes. I placed the caps on each of the bottles, inserted the bottle in a apparatus with red-hot coils, and swifty and quickly removed it from the coils. In a split second, the plastic had melted onto the bottle. I had to be careful, as holding the plastic near the hot coils any longer would cause it to burn!

 

5. Labeling: The absolute final step in winemaking at Camelot Cellars was labeling my bottles. I had earlier (at home) drawn my very own label (and had it touched up in PhotoShop). I then emailed the image to Rick at Camelot Cellars, who then printed off the design onto stickers for me to place onto the bottles of wine. I had chosen the name The Red Mime Red Wine for my creation. This was because my childhood nickname with my family (that has stuck over the years, for better or for worse), was "Mime" because at a very young age, I had trouble pronouncing my name "Mike." I thought this was fitting, as most of the wine would be going to family and close friends familiar with the nickname. I was proud of the artwork I had created and admired it as I applied the label to each bottle.

I walked out of Camelot Cellars with a crate of 15 bottles of wine. It took time, patience, creativity, and some money, but I can proudly say that I made my very own wine from start to finish!

 

Winemaking Part I

Photos by OHventures

Camelot Cellars Urban Boutique Winery
958 High Street
Columbus, OH 43201
(614) 441-8860

House Bill 491 just passed in the Ohio House of Representatives that designates the month of June as Ohio Wines Month. Representatives Casey Kozlowski and Ron Young of Ashtabula and Lake Counties, respectively, recognized the need to acknowledge the flourishing wine industry in our state, which has a significant impact on our economy, from the farmers who grow the grapes, to the truck drivers who transport the product, and the retail workers who sell the wine in stores. With that in mind, it’s only fitting that I decided to take my love of wine to a whole new level this past month.

Now, thanks to Camelot Cellars Urban Boutique Winery in the Short North in Columbus, you can participate in this growing trend in our state by handcrafting your very own wine! For those wine aficionados who are ultra-ambitious (and have an extra $200-$400 on hand), you can make personalized wine with the right tools and ingredients in the presence of skilled professionals. Camelot Cellars offers patrons this extra special opportunity in their on-site wine lab, tucked in the back of their retail store and bar. It is the one and only location in the state of Ohio that offers such a service (although I hope and suspect that many more will follow suit)!

For me, making wine was a way of following in my father’s footsteps. He has made wine for years at home from grapes picked right off of my grandfather’s vines. He often hands out his homemade goods on special occasions, such as birthdays and Christmas. This sparked in me the curiosity to try it for myself. Thanks to Drink Up Columbus (a kickass local blog on everything you need to know about imbibing in the capital city), I received a coupon for $50 off a winemaking experience at Camelot Cellars. This prompted me even further to get things started.

I scheduled my winemaking appointment with good friend and owner of the fantastic Camelot Cellars, Janine Aquino. She was very helpful in setting up my session and answering all questions I had. It is important to note that making your own wine will take a great deal of knowledge, skill, work, time and patience. You will not be able to walk out with your completed wine right away, as it is a lengthy process that takes months! Knowing this, I decided that my batch of wine would be ready just in time for Christmas, so it would make a perfect holiday gift, much like my father had done.

My appointment was on a Thursday evening in June and took approximately two hours. The two hours flew by, and included drinking specially selected wines, so I was okay with that! The first part of the process is sitting down one-on-one with the owner, Janine, who will help you choose six wines to taste in order to determine what kind of wine you’d like to make. Janine said this is one of her favorite parts of her jobs, as she gets to match a person’s palate to their preferred wine type. For me, that meant red wines with smoky, oaky, spicy, dry flavors. With this in mind and with Janine’s help, I narrowed my six wines down to that one perfect wine: South Australian Single Vineyard Shiraz. It is very different, which is a taste I was going for!

The next part of the process was heading to the wine lab itself to prepare the wine with a staff member. Brian was the staff member who assisted me. He instructed me step-by-step as to what I had to do to get my wine ready to go. I poured the grape juice, added bentonite (which reduces cloudiness in my wine), grape skins, oak chips, oak powder, and finally, yeast (which I added at the end in the formation of an “O” for OHventures). This was quite a process, as I had to submerge all of the oak chips and powder in a delicate motion. Having more people with you in the winemaking experience would speed up the process.

Now, all I do is wait patiently and return to Camelot Cellars in 12 weeks to check on my wine. In the meantime, I have to come up with a name and a label for my wine, so all suggestions are welcome! I will update you all on my winemaking experience this fall!