A grape adventure: New winery passport aims to make western Massachusetts a wine destination

When tourists visit western Massachusetts, wine may not be on their menu of must-taste local staples. Eight wineries across the region want to change that.

“Think of areas like Napa, the Finger Lakes, even Long Island, areas in Virginia; there’s such a thing as wine tourism, and western Mass. isn’t known for wine tourism, but we do have a handful of vineyards,” said Rachel Kremer, the events and marketing manager at Glendale Ridge Vineyard in Southampton. “You could spend a long weekend here and drink a lot of really good wine and see some cool vineyards and wineries … it strengthens the local economy.”

This is the goal of the Western Massachusetts Winery Passport, a project led by Leslie Cameron, who runs Cameron’s Winery in Northfield with her husband Paul Cameron. Throughout November, regulars and first-time visitors picked up the passports at the wineries and tasted wines at the eight stops before an employee stamped their passport brochures.

In addition to Glendale Ridge Vineyard and Cameron’s Winery, other participating businesses include Agronomy Farm Vineyard in Oakham, Hardwick Winery in Hardwick, Black Birch Vineyard in North Hatfield, Mineral Hills Winery at Godard’s Red Hen Farm in Florence, Home Fruit Wine in Orange, and Wine Haus and Vineyard at Jameson Farm in Granby.

In order to collect a stamp, patrons need to make a purchase at one of the participating businesses. Once a passport is filled with all eight stamps, that booklet will be entered into a drawing for a secret prize from one of the wineries. Each passport must be turned into one of the wineries by the Saturday, Dec. 20 deadline.

“You really wouldn’t think in western Massachusetts that you could sit outside with a glass of wine next to the grapes that were grown to make the wine. In our minds, we’re not thinking about that, but that’s exactly what you could do on our property … sit outside and bask in what it means to be in western Massachusetts while also drinking incredible wine,” Kremer said.

Since the passport’s start, Kremer said regulars have stopped by excited to participate and some new customers have shared, “It’s our fourth vineyard of the day, we’ve just been bopping around!”

Unlike other wine trails in Connecticut or Napa Valley, travelers can taste a few unexpected flavors on the western Massachusetts path. At Hardwick Winery, customers can pull pumpkin wine, lavender wine and asparagus wine off of the shelves, or snag a culinary wine or a “nice conversation piece” for a dinner party, said Kaitlin Young, Hardwick’s tasting room operations manager. Home Fruit Wine sells a beet wine, called “Beet Le Juice,” and a kiwi wine. The winery’s menu also once offered a potato and onion wine.

“We play around a lot,” said Lori Perkins, who runs Home Fruit Wine with her husband David Leclaire. The pair take inspiration from the fruit and vegetables in their garden, as well as their friends’ farms and extras left at farmers market booths.

“Everybody has their own products and their own ideas,” Perkins said of the other wineries on the passport path.

For Marissa O’Connor, a chemical engineer, and her husband Corey O’Connor, a retired formulation chemist, winemaking is both a science and an art.

“You can have certain metrics and numbers in regards to the wine, but a lot of it does come from the art, as well as tasting it, and trying it, and pairing it with different foods, and creating something really special,” said Marissa O’Connor, who grows grape wines with her husband for their winery, Agronomy Farm Vineyard. “It’s not the same recipe every single time.”

Agronomy refers to the “science and technology of making food from plants,” she explained. Her family’s dog, Brixy the Australian Shepard, was named after another crucial word for winemakers, “Brix,” the unit for measuring sugar in a grape, which in addition to acidity is a key factor in determining the best time to harvest grapes for wine.

“I think there’s a lot happening in the central Massachusetts area for farmers in addition to artists and creative people,” O’Connor added. When Leslie Camerson reached out to her about the passport, she said, “it was a no-brainer.”

“Anything that can bring us together and create a draw for the little small wineries is really powerful,” she said.

Like Agronomy Farm and Vineyard, Wine Haus and Vineyard also sticks with wine’s classic start: grapes.

“The nice thing about western Massachusetts is although there are several, there’s not an oversaturation of vineyards,” said Wine Haus manager Jennifer Ledoux, seemingly unaware of her juicy pun.

“When it comes to winemaking, each winemaker’s so different, we all put our own spin on our wines, and that’s what I think makes the western Massachusetts wine community such a staple,” Young from Hardwick Winery said.

“Individually we are winemakers with different genres of wine. We are individually fulfilling our dreams, our scientific selves and our passions,” Leslie Cameron said. “Together we become a culture, a wine culture of very good wine.”

Interested in collecting your own stamps? Stop by one of the eight participating vineyards or wineries and grab your own passport.