In honor of the NFL's Enshrinement Week, I present my Wine Hall of Fame | Phil Your Glass

All eyes will be on Canton next week when seven more football heroes will be ceremoniously welcomed into the hallowed halls of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Aug. 3.

Some of the Enshrinement Week festivities include a parade, a fashion show and an enshrinees' dinner.

What to know: 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival guide

I’d love to unveil a few of my Wine Hall of Famers that could add a bit of local pizazz to the celebration on George Halas Drive. These three winemakers with local ties deserve some recognition amid the festivities.

From GlenOak High to Winemaker of the Year

Wouldn’t it be nice to see 1990 GlenOak High School graduate Helen Keplinger waving to fans along the Cleveland Avenue parade route?

Keplinger, who lives in Napa Valley, was named 2023 Winemaker of the Year by Vinous Media, as well as Food & Wine magazine's Winemaker of the Year in 2012. She has made wine for holy grail wineries Bryant Family, Kenzo Estate, and Grace Family and currently makes wine for golfer Cristie Kerr in addition to her own Keplinger and Vermillion labels.

I’m sure if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell were to have a bottle of Keplinger’s 100-point 2021 RBK Oakville cabernet, she’d have her own car in the Grand Parade right behind Chicago Bear great Devin Hester.

Another GlenOak grad produces stellar wines

My Italian heritage taught me there’s always room for one more at the dinner table.

So, why not make room for 2009 GlenOak graduate CJ McCollum at the Enshrinees' Gold Jacket Dinner? If you are counting, that’s two more GlenOak Eagles in addition to Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf.

McCollum, a member of the NBA New Orleans Pelicans, launched his McCollum Heritage 91 wines in 2020. He currently produces a rosé, pinot noir, chardonnay, and sparkling wine through Adelsheim Vineyards in Newberg, Oregon.

McCollum and his wife, Elise, acquired a 318-acre vineyard property in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in Oregon in 2021 and will announce plans for the site at a later date. McCollum will also be one of the celebrity winemakers at the upcoming Charleston Food & Wine Classic on Sept. 27-29.

It would be so cool to see McCollum’s $133 bottle of 2017 Sparkling Blanc De Blancs being poured as A-listers file into the Canton Civic Center for the Enshrinees' Gold Jacket Dinner. I’m sure Green Bay Packer, Hall of Fame member and Akron resident Dave Robinson wouldn’t mind a flute to toast the seven new inductees when they arrive.

Massillon native finds success in Napa

The Certified Angus Beef prepared by local chef Gavin Pinto would certainly pair nicely with a glass of Paddington Down red made by Massillon native Julian Christian.

The former assistant manager of fine dining at Bender’s Tavern in downtown Canton has been making wine with his wife, Kathryn Siegfried, in Napa Valley since 2019.

The couple's newest project, a St. Helena cabernet from the Durbin Vineyard, looks like it will be a spectacular wine when it is released in the spring of 2025. The nearly six acres of cabernet grapes were planted by vineyard savant David Abreu.

I happily sampled the wine last week with Christian in the vineyard. By the way, the first day of spring is March 20.

A tavern for the ages

I popped in on Bender’s Tavern's fourth-generation owner Jon Jacob the other day to share a glass of Keplinger’s 2021 Solitaire syrah that I had purchased last week at her Napa Valley tasting room. I was happy to learn it was Jacob's first time trying this particular wine made by Keplinger, even though the restaurant features an extensive collection of her wines among its 2,500 cellar selections. Jacob went to high school with Keplinger back in the day, and is a big fan of her wines.

In between sips of Keplinger's syrah and Christian's newly released (mailing list) Toxic Positivity rosé, Jacob gave me a brief history of the tavern, which has been a fixture at 137 Court Avenue S.W. in downtown Canton since 1906.

Aside from having the best wine cellar in all of Canton, the historic restaurant has played an integral part in NFL and Hall of Fame lore.

It’s where Ralph Hay and Jim Thorpe stopped on September 17, 1920, to celebrate with a bottle of whiskey after signing a deal to form the NFL, Jacob said.

"In 1962, my grandfather [Wilbur Jacob] helped organize the meetings to get all of the guys together to figure out how to bring the Pro Football Hall of Fame to Canton, Ohio," Jacob said as he pointed out historic photos hanging in the restaurant’s hall of fame room. If those walls could talk, it would be a story for the ages.

"I’ve had everybody in here from Nancy Pelosi to Peyton Manning and Mike Ditka,” Jacob said as we walked up the steps after touring the restaurant's wine cellar that included rare bottles produced by the who’s who of the world of wine. You name it, and they have it.

There’s plenty of bottles of Keplinger and Vermillion along with a case of Christian’s 2020 Paddington Down red, just in case Commissioner Goodell or Hall of Fame President Jim Porter happen to stop in.

Email me at philyourglass@gmail.com with any wine questions and follow me on Instagram @pmasturzo_philyourglass

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: In honor of the NFL's Enshrinement Week, I present my Wine Hall of Fame | Phil Your Glass