Wet Your Whistle at These Wineries and Craft Beverage Producers During People’s Choice

This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette .

CENTRE HALL — The annual People’s Choice Festival of Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts will return for its 30th year from Thursday, July 11, to Sunday, July 14.

The festival, which started as a small local event, has grown into a Centre County tradition, drawing in more than 110,000 visitors from near and far to celebrate the arts, music, food and more. This year will feature a wide range of art vendors, food stands and wineries.

Each winery is from Pennsylvania and will offer a variety of wines for attendees to try.

“Being a proud Pennsylvania winery, we love supporting this local arts festival that only showcases PA products. It’s important to us to showcase our wines in an environment that supports local businesses,” Hungry Run Wine Cellars wrote to The Centre County Gazette. Hungry Run will have a range of dry red and white wines, sweet wines and its new sangria wine spritzer to try.

In addition to wines, select ciders will be available from a few Pennsylvania cideries and meaderies.

“We are proud of our unique and delicious ciders, and we think that a lot of people will enjoy them, too, Punx Cider Worx shared. “Each crafted cider is created with intentionality and integrates surprising and delicious flavors, often from locally harvested produce.”

Some local Centre County wineries will also be in attendance, including University Wine Company, which will have its resealable wine slushy pouches available in its tent. “We attend events like the People’s Choice Festival to showcase our winery and products so that people can sample them, learn about them, and hopefully enjoy them enough to purchase them as well as visit us directly at the winery,” University Wine Company shared with The Gazette. “We look forward to seeing friends and existing customers as well as making new ones.”

While visiting the People’s Choice Festival of Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts at Grange Park in Centre Hall, make sure to stop by these craft beverage makers for a tasting:

Deep Roots Hard Cider

Deep Roots Hard Cider is from Sugar Run and makes a wide range of hard ciders. Its first cider was sold in 2015. The following year it produced raspberry and blueberry ciders in addition to the original product. In 2017 the business expands its range of hard ciders and introduced a dessert wine.

While Deep Roots Hard Cider will be visiting the People’s Choice Festival, it also has a tasting room at its 348 Back Road, Sugar Run, location.

Happy Valley Vineyard & Winery

As the name suggests, this winery is located right in the heart of Happy Valley at 576 S. Foxpointe Drive, State College. It was established in 1999 and produces a wide range of wines, from dry, fruity whites to oaky, full-bodied reds. About 90% of the grapes used to make the wines are grown at the winery. In 2010 the winery itself was built, which people can visit for a tasting.

“We grow premium grapes that produce wines with distinctive varietal character. Although we focus on dry whites and dry reds, our list of thirty plus wines has something that will please every palate,” Happy Valley Vineyard & Winery’s website noted.

Hawstone Hollow Winery

Hawstone Hollow Winery is located at 11 Hawstone Road in Lewistown. The winery produces 26 different wines, including sweet fruit wines like mango, peach, black raspberry, blueberry and more. It also produces select meads.

“Our wines are handcrafted in small batches to ensure that every bottle produced has exceptional quality,” Hawstone Hollow Winery’s website shared.

The winery also has a space where it puts on live music and events for people to enjoy while trying its wine.

Hungry Run Wine Cellars

This winery also hails from Lewistown and is located at 10042 U.S. 533 South. The wine bar and restaurant has been family and locally owned since 2015 and serves more than wine, offering a range of brunch, lunch and dinner options. On weekends live music is put on for people to enjoy while sampling wine.

While the winery produces classic wines like riesling, chardonnay, pinot grigio, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and more, it also produces some unique sips like a salted caramel dessert wine, lavender lemon wine, sangria and other products.

Hungry Run is a member of the Pennsylvania Wine Association, Susquehanna Heartland Wine Tour, Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce and Juniata River Valley Wine Trail.

KingView Mead

This meadery, which first started making mead in 2015, can be found in the Tanger Outlets at 2200 Tanger Blvd., Suite 520, Washington, Pennsylvania. Since then , it has made over 50 different varieties of mead.

According to its website, “KingView Mead seeks to introduce you to your ancestors and reconnect you with nature. The oldest of all alcohols, mead’s history predates medieval knights, Viking exploration and the Roman empire. It even goes back before the time of the Egyptian pharaohs.”

While visiting KingView’s booth at People’s Choice, try some of its award-winning meads, like the Happy Apple Pie that won gold prize at the 2021 Pennsylvania Farm Show.

Mason Dixon Distillery

Gettysburg is not just home to Civil War history. Mason Dixon Distillery can be found at 331 E. Water St., Gettysburg, and is known for its small-batch spirits. The craft products are distilled and hand bottled in a century-old furniture factory, and are made from local ingredients whenever possible.

When visiting Mason Dixon Distillery’s tent, keep an eye out for its vodka, rum and corn whiskey. After sampling some of its products, you will want to visit to take a tour of the distillery and learn how the spirits are made and enjoy a bite to eat in the onsite restaurant.

Punx Cider Worx

Located in Punxsutawney, this cidery initially “started as a hobby of two friends,” and has since extended to producing a range of refreshing ciders.

“We are so humbled and honored to be chosen as a participant in The People’s Choice Festival,” Punx Cider Worx shared with The Centre County Gazette. “We hope that people stop by our tent to sample what we have made.”

Seven Mountains Wine Cellars

Located at 324 Decker Valley Road, Spring Mills, this Centre County winery was opened in 2008 by Scott Bubb and his wife, Mary Ann. The winery sells close to 40 types of wines, from sweet, semi-dry and dry whites and reds to crisp rosé, blueberry and cranberry wines, blackberry merlots and more.

Seven Mountains Wine Cellars hosts regular events featuring live music. In addition to wine, the winery sells food on Saturdays and Sundays at its Patio Grille.

Starr Hill Vineyard and Winery

Starr Hill Vineyard and Winery has made wine since 2005. While the winery is located at 861 Bailey Road in Curwensville, it also has tasting rooms at the State College Walmart on the Benner Pike, the Clearfield Walmart at 100 Supercenter Drive and the Butler Walmart at 400 Butler Commons.

While visiting the winery’s tent at People’s Choice, keep an eye out for some of the winery’s award winning wines, like its malbec, which was a PA Farm Show winner. The winery produces semi-dry and dry white and red wines, sweet wines and specialty fruit wines, like the Banana I’m Back wine and the Sweet Spot Blueberry Lemon wine.

University Wine Company

This State College winery can be found at 540 Misty Hill Drive. The family-owned winery has a wine for everybody, but its unique product is its U-Freeze Wine Slush. This wine slushy comes in a bag that can be popped into the freezer and then served as a wine slushy.

If a tasting at the festival is not enough for you, visit University Wine Company for a tasting flight or to enjoy a glass of wine or bottle or a Pennsylvania craft beer.

For more information on the People’s Choice Festival, see The Centre County Gazette’s special festival guide, inserted into the regular paper on Wednesday, July 3.

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