While we were in Pennsylvania last weekend, we were able to squeeze in a visit to Franklin Hill Vineyards. My niece Kayla has been working there for a month, and she offered to take my sister, Julie (her mom), my husband and daughter and me on a tour to see the operations at the winery in Bangor, Pennsylvania.

As we approached the winery’s entrance, someone was directing traffic down a narrow, one-mile-long, one-lane dirt road to the winery. I wondered why they wouldn’t just widen the road, since it was just farm fields on either side. It seemed odd to pay workers just to direct traffic on this busy Saturday. But I would learn the reason later.

Kayla skillfully began her tour showing us the stainless steel tanks used for fermentation and the high-tech bottling room. I was impressed with how much she has learned about the business in just a month. Then the owner, Elaine Pivinski, came to join us and give us a fascinating history lesson about how she became a pioneer in the wine industry. (Listening to her talk, I could tell that she takes great pride in making sure her employees are knowledgeable about all parts of the operation.)

Elaine grew up in a time when women didn’t even have the right to have a mortgage or loans in their own name — they were required to have a male co-signer. So when Elaine and her now ex-husband bought 35 acres, a house, barn and outbuilding in the early 1970s, she wasn’t even on the mortgage. Thankfully, Ruth Bader Ginsburg helped pass the landmark legislation, Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, paving the way for Elaine, then a divorced mother of two, to open the first winery in the Lehigh Valley, becoming one of the first female winery owners in the region. She described the struggle to build this winery with nothing but a dream and without any experience as a winemaker or even as a grape farmer.

© Kayla Gladfelter / Franklin Hill Vineyards

Today, with the help of her female head winemaker, Bonnie Pysher, Franklin Hill Vineyards is one of Pennsylvania’s largest producers of award-winning wine. She is known for her support of women in business and as an environmentally and socially conscious grower and producer of wine. The winery utilizes 75 solar panels to power the operation by the sun. Oh, and back to that little dirt road: She casually mentioned that she keeps that dirt road as-is because she doesn’t want to disturb any of the precious farmland on either side, and I loved that sentiment!

© Kayla Gladfelter / Franklin Hill Vineyards

After our tour, Kayla invited us to do a tasting and helped me pick some wines that she thought I would enjoy. As a dry white wine drinker, I enjoyed the White Jade, a blend of Chardonnay and Vidal Blanc grapes, and primarily Vidal Blanc. But they have plenty of options for red wine drinkers, including their best-seller, Sir Walter’s Red, named after Elaine’s father. And for those who like their wine on the sweeter side, Beach Bum was a fun wine with flavors of pineapple and a hint of coconut.

© Kayla Gladfelter / Franklin Hill Vineyards

The Winery in Bangor is a fun place to hang out with friends and sample some great wines, and there’s also a location in Bethlehem.

— Tracey Cullen, art director