This fairly lengthy article in The Dispatch online talks about how the increase in wineries is having an impact on the local culture of Western Pennsylvania. What I really found interesting was this:
"When we started 20 years ago, wine was looked at as sort of evil," said Dan Enerson, who owns and operates Windgate Winery with his wife, Cay. "In the last 10 or 12 years, people have found that the use of wine can be beneficial. That has actually affected the way people buy wine. Twenty years ago, it was almost an ethnic thing, with the Germans, Italians and Middle Europeans. But that's not the case now."
I think that the spreading out of wine as a personal/family tradition from those ethnic communities to our general community at large is a great thing - the more people get to know wine right from the vineyard to the cellar, the more complete their understanding of this fine product will be.
Link to the article