Historic Smithton Inn and Wine Tasting Room-Weathered Vineyards, Ephrata

What services does your business offer and what makes your business stand out from the competition? Located in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, the Weathered Vineyards Wine Tasting room serves up delicious Lehigh Valley wines on-site at a 254 year old historic Bed and Breakfast, the Historic Smithton Inn. For the wine tasting, guests choose 5 wines to sample. Whether you’re drawn to full-bodied, dry reds, refreshingly crisp whites or have a taste for the sweeter varietals, you’re sure find a wine (or wines!) to love. If the weather cooperates, guests can sit on the front porch and watch cars and the occasional Amish buggy pass by.

What was the inspiration to start or run this business? Richard Woolley, owner of Weathered Vineyards Winery in New Tripoli, PA and Rebecca Gallagher, owner of the Historic Smithton Inn B&B in Ephrata are old high school friends. One day over a glass (or two) of wine, they came up with an epic idea – why don’t we join forces and bring these delicious wines to Lancaster County by opening a tasting room at the historic B&B?! The Gallaghers converted what had been a living room at the B&B into a warm and charming tasting room where B&B guests, locals and visitors can enjoy a wine tasting in an historic setting.

What do you love most about your job? Our favorite thing about running the Weathered Vineyards Tasting Room is the people we meet and seeing their reaction to our wines. As wine lovers ourselves, it’s fun to meet people from as close as around the corner to as far away as Australia, and introduce them to something we love (our wines and our historic property) and to have them love it too! It’s like having someone tell you your baby is cute… best feeling ever!

What is the best reaction you've ever gotten from a customer? One of the best reactions we’ve had from a customer came from a repeat guest who’d been coming to the Historic Smithton Inn for years. When he saw the new tasting room is reaction was, “Beautiful, it looks like it’s always been here, and these wines delicious, so much better than I expected for a PA wine!”.