Bob Mazza, owner of Mazza Vineyards in North East, Pa., has been winning awards for his ice wine for years. It's a sweet wine that bursts with flavors in your mouth, and I love everything about it, except the price. Hey, but you have to treat yourself once in a while, right?

Erie Times-News reporter Kara Rhodes and photographer Rob Engelhardt got up early Wednesday morning, so they could head to the vineyards and cover the story in person. That's always the best way to do it.

"We were out in the vineyards at 6 a.m., and it was really cold," said Rhodes. She described the scene in her newspaper story this way: "Boots crunched over frozen ground as a dozen workers gathered in the vineyard before dawn."

Pennsylvania wineries now number 112, which is more than double the wineries that existed in this state in 1985. Nearly 13,000 acres of land are devoted to grapes in Pennsylvania, and a large portion of those vineyards can be found here in the northwestern corner of the state.

I lived at the edge of a vineyard for 10 years in North East, Pa., and even though that was more than two decades ago, I still get nostalgic every October. That was the magic month when the aroma of ripened grapes would waft through the air. We had an old Irish Setter who would stand out in our yard all day long, just sniffing the air. I swear that by the time we'd bring him inside at night, he was practically intoxicated.

That was one of the bonuses of living in wine country. Another was getting a first-hand look at what a difficult job it was at the end of every harvesting season to tie the vines. The work always seemed to take place in the coldest weather.

Seeing Engelhardt's photos of Mazza and his assistants at work reminded me of that tedious tying process. Mazza, incidentally, picks dehydrated Vidal grapes from the vines for his ice wine. The grapes must be picked after a hard freeze, which hadn't happened in these parts until this week. The freezing cold is what gives the grapes their sweetness.

It used to be that if you owned grapes in the eastern or western parts of Erie County, it was practically the same as minting your own money. They were that lucrative. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case, as the demand for grapes is not what it was. But wineries such as Mazza's do a brisk business, and Pennsylvania now ranks seventh among states with the highest number of wineries.

To cover the ice wine story most effectively, you had to be there, as I said. I can think of no other way for Rhodes to get the flavor of the work or the wine, or Engelhardt to get the shots he needed.

Erie's winter has been so unseasonably mild that it took all this time to get a freeze deep enough to produce enough grapes for ice wine. Mazza said they weren;t able to harvest a lot of the grapes, but they'll have enough for a respectable vintage.

When you see a bottle in wine or spirits shops -- usually priced at about $40 -- be sure to buy one. Yes, it might be too sweet for some, but I can think of no more pleasant experience than sipping a glass of ice wine in front of a roaring fireplace in January.

Rhodes' story was excellent. I'd call it the fruits of her labor.

-- Kevin Cuneo