Mon Ami owners want to restore history

CATAWBA ISLAND TWP. — The new owners of Mon Ami want to take the winery back to its roots and emphasize its unmatched history."The history here is amazing and it's been completely forgotten, so we are going to tell the world the story of Mon Ami," said Quintin Smith, who purchased Mon Ami Restaurant & Historic Winery for $1.27 million with his wife, Donna. The winery started in 1873 as the Catawba Island Wine Co. making it one of the oldest wineries in Ohio. Smith wants to put this history on display.He hopes to one day be able to restore the multi-vault wine cellar bellow the restaurant, which he said may be one of the largest cellars outside of Napa Valley, so they can take people on tours.Smith has also been doing research to separate fact and fiction from the winery's history. In 1937, it was bought by the Mon Ami Champagne Co. who moved production to Sandusky.The Mon Ami brand of wine has actually been produced at Firelands Winery in Sandusky, but the Smiths want to start producing their own wine as well as continuing to purchase from Firelands.They spent more than $2.1 million purchasing 32-acres around the property to grow their own grapes for wine production."We are getting the grounds prepared to plant vineyards and then we will be producing wine in a building right here," Smith said. "The whole idea is that Mon Ami will be like a campus."The Smiths — who are also partial owners of the farm-to-fermenter brewery, Twin Oast Brewing Co., with their children — want to help elevate Catawba Island's profile as a destination, but without major developments that would overtake its agricultural history."We want to have less development and more green space, but to be able to afford that you need a business to pay the bills," Smith said. "Nobody in Napa Valley would tear up grapevines to build a condo. That's the mentality we want to build. When people go to Twin Oast it's to see nothing except nature."It will take about three years before a crop of grapes can be used to produce wine, but Smith has plenty of other improvements planned for the property.He's already hired a new general manager to start to address the staffing issues at the restaurant and a new chef who is revamping the menu.The Smiths have added paving stones to the exterior and planting flowers that Donna has helped grow. They're also planning to start renovations once the winery gets into its offseason."We're keeping it quiet at the moment, but people will be happy when we're done," Smith said. "We want it to be more of an unveiling than an announcement."Smith, who has called the Catawba area home for almost 50 years, said he and his wife have a lot of local support."They're cheering us on," Smith said. "A complete stranger will be riding by on their bicycle and will stop to say that they love what we are doing for Catawba."Reach reporter Michael Harrington at michaelharrington@sanduskyregister.com, follow the Register at Facebook.com/SanduskyRegisterQuintin Smith purchased Mon Ami Restaurant & Historic Winery with his wife Donna in June. They plan to take the business back to its roots.The wine cellar at underneath Mon Ami Restaurant & Historic Winery was built in the 1870s and is one of the oldest in country. The barrels used to store wine.Quintin Smith, who is the new owner of Mon Ami Restaurant & Historic Winery with his wife Donna, stands in one of the vaults in what he said may be one of the larges wine cellars in the country outside of Napa Valley.Quintin Smith, who owns Mon Ami Restaurant & Historic Winery with his wife Donna, shows off a decades old unopened bottle of Mon Ami Champagne that was found in the lowest vault of the historic winery's cellar.