Allan Klingshirn

The Ohio wine community gathers each winter to learn and celebrate at their Grape Wine Short Course. A highlight of each conference is the naming of an annual inductee to the Ohio Wine Hall of Fame.

Allen Klingshirn of the Klingshirn Winery in Avon Lake was the 2006 recipient of this, the industry's highest award. Klingshirn purchased the family farm in 1955 from his father Albert who had established the winery in 1935, following the repeal of Prohibition. Under Allen's leadership, the winery more than quadrupled in size, and its buildings were expanded to include a retail tasting room. While raising a wonderful family of four children with his wife Barbara, he continued to tend juice grapes and sell them to regional processors. When his son, Lee joined the business in 1986, vineyards were expanded to include a wide range of vinifera and hybrid wine grapes.

Klingshirn served the industry as a visionary who helped guide the early years of the 'new' industry in the early eighties, first as a member and then two-term president of the Ohio Wine Producers Association.

The Ohio wine family is proud to welcome Allen into the Ohio Wine Hall of Fame.