Newcomer doubles up in PA competition

Scott Bubb shows off his double trophies.

HARRISBURG, PA -- Seven Mountains Wine Cellars isn't a widely-known operation, but it certainly has a higher profile today than it did a week ago.

The Centre County facility, which won't even mark its first anniversary until August, on Saturday became the first entrant ever to win the Governor's Cup top awards in both grape- and non-grape wine categories of the Pennsylvania Farm Show competition.
Seven Mountains' grand-prize winner in the grape category was its 2009 vidal ice wine. Its 2009 cranberry won for the fruit category.

Scott Bubb is the owner and winemaker who runs the facility with his wife, Mary Ann. When they received advance word they were in the running for awards, they chartered a bus to whisk them and 46 supporters to the show. The Bubbs were presented with their trophies by Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding at a ceremony at the Farm Show.

Thirty-seven Pennsylvania wineries submitted a total of 244 wines for the competition.The best-in-show wines in six categories were chosen from among the gold medalists, and from those six wines two were chosen for the Governor’s Cups.

Scott Bubb is a native of Mifflin County. He got into winemaking in 1976, making his first batch from Concord grapes picked in his Aunt Sylvia's back yard. He became a professional when the manufacturing plant that employed him closed.

He earned numerous regional and national awards as an amateur, including being ranked 12th on the American Wine Society's list of the "Top 50 Amateur Winemakers in the United States." Now, his professional status seems equally promising.

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