Francesca Howden, owner of La Vigneta Winery with locations in Ligonier and Sarver, always looks forward to the critiques from Pennsylvania Farm Show judges.
“We try to make our wines as consistent as possible, but there are always some nuances from year to year in how they turn out,” she said. “It’s interesting to hear the judges’ notes on things like acidity and sweetness. I think this is the most valuable contest we enter because you’re being judged against your peers in the local industry.”
It doesn’t hurt that entries from La Vigneta have earned the coveted Governor’s Cup Award for two of the past three years.
In fact, wine, cider and mead makers from Southwestern Pennsylvania have made quite a showing at the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show, which kicks off this weekend in Harrisburg and will run through Jan. 17.
At La Vigneta, Howden said, staff members bottle wines for weeks in advance to ensure they’ve got enough inventory to make it through the show.
Her favorite is their Apple Pie Amore, a wine made with Niagara grapes that is steeped in cinnamon sticks.
“It’s really great this time of year,” she said. “It warms your heart.”
The show is marking its 110th anniversary in 2026. It is the largest indoor agricultural expo in the nation, featuring more than 5,000 animals, 12,000-plus competitive entries from more than 4,600 competitors, more than 250 commercial exhibits and hundreds of educational and entertaining events. It showcases the diversity of Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry and the people who make it thrive.
The show offers visitors a peek into the industry that supports nearly 600,000 Pennsylvania jobs and contributes more than $130 billion annually to the state’s economy.
This year’s theme is “Growing a Nation.”
“It’s an incredible experience,” said Frank Mazzotta, owner of Mazzotta Winery in Richland. “You have a million square feet of space, there’s live bands, there’s a whole indoor rodeo track. The food is incredible and it’s all from right here in Pennsylvania.”
Mazzotta not only came home with three silver and two bronze medals last year, he was already notified that Mazzotta’s peach wine won best in category among fruit wine entries.
“It’s really helpful to be able to find out what won awards and what didn’t in advance so I can figure out what we should bring to sell,” Mazzotta said. “We’ve been making our peach wine for more than a dozen years. We’re a boutique winery, and we’ve been lucky enough to win awards all over the country.”
For Howden, the farm show is a bright spot amid Pennsylvania’s largely cloudy winters.
“There’s just so much to see,” she said. “You could walk around for two whole days and not see the same thing twice.”
From the sheep-herding competition for dogs — “I could watch it for hours,” Howden said — to giving cows a fancy makeover — “They shampoo and wash them and give the cow these hilarious blow-out hairstyles. My kids can’t get enough,” she said — there is no lack of unique activities at the show.
“Everyone should go,” Howden said. “You see things that a lot of people don’t even realize happen in Pennsylvania.”
The 2026 show runs Jan. 10-17 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except Jan. 11, when it runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Jan. 17, when it opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. The Giant Expo Hall Food Court will be open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Jan. 9. No other areas or events are open to the public that day. Admission is free. Parking is $15 per vehicle.
For more, see PA.gov/agencies/farmshow/pa-farm-show.
