Open:Â Year Round
About Us:
The Catawba Island Wine Company, constructed the winery building that is today's Mon Ami Restaurant and Historic Winery. The Catawba Island Wine Company was founded by a number of Catawba Island grape growers, although the Ellithorpe, Neal and Laudy families, who were pioneer settlers of the Catawba Island Peninsula, are generally regarded as the principal founders.
The new company was organized in 1872 and by 1873 had a winery constructed along the southeast shore of the peninsula. With its 130,000 gallon capacity, the Catawba Island Wine Company was the largest winery on Catawba Island and one of the largest in the islands area.
In 1937 the winery was acquired by the Mon Ami Champagne Company. Mon Ami had been founded in Sandusky shortly after the repeal of the 18th Amendment and was one of only a handful of wineries in the United States specializing in the manufacture of domestic champagnes (at that time). During 1937 the company moved its equipment from Sandusky to Catawba where it employed fifty-five men in the production of up to 400,000 to 500,000 bottles of Champagne, burgundy, and still wines a year.
