Only a mile and a half wide and even less in length, Isle St. George (also known as North Bass Island) is crisscrossed by a network of underground limestone caves. As the warm lake water circulates through these caves, ground frost is delayed until late fall. When the fall air becomes cooler, the warm lake water heats the surrounding air and land. Before winter sets in, the lake islands enjoy a 200-day frost-free growing season, remarkable and unusual for this climate. On North Bass Island, the grapes are harvested as much as six weeks after harvesting ends on the mainland. The United States Government has recognized the area’s unique climate, soil, topographic and historic conditions that produce distinctive characteristics in the grapes grown here and has established the area from the Bass Island and the southern shore of Lake Erie – stretching from Toledo into New York State – as the Lake Erie Appellation of Origin. When a Lake Erie designation is indicated on the label of a wine, it means that the grapes used in the wine came from this specific viticulture area.