The Lake Erie Regional Grape Program consists of Extension Educators and research faculty/staff from Cornell University and Penn State University devoted to projects aimed at increasing yields, product quality, diversity and improvement of cultivars, efficiency of production, profitability and adoption of environmentally sound cultural and integrated pest management (IPM) strategies.

There are approximately 30,000 acres of vineyard in the Lake Erie region of New York and Pennsylvania grown on 840 farms.

Of this acreage, 98.5% consists of Labrusca (American Grape) varieties such as 'Concord' and 'Niagara' which are used for juice, jam and other fresh or fermented products. A growing wine grape and winery segment of the industry is comprised of 20 wineries along the 40 miles of wine trail that runs along Lake Erie in Pennsylvania and New York.