Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state between Lake Erie in the north and the Ohio River in the south, with Columbus as its capital and Cleveland and Cincinnati as its other large cities. German immigrants settled much of the state in the nineteenth century, and their mark is clearest in Cincinnati, in the south-west corner.

Cincinnati’s German autumn

The festival in this guide is Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, on Cincinnati’s riverfront. Its organisers call it America’s largest Oktoberfest.

• First held: in 1976.
• 2025 attendance: a record 808,300, according to the organisers.
• 2026 dates: 17 to 20 September. The 2027 dates had not been published on 14 October 2026.

German food, Ohio style

The German heritage shows on the plate, above all in Cincinnati.

• Brats and metts: German-style sausages, sold at the Oktoberfest stands.
• Cincinnati chili: a spiced meat sauce over spaghetti or hot dogs, born in the city’s chili parlours.
• Goetta: a breakfast sausage of pork and oats, a German legacy of the Cincinnati area.

Catawba wine, before California

Ohio was a wine state before the Civil War. Nicholas Longworth, who had arrived from New Jersey in 1803, found the Catawba grape in 1825 and spread his vineyards from Cincinnati to Ripley.

1. 1842: Longworth makes “Sparkling Catawba”, which the Ohio Wine Producers Association calls America’s first champagne.
2. 1860: his cellars produce more than 570,000 gallons, about 2.2 million litres, and Ohio supplies a third of the nation’s wine, twice as much as California.
3. Then disease and the Civil War: most of his vineyards are abandoned.

Cincinnati as the base

• Hotels: downtown, the closest to the riverfront.
• Airport: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, across the Ohio River, in Kentucky.