Madison, Ohio · 1914–Present
From Cottage Grove Inn to Vincent William.
The story of this property is not one beginning, but several: a summer hotel by the water, an unfinished house, and an eight-year effort to open a winery, restaurant, and inn.
01
1914–1962
Cottage Grove Inn
Dr. J. V. Winans built Cottage Grove Inn in 1914 as a summer boarding house on the Lake Erie shore. Under J. W. Snell and later his daughter, Marcia, it grew into a 40-room hotel where guests came for long days by the water.
By 1962, erosion had made the building impossible to keep. The inn was demolished. Its former linen house remained: the small white building that now serves as the Vincent William Guest House.
Cottage Grove Inn and the Lake Erie shore
02
Late 1990s
An Unfinished Mansion
Decades later, a 15,000-square-foot stone-and-cedar residence began to rise on the property. The exterior took shape, but the building was never completed.
It would sit for years without plumbing or finished interiors: a substantial house above the lake, waiting for a purpose.
The house that became Vincent William
03
2015
Michael and Katy buy the property
Michael Profeta first saw it while dropping a friend nearby. He and Katy were not shopping for a house, and they had no plan to open a winery. Still, the setting and the unfinished building were hard to leave alone. They bought the property in 2015.
At first, the work was simply to finish what had been started. The scale of the building, the lake, and the site’s earlier history slowly suggested something larger than a private home.
Much of the work became personal. Michael and Katy took on substantial parts of the general contracting and labor themselves, working alongside a small group of local tradespeople. COVID brought new delays, but it also made the project even more hands-on.
Michael and Katy Profeta · The Lake Erie property
04
2018–2019
The idea becomes a winery
Wine had long been part of Michael’s life. He had made it at home for nearly twenty years, but only in 2018 did he begin to imagine the property as a winery. His first wine conference in 2019 made the idea more concrete.
Commercial winemaking meant learning agriculture, chemistry, weather, and scale. The project grew from a building renovation into a place that would make wine and welcome people.
From home winemaking to the first estate wines
05
2020–2022
Cabernet Franc
In 2020, as COVID slowed the larger construction project, the family planted Cabernet Franc and began working with viticulture specialists at Ohio State. They were told the young vines would need three years before producing usable fruit. The first crop arrived in fourteen months.
The grapes were ready before the winery was. Vincent William did not yet have all the tools or equipment to handle them, so neighboring wineries and members of the local wine community stepped in. Cabernet Franc became the first estate wine.
Michael approached it with a simple standard: make a small collection well, and release only what the family was proud to serve. The 2022 Estate Cabernet Franc later received Double Gold at the 2025 Ohio Wine Competition.
Cabernet Franc at Vincent William
06
2024
Our doors open
After eight years of construction, planning, and course corrections, the winery and restaurant opened in 2024. Overnight accommodations followed.
Guests were once again arriving at this stretch of Lake Erie, more than sixty years after Cottage Grove Inn had closed. The return to hospitality was not a recreation of the old inn, but a continuation of the land’s relationship with visitors.
Vincent William opens to guests
07
The name
Vincent William
The name joins Michael’s father, Vincent Profeta, and Katy’s father, William Carney. It carries the Italian and Irish American heritage of two families into the place Michael and Katy built together.
Vincent Profeta and William Carney
Vincent William
1300 Belleair Ave.
Madison, OH 44057
(440) 428-1300
info@vincentwilliamwine.com
Opening Hours
Wednesday
12 to 9 pm
Thursday
12 to 9 pm
Friday
12 to 9 pm
Saturday
12 to 9 pm
Sunday
11 to 8 pm · Brunch to 2
© 2026 Vincent William Wine
Madison, Ohio · Lake Erie