Jenny and Paul Cernek’s J&P Winery in Lebanon County gives visitors a warm and cozy down-home feeling.
Which is most appropriate given that their winery and vineyard is in the backyard of their East Hanover Township home, nestled behind Hollywood Casino just inside the Lebanon County line along Route 443.
“I would just say, if you’re in the area, and you want something to do, stop in here. We’re friendly, we’re homey,” said Jenny, who is the majority owner and social butterfly of the business.
The inside of the spacious tasting room is the secret to the comfortable vibe. Furniture, a gas fireplace, board games, and a small bar enhance the charm of the tasting room’s atmosphere.
“That’s why we have the couches and chairs,” Jenny added. “You can sit back and relax with your girlfriends or your friends or your family.”
The outdoor area has a large grassy lawn for parents for their children to play in the season, which is just kicking off now. A tent is also available for gatherings and special events.
“We’ve had baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings inside and weddings outside ’cause we have a big tent that holds 250 people,” Jenny noted.
While Paul is the primary winemaker, he also enjoys getting to meet new people just like his wife. He said guests have hailed from at least 40 states and from six countries around the world.
“One thing that’s interesting, and this was incorporated by my wife, but we never turn people away. I mean, we’ve had people come, we’re eating dinner at Easter and people come in, we’ll open it up. … We’ve done that over and over,” said Paul. “Or they’ll come in and we close at 5 o’clock or whatever, we won’t kick them out. We’ll stay here and work with them. We’ll maybe send home our worker but we’ll stay and have it open for them. We don’t kick people out. I mean, if they’re here, they’ve made the effort to come here and we’re gonna be here for them.”
Established in 2014, the winery premiered privately in late 2016, then opened to the public in January 2017.
“We probably sold our first bottle, I think, in January of 2017, but we kind of did a soft opening in 2016 – especially to our neighbors,” Jenny said. “We sent out invites to our neighbors to come to see who we are, what we are, what we’re about. So it was very nice. It was a very get to know you type of thing.”
In the early years, varieties were limited, said Paul.
“The volume was low at that time. We had a lot of different varieties, and we created as we went. I think we only had like 11 varieties or 12 at that time,” he said.
The idea to open a winery/vineyard was born from their love of the craft and for potential job security for Paul. Jenny said Paul’s background was in the pharmaceutical industry and hers in the business side of the medical profession.
“My first degree was from Cornell … in animal science and horticulture. That’s where I learned how to grow grapes. I had two courses after that one, and we actually refreshed through courses at Penn State. But that’s where I kind of got into it way, way back,” said Paul.
“So we did home winemaking first, but to backtrack a little bit, Paul’s job, he was MSL for pharmaceutical companies, and those jobs are never secure. So he wanted something that, if he got laid off, he had something to fall back on and he thought because we liked making wine and we had won awards as amateurs, and it was a good thought to get into this industry,” Jenny said.
The Cerneks have achieved several accomplishments or firsts with their business.
“We’re not really the first winery, there was a winery downtown by the school, but we were the first winery/vineyard of Lebanon County,” Jenny said. “And we were excited to be here. I mean, nobody realized we were the first winery vineyard until Royal Oaks came in and then you know that’s when it came out that, ‘Hey, technically we were,’ but we didn’t push that. I mean, we didn’t think about that. We just wanted to open up and produce a product that people would like and people would have fun while here.”
Their winery and vineyard gives them another distinction.
Jenny is among the few women who own a Pennsylvania winery. Paul said he was recently at an association meeting that was dominated by men, with Jenny noting the lack of information available to women entrepreneurs.
“There’s no information or grants out there for women who want to own a winery let alone information for women working in agriculture,” said Jenny, who did not know the United Nations has declared 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, as announced during the 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.
The PA Farm Show has been very good to the Cerneks over the past two years. Five wines won awards in 2026, and two entered in 2025 also received medals during the wine judging competition.
The 2026 winners were Tipsy Cat (silver) and Niagara, Vidal Blanc Ice and Chocolate Cherry (bronze). The 2023 Steuben won a gold medal and was named Best American Variety at this year’s agricultural extravaganza.
“So it (Steuben) is a white wine, but it’s kind of like a rosé table wine. Steuben is a little sweeter (type of wine). Any wine can be made to make super dry, or you can make it to be super sweet. … Paul stops for mutation (fermentation), so you can actually taste different varieties of it,” Jenny said.
Variety is the name of the game at J&P. Part of their inventory includes their animal-named series.
“Our animal is our semi-series. So they’re not sweet nor are they dry, but in between,” Jenny said. “So the animals we already had were dogs and cats and Paul long before me had goats, but we also … wanted to incorporate a horse because of the track. Paul’s a goat lover and we also work … do events at Kim Batz’s place, so we made a wine to honor her goats. She’s local and we wanted to keep it local.”
Throughout the season, the winery hosts a number of events, which are posted to the winery’s Facebook page. There are events for the kids around holidays like Easter and throughout the outdoor season and special gigs like make your own tie-dye or make your own charcuterie board, among others.
While a visit to the winery – especially for an event – is a fine way to spend an afternoon, you can also catch J&P products at various festivals and events.
There are 35 events on the upcoming 2026 schedule, including all three summer holiday festivals on Harrisburg’s riverfront in May, June and September as well as several themed events at Fort Hunter Park, also in the ’burg.
“As far as places we go, we go as far east as the Philly area, as far north, we’ll go up to Scranton because we’re doing events at Montage Mountain,” Jenny said. “As far west as we go is kind of around Altoona, State College and those areas of the state.”
Their specialty wine slushies are a popular favorite at events, according to Paul.
“We usually do slushies at probably 80% of the events that we go to. And the one thing about our slushies, they’re fresh because we pull it out of the machine. We haul the machines to events so our slushies are nice and fresh,” he said. “A lot of these people now copy our slushies, but they’re doing them in the bag and they’re frozen. I guarantee that theirs are 90% water because alcohol doesn’t freeze. But that’s one thing that we do is offer fresh ones.”
Whether a fan of wine or a slushie – or beer or bourbon – which are both offered by the winery, Jenny and Paul wait to welcome you to their home.
“It’s been a great thing to work with my wife and be able to do this with her,” said Paul. “The fact is, like she said, we’re here to try to provide a good quality product to people and with a nice home atmosphere.”
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