Cleveland vintner, community activist Mansfield Frazier dies

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Community activist, author, and vintner Mansfield Frazier has died.

Frazier was an author, journalist and radio personality, but he is perhaps best known for the winery he planted and christened Chateau Hough in 2010 near the intersection of East 66th Street and Hough Avenue.

His efforts became a source of great community pride, and he became part of an unofficial movement of urbanites across the country to transform their neighborhoods into farms, vineyards and apiaries.

Frazier used his growing fields to encourage and prepare at-risk youth, veterans, and those returning home after a period of incarceration to create safer, healthier, and wealthier places to live and work.

Earlier this year, Frazier described how he selected cold-hardy vines, applied a little phosphorous to the ground and trimmed back shrubs as he created the winery, in an article in the New York Times.

The vines “jumped out of the ground,” he told the Times, reaching 12 feet the first year.

Frazier had a simple answer for why his vineyard thrived in an environment some warned would not be suitable for growth.

“God is on our side,” he said.

Clevelanders expressed sorrow and admiration across social media Saturday.

“What a force of life,” wrote one person. “May we live & work to deserve him.”

Frazier was 78.

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