Hudson Valley Growers Produce Award-Winning Wines
Published Apr 15, 2007
Building on the success of her family’s orchard, Sue Goold Miller branched out into wines with the opening of Brookview Station Winery in 2006.
Maybe you’ve heard the joke – if you want to make a small fortune in agriculture, start with a big one. Yet more than 30 Hudson Valley vineyards are turning that notion on its ear, thriving despite the Northeast’s sometimes harsh winters and earning national and international awards for their wines. Napa Valley, look out.
“Think about it. Who was settled first?” Melanie Neucall says, comparing the Hudson Valley with California’s famed Napa Valley winemaking region. “This is the oldest grape-growing region in the country. Along our wine trail, we not only have the oldest continually operating winery, which is Brotherhood, we also have the oldest continually producing vineyard, which is Benmarl. We are rich with history.”
Neucall is winemaker and general manager of Rivendell Winery in New Paltz and coordinator of the Shawangunk Wine Trail – a collection of 11 family-owned wineries in the shadow of the Shawangunk Mountains.
“As a marketing consortium, we advertise everybody,” she explains.
The wine trail sponsors four annual events – three that require travel from winery to winery. The fourth – a July celebration known as Bounty of the Hudson – is hosted by a different winery each year.
“We tell everybody to buy their tickets, and it’s one-stop shopping,” she quips.
Interest in wines, particularly “boutique” wines from smaller vineyards, has seen an astonishing resurgence in the last decade, Neucall acknowledges.
“The people are realizing that wine is very approachable,” she says. “It’s not a snobby beverage – it’s a beverage for everybody.”
French Huguenot settlers brought their winemaking expertise to the Hudson Valley more than 300 years ago, and vintners today grow a surprising array of grape varieties. While some vineyards strictly grow vinifera grapes (European species such as chardonnay, Riesling and cabernets), other vineyards specialize in hybrids such as seyval blanc and vidal blanc.
“My husband fashioned this vineyard very much along the lines of the traditional small estates in Europe, which specialize in growing one grape. After experimentation, he chose seyval blanc for its hardiness,” says Phyllis Feder, co-proprietor of Clinton Vineyards in Clinton Corners. Her husband, Ben, founded the winery in 1977.
In addition to its Seyval Blanc white wine, Clinton also bottles two champagnes and a late-harvest dessert wine from its seyval blanc grape. The winery has also branched out and offers several fruit-based dessert wines.
Speaking of branching out, Goold Orchards in Castleton boasts 17,000 trees, representing 17 different apple varieties. In 2006, the family-run business launched Brookview Station Winery and celebrated its inaugural bottling of a semi-dry apple wine later that year.
“If you like a chardonnay, this will be something that you will like very much. It’s smooth and pleasing to the palate and not overly sweet,” says Karen Gardy, director of marketing for both the orchards and the winery. The wine has “tested well with people who have an educated palate,” she adds.
Big sellers at historic Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville are pinot noir and Chardonnay, and a Riesling is moving up the list quickly, according to the winery’s creative director, Colleen Hughes.
“We were actually Bonded Winery No. 2 in 1839, and the first bonded winery has gone out of business. That make us America’s oldest winery in continuous operation,” she says.
Even during Prohibition, Brotherhood retained government permission to continue producing medicinal and sacramental wines. In July 2005, a consortium of Chilean business executives purchased the winery, which fell into a state of disrepair during the 1990s, and major renovations continue.
“We have the largest underground cellars in the country, and a lot of tour guides have been here for over 20 years,” Hughes says.
That makes for especially educational tours and tastings – and tastings just might be necessary before visitors agree to participate in the weekend autumn ritual called “Grapestomping with Eric.” The prize for the best grape stomper? A bottle of Chateau La Feet.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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