Sustainable Wine Growing in a Challenging Climate
What does sustainability mean for winemakers? In its simplest form, it’s a pledge by producers to be stewards of the land and community…with a little wiggle room built in.
A Magazine Celebrating the Region’s Wine and Craft Beverages
WINE | SPIRITS | BEER | CIDER | MEAD
The Marvels of Marquette
Meet Marquette, a genetically complex, sustainably-grown red hybrid that should be on your radar this summer. Its complex pedigree makes it a versatile grape to please just about every kind of wine drinker.
19th Century American Grape Breeding and the Prominence of the Caywoods and Benmarl Vineyards
During the nineteenth century, the Mid-Hudson River Valley was one of the top three centers of American horticulture and fruit breeding, especially for grapes. At its height in 1890, the region was home to more than 13,000 acres of vineyards.
Don’t Call it a Comeback: Hudson Valley Winemakers Prove Hybrid Wines Have a Place in the Cellar and at the Table
A plethora of wines made from hybrid varieties are emerging from “under-the-radar” status to notable wines—and it’s happening in our backyard.
Bountiful Baco Noir
Baco Noir is a French-American hybrid grape that was bred by François (some say Maurice) Baco. Baco (1865 – 1947) was a teacher from the town of Belus, Landes, Armagnac Province, France (south of Bordeaux).
Savoring Seyval
Seyval Blanc is a white French-American hybrid variety that is grown in the Hudson Valley. The grape is adaptable to different regions and climates, and is grown throughout the eastern United States, northern France, and England.
Versatile Vidal Blanc
Vidal Blanc, also known as Vidal 256, is a versatile grape that can be made into a bone-dry, steely wine for fish, a barrel-aged wine reminiscent of a Fumé Blanc, or an ice wine that can rival the best dessert Rhine wines produced in Germany.
Velvety Vignoles
ignoles, a white grape also known as Ravat 51, has become one of the mainstays of the Eastern North American wine industry. This adaptable grape can produce wines that are comparable to wines produced in the Rhine Valley in Germany.
Fruitful Frontenac
Frontenac is one of the most widely planted of the Minnesota hybrids in the Hudson Valley, successfully bred by grape breeding pioneer Elmer Swenson (1913-2004).
Crisp, Cool Cayuga White
The wines made from the Cayuga grape are neither nuanced nor sophisticated; they are big and forward with lots of competing fruit flavors.
Tantalizing Traminette
Traminette is a white wine grape introduced relatively recently to the world of winemaking. Its cold-weather adaptability makes it easy to grow in the Hudson Valley, and it is rapidly gaining popularity among wine drinkers with an increasing number of Hudson Valley Traminette wines being produced today.
Nuances of Noiret
Noiret is a relatively new hybrid grape variety used in red wine production, offering another option for cold climate grape growers.