Vineyard Press - Northern Cross Vineyard

Upper Hudson Wine Trail Bill Creates Official Wine Trail for Capital Region

Northern climate Frontenac grapes on the Upper Hudson Wine Trail East

ALBANY, NY, August 21 – Governor Andrew Cuomo signed The Upper Hudson Wine Trail Bill (Senate Bill S213A, Assembly Bill A8345) into law to create the first wine trail in New York’s Capital Region. The wine trail consists of an Upper Hudson East Trail and an Upper Hudson West Trail that extend for nearly 120 miles. The Trail winds through east-central New York in the counties of Albany, Schenectady. Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington and Montgomery. The trail serves six vineyards with tasting rooms with another fourteen planted vineyards expected to open tasting rooms by 2020.

In the fall of 2014, area vineyards with tasting rooms struggled to get customers through the door. “Looking at our empty parking lots, we knew that if our fledgling wine region were to succeed, we needed to fill them.” said Trail President Andrew Weber. In an effort to drive traffic to the tasting rooms, members of the Upper Hudson Wine Trail Association began parallel efforts to develop wine trail legislation and a federally designated American Viticultural Area. In keeping with the tradition and standards set by established New York wine trails, this legislation was designed to support local vineyards and estate wineries. The pending perfected Upper Hudson AVA petition is on track for completion in 2017. These two important assets will lay the foundation for a successful wine region.

The Upper Hudson Wine Trail bill is sponsored by Assembly Member Carrie Woerner (D) and Senator Kathy Marchione (R), and co-sponsored by Assembly Members Dan Stec, Angelo Santabarbara, Patricia Fahy and Senators George Amedore and Patty Ritchie. Trail legislation received additional support from the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce, New York State Farm Bureau and New York State Department of Agriculture.

The Upper Hudson Wine Trail legislation is supported by area craft beverage producers of mead, hard cider and spirits. Vineyards and craft beverage producers in support of the legislation include Altamont Vineyard and Winery, Ballston Lake Apiary, Creek Haven Vineyard, Engle’s Vineyard, Helderberg 1839 Vineyards, Helderberg Mead works, Hummingbird Hills Winery, Johnston’s Winery, Ledge Rock Hill Winery, Luckey Spirits, Macauley Creek Vineyard, Mountain View Distillery, Natural Selection Vineyard, Northern Cross Vineyard, Pelligrino Vineyard, Redstone Ridge Vineyard, Saratoga Apple, Schernau Estates and South Dominion Vineyards.

The new trail has great aspirations to impact New York’s wine culture. “Our goal for the Upper Hudson Wine Region and our members is to produce world class wines from northern hardy grapes” said Weber. For more information about the Upper Hudson Wine Trail, go to www.upperhudsonava.com.

Harvest 2016 Featured in Saratoga Living Magazine

Friends Gather for the Harvest

The 2016 harvest is our best year yet for producing abundant high quality grapes from our vineyard. We just could not pick all of the grapes in one harvest so we had two! Fortunately, our vineyard is blessed with many family and friends to help us pick our grapes. This year author Mary Cirincione from Saratoga Living joined us for our second friends harvest to document what a harvest looks like at Northern Cross Vineyard.

So what’s a harvest like at Northern Cross Vineyard? Our harvest days begin with friends gathering for a light breakfast of local baked goods and coffee. The mornings can be a bit wet and chilly in the fall, so everyone dresses in farm boots and bundles up with jackets. With clippers in hand, our friends spread themselves among the vines to begin the picking. Picking continues until the afternoon when it’s time for the harvest meal served inside an 19th century barn. A long table is set up with all of our wines to drink and noshes, (appetizers) to eat. Our harvest menu always includes a bounty of locally grown foods from Washington County. Finally, it’s time to eat and drink!

Mary Cirincione jumped right into the harvest and joined our friends in the vineyard. While we picked grapes, Mary took notes and shot some of the most beautiful photos ever taken of Northern Cross. The article is a perfect reflection of our harvest days: lots of work, food and friends. Many thanks to Mary and Saratoga Living for giving us the opportunity to share our vineyard with your readers. Read the complete article here

Harvest Featured in Wine & Craft Beverage News

Photo Credit: West-E Photography

News Spreads About Harvest at Northern Cross Vineyard

Our 2016 harvest proved to be an embarrassment of riches. First off, the vineyard produced a record setting, high quality grape yield that required two harvest parties.Secondly, we can now claim a new friend to the vineyard, Katie Navarra.

Katie is an agricultural news writer for Wine & Craft Beverage News. Wanting to know how we work, Katie came to our first of two 2016 grape harvests. As our friends and neighbors hand-picked our grapes, Katie took photos and spoke to participants. This article captures the essence of what makes our process of making wines from vineyard to table. There is also a brief mention about the upcoming Upper Hudson American Viticultural Area and what that means for local wine makers. Many thanks to Katie Navarra for featuring Northern Cross Vineyard in your November issue and stay tuned for the 2016 releases.

You can read Katie’s article here. is sure to make fabulous 2016 wine.

What’s in a Name? The Founding of the Upper Hudson AVA

What’s an AVA?

Probably your first question is ‘what the heck is the Upper Hudson AVA?’ An AVA or American Viticultural Area is ‘a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the United States Department of the Treasury. An AVA outlines a region that is distinct from the surrounding areas for growing grapes.’ (see more) The distinction could be temperature, soil type, rain fall, sunshine or a combination of factors.

When we submitted our first petition to the TTB for an AVA, I have to confess that we were a bit intimidated. The process of getting an AVA in place requires submitting a written petition to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) that the Bureau deems fit for review. We were fortunate to work with some wonderful people at the TTB who helped guide us through the process.

The great news is that as of July 30, 2015 the TTB, and I love the way they word this, has “Accepted as Perfected” our petition for the Upper Hudson AVA. (see list of current perfected petitions here). It is now a pending petition and it will still take several months for the rule-making process. In the end, the petition will be published in the Code of Federal regulations and create the internationally recognized grape-growing region of the Upper Hudson AVA.

Offering a Sense of Place for Upper Hudson Wine

Having a vineyard in Upstate NY is hard work. We get one shot per year at making a product that people can enjoy. We must contend with frosts, disease, insects, and whatever the weather throws as us to consistently produce a good wine.

What the Upper Hudson AVA means locally is that all of the vineyards within the geographical boundaries of the AVA will be able to put distinct terms, such as Estate Bottled or the name of the viticultural area “Upper Hudson” on the label. Estate Bottled means that 100% of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery within the AVA. Viticultural Area “Upper Hudson” on the bottle label means that 85% of the wine was produced from grapes grown in the named area. In both cases the winery must crush and ferment the grapes and finish, age and bottle the wine in a continuous process on their premise and the winery and vineyards must be in the same viticultural area.

Every wine maker craves recognition for their hard work and an AVA is one of the primary routes to distinction from other brands. The name distinction of ‘Upper Hudson’ on our labels is a huge benefit to those vineyards that are producing some really great wines in Upstate New York. Wine enthusiasts who want a truly local product can be assured that they are drinking local wine when they start to see Upper Hudson on the label. Our hard earned grapes will now have a ‘sense of place’ with the Upper Hudson distinction.

First Step in the Creation of an Upper Hudson Wine Region

Getting an AVA in place is the single most important step taken for the development of vineyards and wine making in our region. Consumers want the authenticity that only an American Viticultural Area can provide. A wine with ‘Upper Hudson’ on the label is proof of wine made from local grapes, not from the Finger Lakes, not Long Island. just genuine local wine. We will finally be on the map – literally.

Northern Cross Making News

Thank you News 10 for visiting Northern Cross Vineyard and getting the word out! The New York is going to have another American Viticultural Area! It was delightful to meet Mary Wilson and to let the Capital District know that our area has a lot of vineyards and authentic local wineries! You can see the video here.