"Dear native grapes" is a love letter to America’s forgotten wine grapes. Our farm and winery is in New York’s Catskill Mountains. We are growing varieties that were largely lost after Prohibition in the 1920s, as well as newer hybrid varieties better suited to our changing climate. In 2020 we planted 5 acres of grapevines. Our goal is to bring renewed appreciation to these underappreciated grapes and reinvigorate a face of American winemaking that’s been under our noses all along. We are guided by principles of holistic farming and strive to manage our farm as such. We felt organic certification was too financially burdensome, bureaucratic, and focused solely on spray applications. We promote the health of our vines through inputs mainly based on herbal or fermented teas, neem oil, effective microbes, kelp, local honey, milk, horse manure, aged chicken manure and mulch for weed control. We reserve the use of light copper sprays for extreme wet conditions which can happen around mid-summer in our region. Our goal is to boost the immune response of the foliage as well as to foster the health of the soil. We strive to source most of these materials from the farm or our surrounding area.

Information

Domain Name:
Dear Native Grapes
Winemaker's Name:
Alfie Alcántara and Deanna Urciuoli
Country:
United States
Region:
New York
Appellations:
Finger Lakes, NY
Grape varieties:
Delaware, Catawba, Isabella, co-ferment of Heirloom American grapes and honey sourced from the Catskills mountains, Cayuga, Niagara

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"Dear native grapes" is a love letter to America’s forgotten wine grapes. Our farm and winery is in New York’s Catskill Mountains. We are growing varieties that were largely lost after Prohibition in the 1920s, as well as newer hybrid varieties better suited to our changing climate. In 2020 we planted 5 acres of grapevines. Our goal is to bring renewed appreciation to these underappreciated grapes and reinvigorate a face of American winemaking that’s been under our noses all along.

We are guided by principles of holistic farming and strive to manage our farm as such. We felt organic certification was too financially burdensome, bureaucratic, and focused solely on spray applications. We promote the health of our vines through inputs mainly based on herbal or fermented teas, neem oil, effective microbes, kelp, local honey, milk, horse manure, aged chicken manure and mulch for weed control. We reserve the use of light copper sprays for extreme wet conditions which can happen around mid-summer in our region. Our goal is to boost the immune response of the foliage as well as to foster the health of the soil. We strive to source most of these materials from the farm or our surrounding area.

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