“There’s a massive history for sparkling wines in the region, especially pre-prohibition. A white-skinned American hybrid variety that is often used in bulk wines, Colleen, and husband Seb, decided in 2020 to produce a “naturally lower alcohol, fresh style of sparkling” wine for their winery, Living Roots Wine & Co, she shares. When Colleen Hardy’s parents purchased Shale Creek Vineyard on the east side of Keuka Lake in 2014, eighty-plus-year-old Elvira vines were plentiful. ''To say the least, they gave me a shock.'' These indigenous grapes were quite different from Chardonnay, but not without their own merit then and now.
“I tasted Concord, Catawba, Elvira and Isabella,'' he shared with the New York Times in 1983.
Coming from Champagne, the Finger Lakes posed an adjustment for him. American HeritageĪs Prohibition was drawing to a close, a Frenchman named Charles Fournier was invited to Hammondsport to aid in the region’s wine revival. Additionally, other wineries have inquired about purchasing some fruit as well. “These grapes are quite delicious.” KLV plans a special project for these Concord grapes-Vermouth. “Our first priority is to make really high-quality wines,” Goldman says. Instead, he has invested in carefully re-trellising the vines, replacing the original locust posts, regenerating the soil without herbicides to increase the microorganisms, and carefully pruning them to cultivate new vines out of existing trunks. These non-vinifera vines are taking up valuable vineyard space however, “the vines are so old we did not want to take them out,” says Goldman. It is unclear how these Concord vines made their way to Keuka Lake or who planted them. Not only are these vines among the oldest living vines in the region, they date back to its viticultural beginning. This timeline is interesting because within KLV’s Silvernail Vineyard thrives block of Concord grapevines believed, by proprietor Mel Goldman, to be over 150 years old.
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