Aug 6th, Monday – Home Is Where We Park It, Great Western Winery

We knew from the moment we awoke that today was going to be a hot one.  And the day did not disappoint.  More about that later.  Once again we were in no big rush since we were moving just a bit further south to another Harvest Host location.  Total travel time would be no more than an hour.

In due time, we left our backyard at Climbing Bines and began the journey south.  The trip was not without a bit of adventure inasmuch as yours truly missed a couple of turns that our navigator asked me to make.  Yet, as they say, all is well that ends well and in due time we found our way to our new home for the evening, The Great Western Winery.

When we inquired about the proper place to park they said pick a spot in the parking lot.

So here we are in a nice level spot with a bit of shade on the left hand side.  Remember the heat I alluded to earlier?  By the time we got set up the temperature had climbed to 97 degrees!  Time to start the generator and get the AC on.  Both ran without an issue.  Indeed, between yesterday and today we’ve had the generator and AC on for a total of some 16 hours.  Without them I can only imagine how hot it would have been inside of Graybeard.

Though we are in a parking lot we do have a great view out the kitchen window.

Settled in, it was time to head to the Visitor’s Center for a tour and some taste testing.

This is the view inside the front door.

And this is the all important tasting room which we would get to in a bit.

First, though there was a brief tour of the grounds and a bit of history. Our tour guide was another of God’s beautiful people by the name of Melanie

During our tour we learned, first of all, a bit about the winery itself.  The Pleasant Valley Wine Company, located near the village of Hammondsport, New York, is the oldest winery in the Finger Lakes region.

On March 15, 1860, Charles Davenport Champlin and 12 local businessmen consolidated their holdings under “Articles of Association for the Manufacture of Native Wine” and, with $10,000 capitalization, built the first winery in this region. Pleasant Valley Wine Company was designated as Bonded Winery No. 1 in its State and Federal districts.

The original winery was constructed on land whose price had soared from $10 to $100 an acre in one decade! It was built on a slope owned by Mr. Champlin overlooking Pleasant Valley, two miles south of Hammondsport. All winemaking operations were carried out by Jules and Joseph Masson, noted French-born winemakers of the time, in still-used wooden and stone structures, with adjacent cellars carved deep into the hillside. Eight of these Great Western Winery buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Business thrived. While the Civil War brought supply and labor shortages, as well as price increases and transportation difficulties, the enterprise was sufficiently successful in 1865 to invest in champagne-producing equipment. Twenty thousand bottles of Sparkling Catawba were made that year. In 1867, this wine was awarded honorable mention at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the first American Sparkling wine to win an award in Europe. In 1873 in Vienna, the winery’s champagne was awarded first prize and its first European medal; since then the Company’s champagnes have received numerous European gold medals and other awards.

Then came Prohibition. The winery was left with an inventory of 70,000 cases of champagne and substantial quantities of still wine. Yet it survived the 14 years of Prohibition on sales for sacramental and medicinal purposes.

After Repeal in 1933, the Company progressed steadily. Charles D. Champlin II, grandson of the founder and dean of American champagne makers of his time, managed the operation until his death in 1950. The family retained control of the business until 1955 when it was sold to a company run by Marne Obernauer, a businessman from New Jersey, who officially renamed the winery Pleasant Valley Division of Great Western Producers. In 1961, the winery was acquired by The Taylor Wine Company, its next-door neighbor, which was itself acquired first by The Coca-Cola Company in 1977, then Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in 1983, and finally Vintners International Company, Inc., in 1987. Having survived Prohibition and several ownership changes, the winery returned once again to local family control in 1995.  Today the company produces 1.2 million gallons of wine annually.

As an aside we also learned that when the Coca-Cola Company acquired the company there were massive layoffs leaving any number of local people without jobs.  The town of Hammondsport never forgot that and so to this day Coca-Cola products are not sold in the town.

We were taken over to the old historic section where the company began.

 

We were taken through the old cellar where the original casks for the wine are still stored.

What is interesting about these casks is that each has a small removable door on the front through which a worker periodically would enter the cask to clean it.  Because of the fumes inside a rope was usually tied to their ankles just in case they had to be pulled out.

We were shown the one room and the one job that used to be the most dangerous.  This was the original room where the champagne was stacked.  Problem, if one bottle exploded or broke it usually took the whole rack with it.  Glass shards then went flying everywhere and there were reports of several workers in the past being killed by them.

We then walked through the current banquet room.  Note the wooden door in the ceiling, it is used to bring champagne down to the room from the storage room above.

Melanie pointed out this beautiful chandelier with something very interesting on the top.

If you didn’t catch it in the picture above here is a close up, there is a statue of a monk at the top of the lamp.

Remember the tasting room?  Yes, we made it back there in the end.  Barbara admitted, after all was said and done, she wasn’t really impressed with any of the wines.  I believe that is a first for her.  But it didn’t keep us from buying a few bottles just to do an independent re-taste test later in the day!

So that was our day.  A hot one for sure.  It’s 9 pm and just now it is beginning to cool down a bit.  Heat or no heat, though, we had a great day as always traveling along, hand in hand, side by side, singing our song.

Thanks for sharing our day with us.  We’ll join you again tomorrow once we get settled in at our new home in PA.  For now we leave you with this:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before