Brotherhood Winery

For this beverage production project I went to Brotherhood Winery commonly

acknowledged to be the oldest operating winery in the United States. It is located in 100

brotherhood plaza drive Washingtonville in Orange County. From the downtown of New York it

took us almost hour and a half to get there. The tour started by introducing the buildings

followed by the long history of the winery. Established in 1839 by Mr. Jacques with his three

sons in Washingtonville and continued to make wine for almost 60 years, between that period

underground cellars were dug and his first wine vintage was fermented. Then it was passed down

to the Emerson’s family and then in 1921 Louis Farrell purchased the winery and in 1987 a

partnership of businessmen a prominent Chile winemaker Mr. Cesar Baeza When prohibition

started in 1920’s the Brotherhood were one of the few winery to sell a wine to church for

medicinal purpose.

The brotherhood also has its private farm in the heart of Hudson Valley Region which is far

from the original site. The influence of Hudson river creates a microclimate on the farm that

tempers the harsh and varied climatic conditions in New York. One of the biggest enemy of

grapes are wild turkeys because it can fly and eat the grapes. She also told us the story of how

the Cabernet Franc grapes were consumed by turkey in 4 days with We also got to see the large

oak barrels from 2700-3300 white American oak barrels which is not in use because of its size

and required a huge amount of work. Instead the winery use 79 gallons of French oak barrels

which holds up to 275-300 bottles of wine.

At the end of the tour we were taken to the tasting room. We tasted at least 5 different types of

wine. The first wine we tried was sparkling Carpe Diem, the grape varieties was Moscato

Spumante used traditional method with 10% of alcohol content. Rosario was the house specialty

wine, blend of Concord and Niagara grapes and falls under the Sangria wine group. Under

Premium white varietals we tried Burgundian style Chardonnay which smelled ripe pears,

pineapple and light buttery flavors with a medium intensity on the palate. For the Chilean wine

tasting we tried Carmenere once referred to as the “Lost Grape” has this deep purple hue and

reveals smoky black pepper and tobacco notes with high intensity on the palate.

Me at the Entrance of the Brotherhood Vineyard

Wine buying and tasting area

Our tour guide Miss. Stacey

Cellar with its historic wine equipment

Oldest Medicinal Port

Oldest American white Oak barrel starting from 2700 to largest 3300 gallon which is not in use.

French oak Barrels CS initial for Cabernet Sauvignon

Small Vineyard in front of the entrance

This is the brotherhood Champagne label created back then in 1947

Reference

TOURS. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2018, from http://www.brotherhood-winery.com/winery.html