Information about wineries in Columbia County include Hudson Valley Wineries, Hudson Valley Wine Trails, and Winery Tours. Visit the wine tasting rooms where you can taste award-winning wines. Learn about the history of wine making as you tour the wineries in the Hudson Valley. Find winery locations, tasting menus, wine tasting options, and more about Columbia County wineries and the Historic Hudson Valley.

Visit the wineries in Columbia County. Follow the Hudson-Berkshire Beverage Trail, a picturesque trail tucked in between the Hudson Valley and the Berkshire Mountains. The trail extends from Southeast of Albany down to Hudson, New York. You’ll find handcrafted and award-winning and celebrated wines, beers, and spirits. And you’ll also be able to experience farm fresh produce, artisanal cheeses, baked goods, 100% natural maple syrup, fresh apple ciders, and other gourmet, local food products. The Hudson-Berkshire Beverage Trail stops at Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, New York, Harvest Spirits in Valatie, New York, Chatham Brewing in Chatham, New York and Tousey Winery.

Wineries in Columbia County
Brookview Station Winery and Joe Daddy's Hard Cider
Clermont Vineyards & Winery in Germantown
Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY
Millbrook Vineyards & Winery in Millbrook, NY
Tousey Winery in Germantown, and Chatham Brewing in Chatam, NY

Wine in Ancient Greece and Rome
Wine in ancient Greece was praised and immortalized by poets, historians and artists. Wine also played a role in the religion of Ancient Greece associated with the god Dionysus. Like the Egyptians, ordinary citizens did not consume wine. It was considered a privilege of the upper classes.


During the time of the Roman Empire, the production of wine spread throughout Europe. At this time, wine became available to the common citizens. Some cities even built bars on almost every street in order to promote wine. Roman wine was said to be sweet rather than dry. Pure red or white wines were almost unthinkable in Ancient Rome. The Romans believed that flavoring was more important than the original taste of the wine. They added such flavors as fermented fish sauce, garlic and onion to their wines.


The Dark Ages
During the “Dark Ages”, wine production was mainly kept alive through the efforts of monasteries. As the Church extended their monasteries, they began to develop some of the finest vineyards in Europe. Although most wine production was done in monasteries, some religious believers diluted their wine with water in order to make it "safer" for them to drink. Since most of Europe lacked a reliable source of drinking water, wine was considered to be an important part of their everyday diet. During this time, people also begin to favor stronger, heavier wines.

14th and 15th Century
England began importing wine from Germany when they lost Bordeaux to the French in the 14th century. Portugal also shipped wine to England, which helped keep the two countries on friendly terms. During Shakespeare's time, wine was very much a staple of the diet. Beer was a favored alternative, yet wine enjoyed more attention. It was during this time, when wine began to diversify and consumers began to value the concept of variety in their drinking. Citizens of Shakespeare's age clearly enjoyed drinking wine and began to discuss its virtues and pitfalls with greater enthusiasm than in the previous centuries. By the end of the 16th Century, for the first time, an abundant supply of fresh drinking water was available to London and so the wine industry was moved into a new age.

17th and 18th Century
The wine industry saw a brief decline in the 17th century. Politics and religious propaganda did little to promote the drinking of wine for pleasure. Wine also had to face the rival of a clean and readily available supply of drinking water. Despite all of this, many new developments helped the wine industry keep its popularity. The invention of better glass making, the cork and other accessories, as well as better methods of production helped to promote wine in the 17th century.


Wine went through several changes during the 18th century. England witnessed many of these due to its political relations with France. Because of the strained relations with France, the English were without a major source of wine and had to look elsewhere for their drink. They turned to Portugal, Holland, and South Africa for their wine.

Despite their strained relations with the British, the French wine industry soared in the 18th century. Many people feel that this was when the wines of Bordeaux really began to flourish. The merchants who frequented the Bordeaux region came from Holland, Germany, Ireland and even Scandinavia. As a result, Bordeaux was able to successfully trade wine for coffee and other much sought after items from the New World, which helped cement the role of wine in the growing industry of world trade.


19th Century
During the early 19th century, when the British were fighting the Napoleonic Wars, they were unable to get a steady supply of wine from France, and instead turned to Portugal. Port became the favored wine in England during this time.


Champagne also gained favor in the 19th century. The French widow Nicole-Barbe Clicquot-Ponsardin is credited with making Champagne the celebrity wine of the world. She found easier ways to remove the sediment from Champagne and replaced it with wine, sugar, and brandy. She also organized the production of Champagne so that it could be done in an assembly line, making this beverage truly "modern."

The wines of New World began challenging those of the Old World in the 19th century. Thomas Jefferson was convinced that the lack of fine wines in America was driving his fellow citizens to drink too much hard liquor. This idea carried on after his death and influenced the way Americans viewed wine. Ohio was the first region in America to successfully grow grapes for wine. Its glory soon faded, however, and California soon took its place.

Although the 19th century is considered to be the golden age of wines for the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions, it was not without tragedy. Around 1863 many of the French grapevines began to suffer from a mysterious disease. It was soon discovered that this disease was the caused by the Phylloxera aphid. Some French winemakers at this time, moved to the Rioja region in northern Spain, and taught the Spaniards to make wine from local Tempranillo grapes.


Modern Times
The last 90 years have seen a revolution in the wine industry. The scientific background of wine making has developed greatly, allowing for many things that were once impossible to be accomplished. An example of this would be refrigeration. Before the 1940s, wine was supplied to people according to their geographic location. After the development of refrigeration, it was easier for wineries to control the temperature of their fermentation process. This enabled high quality wines to be produced in hot climates.


Machines that harvest grapes more quickly have allowed vineyards to become larger and more efficient. Grapes can also be harvested during day or night, allowing vineyards to control the temperature and climate when grapes are harvested.

Modern wine makers can now achieve total control of every stage of wine making, from harvesting and crushing to bottling. Though recent advances in technology have benefited the wine industry, they have also led to the temptation to produce more wine at the expense of quality. Wine makers face the challenge of producing wine for a larger market without losing the character and individual flavor of their wines. More countries are producing more varieties of wine than ever before. Advances in technology will ensure that this trend will continue, with more countries producing more wine, and better wine.


The Vineyard
A well-cared-for vineyard will often outlive the person who planted it. Adequate soil preparation is very important. This preparation should begin at least a year before the vineyard is to be set out. It should be designed to subdue weeds, to improve the physical condition of the soil, and to add humus. This is easy to do before the vineyard is established but is difficult to do after the vines are in place. A soil sample should be taken to determine potassium, magnesium, soil pH and organic matter so that adjustments can be made before planting. The need for keeping a relatively high organic matter content in the soil cannot be overemphasized. A high humus content not only is essential for holding moisture, but it also improves the physical condition of the soil.


Any experienced winemaker spends most of their time in the vineyard. Vineyards influence the final product of wine more so than winery manipulations and procedures can ever accomplish. Careful attention should be given to both climate and soil conditions before planting wine grapes. Particular varieties excel only in specific kinds of climate and soil conditions.

Climate
A regions climate greatly affects the types of varieties that are available for a wine producer. In selecting a grape cultivar, you must consider the number of growing degree days, the length of the growing season and the frequency of exposure to low temperatures. The time required to mature grape fruit varies with location and climate and is very dependent on the amount of heat experienced by the vine. The frequency of very cold weather will determine winter survival of the vines.

Soil
A gravelly or sandy loam soil is considered best for grapes, but they will do well on many soil types. The soil should have a fairly high water-holding capacity, not be waterlogged at any time during the year, have 3 to 5 feet of usable depth depending on texture, be of at least medium fertility and slightly acid. A soil too poor to grow other crops will not be satisfactory for a vineyard. The prospective grower should keep certain general characteristics of soils in mind in choosing a site. A sandy soil warms up rapidly and will mature a crop a few days earlier than will a clay soil but a sandy soil tends to be less fertile and to have a smaller water-holding capacity. A soil containing too much clay will also form a crust in hot weather that will adversely affect water infiltration. The water holding capacity of the soil strongly affects the final flavor of the wine.

Propagation
Grape vines are typically purchased from nurseries where they have already been grafted to prevent phylloxera infestation. New vines typically will not produce significant yields of fruit until the 3rd or 4th year. This is a very important point in terms of risk assessment and a business point of view. If the crop is lost via fire, flood, or some other natural disaster or accident, the winery would lose 3-5 years without any income. This makes the vineyard an extremely high-risk asset.

Layout
Several factors must be considered in deciding on the best planting distances for a vineyard. First, there should be enough space between rows to allow for convenient tractor cultivation and spraying; second, there should be enough space between plants in the row so that adjoining vines will not intermingle too much; and third, sufficient space should be allowed so that there will be little competition between the roots of adjoining plants for nutrients and water.

General Winery Operations

Harvest
The vine cycle depends largely upon the regions climate. In California, the vine cycle begins around April 1st when new shoots elongate during April and May and the vine flowers around May 15th. Tiny berries begin to grow but remain green and hard until about July 15th. Veraison begins then and the berries begin to develop color and to soften. Fruit is usually harvested around September 15th. The harvest date is largely dependent upon the variety, the location, and the weather.

Before wine is removed or harvested in the vineyard, the amount of sugar in the grape must be measured. The acidity level must also be measured before harvesting the grapes from the vine. Two common methods are titration (grams of tartaric acid per 100 mL of juice) and pH.

Once the sugar is measured, the wine maker can estimate the alcohol concentration of the finished product. These methods have all been developed to aid the vineyard in giving the winery the best possible grape for the desired purpose.

Crushing
The grapes are crushed to make the juice accessible to the yeast. Crushed grapes are called the must. The must is made up of 80% juice, 16% skins (wine pigment), 4% seeds (tannins = wine flavor and aging characteristics). Therefore, controlling the amount of contact achieved between the juice, skins, and seeds is critical to the flavor, color, and overall final product of the wine.

Additions
Several additions may be made to the must before pressing it. SO2 is commonly added to inhibit oxidation and kill undesirable micro-organisims. However, if the winery chooses to put SO2 into their wine, US law requires the winery to write "contains sulfites" on the bottle label.

Although in most cases the winery is aware of the amount of sugar in the grapes they are crushing, sometimes winemakers wish to add sugar to the must to either enhance flavor or raise the alcohol concentration. The act of adding sugar to the must after crushing is called chapitalization. Chapitalization is illegal in California and in southern Europe. Adjustments may also be made to the must’s acidity.

Pressing
Pressing is done to separate the skins, seeds, and any other non-juice must item from the juice. There are several different types of presses used in the winery industry. Some of the more popular ones are the screw, membrane/bladder, moving head, and basket presses. The basket press has a piston which pushes the fruit down in a cylinder. The moving head press is similar to the basket press except it presses horizontally as opposed vertically.

Racking, Fermentation, and Aging
Racking is the process of transferring juice or wine away from the settled lees. Titration and centrifugation are alternative means by which a winemaker could use instead of racking.

Fermentation is typically initiated by adding 1 to 2 percent by volume of cultured yeast to the juice or must. Although there are many different kinds of fermenting vessels used throughout the global wine industry, in the United States, most modern wineries use stainless steel tanks. The fermentation process is regulated closely by managing the temperature of the vessel and yeast. This requires that refrigeration jackets or heat exchangers be installed on the fermenting vessel.

The most common way wine was aged in the past, and the tradition persists to this day is via barrels. Barrel aging is typically used for red wines and adds vanilla, spicy, and sometimes smoky flavors to the wine.

French Barrels
French oak is the primary type of wine barrel used today staying in line with a strong European wine making tradition. French oak is the barrel of choice for chardonnay. France uses somewhat of an appellation system that designates the forest from where the wood was purchased to make the barrel (i.e. Limousine forest) and hence some wineries specify not only the country but also the specific forest location of the wood that used. Due to the long lasting reputation and high labor costs, French wine barrels run between $700 and $800 per barrel.

American Barrels
Although new to the world wine making industry, American oak wine barrels on a number of occasions have been proven to be capable of producing high quality wines and thus their usage is on the rise. American oak is the barrel of choice for Australian Shiraz because of the pleasing distinct flavors that complement that style of wine. American barrels are less expensive than the average French barrel ranging between $250 and $300 per barrel. The current trend is that as the price of wine barrels increase the usage of American oak barrels increases as well. Because American barrels have lower labor costs and are relatively new thus not having a long consistent history, they are substantially less expensive than French barrels.

Combination Barrels
Outside of the French barrels made by the French and American barrels made by the Americans, there are Americans who make barrels using imported French wood and French who make barrels using imported American wood. The prices vary slightly from the barrels described in the two sections above.

The average useful life of both American and French barrels are roughly 5 years. However, innovations such as inner stay oak slates or carving away a few layers of wood inside the barrel can extend the life of a barrel up to 10 years. Furthermore, all barrels should be topped off roughly once a week to eliminate void air space.

Blending, Fining, Filtration and Bottling
Wine coming from different batches, varieties, vineyards, fruit maturities, and wine making treatments are sometimes blended by the winemaker in order to produce a more uniform final product.

Fining Agents are used to take out undesirable particles, which tend to make the wine "hazy". By fining the wine, the wines clarity is greatly improved. This is critical to white, blush, and sparkling wines where clarity is very important to the average consumer.

Wine is then filtered to further clarify and stabilize the wine.

The last step before the wine leaves the winery is bottling. Most wines are aged in the bottles for a few months up to a few years depending on the wine and the winery.