Warwick Valley Winery and Distillery ~ Warwick, New York

September 16, 2010 by MTB

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

A quick 10-15 minutes down the road from Applewood Winery was my last stop of the day, Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery. As I pulled into the parking area, it was pretty clear that this is the place to be on a Sunday afternoon in Warwick, New York. Despite it being late afternoon with only 90 minutes until closing, dozens of picknickers still dotted the lawns; all available tables and chairs on the patio were spoken for, and inside? Inside reminded me of the weekend crowds at the Long Island wineries – the crowd at the bar was easily 4 or 5 deep with more people wandering around the large retail area waiting for their turn at the bar, and people were lined up 2 and 3 deep in the café.

The winery itself is quite large, housed in a beautiful renovated apple packing house. L-shaped, the main building houses the Tasting Room and retail area and the bottom of the “L,” the Pané Cafe, a full-service cafe serving sandwiches, pizza and salads made from local ingredients and bread baked fresh, from scratch, every day. Locapour and Locavore – can’t beat it. The smells from the cafe were heavenly, and I’ll definitely plan time for lunch during my next visit.

The interior space is open and inviting, and the dim coolness of the interior was a welcome respite from the sharp sun outside. Warwick Valley is obviously well-used to the crowds and have laid out the space nicely to manage traffic flow. To the left of the front door as you enter is a small gift area and a cooler with chilled bottles of wine for purchase. Wine kegs are clustered around the wood support posts running down the middle of the room providing additional space for people to enjoy the wine and a snack from the cafe. A large U-shaped Tasting Bar holds court on the back wall with plenty of space to accommodate the crowds of people I suspect they get every weekend. And just past the bar around the corner from the gift area, the space opens up in front of a wall lined with wine racks and dozens of bottles of Warwick Valley’s current vintages. One of the things I appreciated most about the space planning was that I didn’t have to fight my way through the crowd at the bar to get to the wine in the back. I also loved that they posted descriptions of each wine, making the selection process much easier. This was one of the first wineries I’d encountered that provided shelf notes, similar to those you often see in wine shops, and I’d love to see the practice catch on at other wineries.

Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery is owned by Jason and Katherine Grizzanti, who bought the property in 1989. After a particularly abundant apple crop one year they began experimenting with the production of hard cider, Doc’s Draft Hard Apple Cider. Over the years, they’ve perfected the recipe and have been cited as “one of the great North American ciders” by Carlo De Vito, author of East Coast Wineries. In addition to the apple cider, Warwick Valley also produces Doc’s Draft Hard Pear Cider and Doc’s Draft Hard Raspberry Cider.

You’d think by now that I’d have learned to read websites more carefully before visiting a winery. Because the tasting room was so packed when I arrived, and because it was the end of the day and I was tired and didn’t want to hang around trying to fight my way to the Tasting Bar, I decided to forgo the tasting, browse the retail area and pick up a few bottles of wine to try at home. Not knowing that Warwick Valley started with the hard cider – or that they had pear cider, which I definitely would have tried for how often can you say you’ve seen, no less sampled, pear cider? – I bypassed the ciders altogether in favor of two whites and a red. Oh well. I knew I wanted to come back for a full tasting in the future, so this just gives me more impetus to head back.

With the success of Doc’s Draft Hard Apple Cider, the Grizzanti’s continued to expand their repertoire, opening to the public in 1994. Over the years their wine menu has grown from three wines and one cider in the beginning to 10 wines (5 reds, 4 whites and 1 dessert wine), 3 ciders, and 5 cordials/liqeuers today. The latter are among the most recent additions to the Warwick Valley line-up, having been introduced in 2001, a logical extension to the cider production. Warwick Valley is the first fruit distillery in the Hudson River Valley since Prohibition, and today is among the largest producers of hard ciders and fruit spirits in the region with 26,000 cases of wine and 1,500 cases of spirits annually (source: The Wine Trail Traveler)

The winery and tasting room is open year-round from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm, and the Pané Cafe is open Fridays, 12:00 – 4:00 and Saturdays and Sundays 12:00 – 5:00. Live music is featured every Saturday and Sunday afternoon with no cover charge, except for special events. Warwick Valley also hosts four festivals throughout the year: The Apple Blossom Festival, The Bob Dylan Festival, The Blues & Wine/Black Sunday, and the Harvest Moon Festival. Check their website for details.

Warwick Valley’s wines and spirits can be ordered through their website, and they can ship wine to 47 of the 50 states (including Illinois, Gretch!). Their wines can also be found in stores in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Once again, check their website for details.

I pretty much knew as soon as I saw the crowd at the bar that I was coming back another day. I just didn’t have it in me to compete for space at the bar. So instead, I consulted the shelf notes, shamelessly eavesdropped on two women nearby who were passionately debating their “favorites” from the tasting they had just finished, and finally selected two whites, the Riesling and the Chardonnay, and the Black Dirt Red, all of which you’ll see featured here in Vino Verve over the next several posts.

In the meantime, I’m starting to plan my return trip, which will probably be a two-fer, a stop at Brotherhood for the winery tour and a chance to try the Traditional Tasting, and lunch and the tasting at Warwick. Wait a couple weeks for the leaves to start turning, take a Friday off to avoid the worst of the weekend crowds, and this could make for a perfect Fall day on the Win(e)ding Roads.

Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery
114 Little York Road
Warwick, New York 10990
(845) 258-4858
wvwinery@warwick.net
www.wvwinery.com