History, Natural History & the Arts
A farmer, community leader, and entrepreneur from Prattsburgh in Steuben County, NY, Raymond Fedderman established the Fedderman Wine Company in the early 1970s, creating New York State’s first Black American owned winery.
While working in the Finger Lakes region, Fedderman was encouraged to open his own winery by Walter Taylor, a member of the prominent Taylor Wine Company family and founder of Bully Hill Vineyards. [Read more…] about Conserved Wine Bottles Recall Fingers Lakes Black History
Christianity banned beer from the sacred domain as the Roman clergy continued the Latin habit of drinking wine. The opposition: Christian wine versus pagan beer, was upheld even in the north of Europe. Believers accepted wine’s sacramental role, whatever their climates, social habits, or drinking customs.
The Catholic Church was, at the same time, actively involved in the lucrative business of beer making. The Reformation was not just a schism that breached the unity of the Church, it was also a revolt against clergy-imposed customs that brought about a drastic change – from herbs to hops – in beer production and consumption. [Read more…] about Beer, Hops, Reformation & Prohibition
This month’s episode of A New York Minute in History podcast uncovers the origins of the legendary Grape Pie of Naples, NY, in Ontario County.
A regional dessert that has spread to international fame, the Grape Pie, and the Naples Grape Festival, are Finger Lakes fall staples derived from a region known for its wines. [Read more…] about The Legendary Grape Pie of Naples, NY
The accomplished tavern-keeper of New York, as well as of London, knew how to welcome his guest and from long experience instinctively knew how to reach his heart. After receiving him with the most unbounded cordiality, occasionally dropping him a piece of news which he knew would interest him, or one of his newest jokes, he soon made him feel glad to be in his house.
When the dinner was ready he was on hand to place the first dish on the table and to give him his company if he saw that it was desirable. [Read more…] about The Taverns of Old New York
City of New York-born Frederick Swartwout Cozzens (father of the marine artist Fred Cozzens) was a wine merchant who between 1854 and 1861 edited Cozzens’ Wine Press, a professional magazine on the culture of wine and the promotion of American wines. Cozzens was also a humorist (sometimes using the pseudonym Richard Haywarde).
In 1867, he published The Sayings of Dr Bushwacker and Other Learned Men which contains this intriguing passage: “My old friend, Dominick Lynch, sir, the wine-merchant, the only great wine merchant we ever had, sir, imported the finest oil, sir, from Lucca, known even to this day as ‘Lynch’s Oil’. He it was who made Château Margaux and the Italian opera popular, sir, in this great metropolis.”
Who was this refined spirit who brought the delights of Bordeaux wine, Tuscan olive oil and Italian opera to Manhattan? [Read more…] about An Irish Wine Merchant & A Spanish Diva: How Manhattan Fell for Italian Opera
New York State’s Finger Lakes region attracts over 25 million visitors every year, making it one the state’s largest tourist destination behind New York City.
Besides its beautiful lakes and stunning foliage, the Finger Lakes has long been known as one of the country’s great winemaking regions. And, beyond Rieslings and Chardonnays, IPAs, ciders, gins, and whiskeys have risen the ranks in Central New York. [Read more…] about The Finger Lakes Drinking Guide
Canals were the first transportation revolution in New York, but they were eclipsed in a few decades by extensive railroad development. Starting in the 1840s, railroads shipped goods faster than canal barges and provided additional inland routes to the Midwest as it emerged as the breadbasket of the expanding nation. [Read more…] about Railroads, Food, Economic & Cultural Diversification in the Finger Lakes
In 1904, the New York State legislature passed a bill to create the New York State College at Cornell. The bill created a land-grant college with an agriculture focus within Cornell and guaranteed fields of study related to agriculture would receive significant public funding. [Read more…] about Finger Lakes Technology: From Agriculture to Auto Racing
During Prohibition – which ended on December 5, 1933 – my grandfather’s brother Denis Warren, a veteran of some of the bloodiest American battles of the First World War, was left for dead on the side of Route 9N south of Port Henry on Lake Champlain. He was in the second of two cars of friends returning from Montreal, both “heavily loaded with Canadian ale” according to a newspaper account.
Going through Port Henry, Essex County, local customs agents gave chase and the car he was in hit a rock cut and he was badly injured in the accident. Figuring his was dead, or nearly so, and worried he would go to prison, one of Denis’s best friends rolled him under the guardrail, climbed into the other car, and sped off. [Read more…] about Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Many eighteenth century publicans framed a list of pre-conditions for the “perfect” tavern which was displayed in full view in British public houses and drinking dens.
The advice to customers consisted of “Twelve Good Rules” that dated back to the rule of Charles I: [Read more…] about Twelve Tavern Rules, Thirteen Toasts and America’s 1814 Anthem
As I start to write this, it’s raining and 50°F outside. Several days of above freezing nighttime temperatures are in the forecast, as well. It appears that the maple sugaring season is quickly coming to an end. Most of the producers that I’ve talked with are saying it’s been an average to good season. [Read more…] about Covid-19 Impacting Maple Sugaring Season
Mark Forsyth’s new book A Short History of Drunkenness: How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry from the Stone Age to the Present, (Viking, 2018) traces humankind’s love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition.
Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there’s drink there’s drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day’s work. [Read more…] about A Short History of Drunkenness
In 1880, Walter Stephen Taylor, a cooper’s son, started a commercial grape juice company in New York’s Finger Lakes region. Two years later, wine production was added, and by the 1920s, the Taylor Wine Company was firmly established.
Walter Taylor’s three sons carefully guided the company through Prohibition and beyond, making it the most important winery in the Northeast and profoundly affecting the people and community of Hammondsport, where the company was headquartered. [Read more…] about The Rise and Fall of NY’s Taylor Wine Company
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