{"id":439,"date":"2016-05-13T14:49:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T18:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/?p=439"},"modified":"2016-05-13T14:49:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T18:49:53","slug":"millbrook-wine-make-me-feel-so-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/2016\/05\/13\/millbrook-wine-make-me-feel-so-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Millbrook Wine Make Me Feel So Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I had the great pleasure of spending the Sunday after Founder’s Day touring the grounds of the Millbrook Vineyards and Winery. Tucked away in rural Millbrook, Dutchess County, Millbrook Vineyards and Winery provides a beautiful escape into the comparatively unknown wine country of the \u00a0Hudson River Valley. I’ve never associated the Hudson Valley with wine. \u00a0Images of family farms, particularly apple orchards, dominante my perspective of agriculture in the Hudson Valley. Although different, I believe the Millbrook Vineyards and Winery situates nicely within this category of experiential, boutique agriculture.<\/p>\n

Although I am senior, the idea of visiting a vineyard in the Hudson Valley had never occurred to me until confronting ideas of local agriculture in our ENST course. Dutchess Wine Trail signs along Route 44 have consistently reminded me of the presence of vineyards in the area, but they never succeeded in garnering significant interest among myself and friends. In fact, they generally only succeeded in generating ridicule or disbelief. Only after my recent visit to Millbrook am I aware of just how wrong I had been to \u00a0dismiss the Hudson Valley wine scene so quickly these past four years.<\/p>\n

Although located only 30 minutes from Vassar’s campus, Millbrook’s Vineyard is both remote and stunning. Millbrook’s Vineyard and Winery is accessible by means of a gravel road that leads directly through the 130-acre site. \u00a0Just the drive to the entrance was enough to make me rethink my unknowledgeable, preconceived notions of what a Hudson\u00a0Valley vineyard might entail.<\/p>\n

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The Millbrook Vineyard distinguishes itself from typical produce, livestock farms in an essential way. \u00a0Growing grapes and producing wine is a textbook example of value-added agriculture. Wine production typifies the amenity economy. \u00a0Millbrook is a place to be experienced and enjoyed. \u00a0Visitors to Millbrook consume much more than wine. They consume place in the form of the idyllic vineyard and wine. \u00a0Millbrook is something to be experienced. Minutes into my tour it was clear that discussing agriculture or grape cultivation would not be the focus. \u00a0Wine production and consumption, rather, is at the heart of Millbrook’s mission. Upon discovering the background of Millbrook’s founder, John Dyson, this came as no surprise. \u00a0Dyson formerly served as the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Commerce. \u00a0In fact, Dyson is the creator of the ubiquitous \u00a0“I\u00a0\u2665 NY” campaign. Tourism drives Millbrook.<\/p>\n

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By no means do I intend to condemn Millbrook’s push for agritourism. \u00a0Millbrook has tapped into the market for Hudson Valley experiential agriculture. \u00a0This is not at all dissimilar to pick-your-own orchards. To this goal, Millbrook succeeds. My trip to Millbrook was wonderful and I recommend it to all. \u00a0I spent several hours on site. My visit began with a tasting of six varieties of wine produced on site. Although the samples were predominantly white wines, I was pleased with the variety of wines produced and offered. I was then given a twenty minute tour of the wine production process. This included trips to the bottling and barrel rooms. \u00a0My favorite portion of the visit, though, was the walking trail through the property. \u00a0This provided an up close view of the vines and wonderful views of the property.<\/p>\n

Millbrook deserves a visit from Hudson Valley residents. Ask me, I’d go again.<\/p>\n

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I had the great pleasure of spending the Sunday after Founder’s Day touring the grounds of the Millbrook Vineyards and Winery. Tucked away in rural Millbrook, Dutchess County, Millbrook Vineyards and Winery provides a beautiful escape into the comparatively unknown wine country of the \u00a0Hudson River Valley. I’ve never associated the Hudson Valley with wine. … Continue reading Millbrook Wine Make Me Feel So Fine<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2766,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/hvagriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}