July 1996

Arbor Hill Winery First to Produce Wine from New Grape Variety

NAPLES, NY - John Brahm, president of Arbor Hill Winery, has announced that his winery will be the first in the nation to introduce a commercial wine based upon Traminette, the new grape variety developed over the last 30 years at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, operated by Cornell University Department of Horticultural Sciences.

"When a new grape variety is released by Cornell, you can bet it is an improvement and a definite step forward in many ways," said James Trezise, president of the Penn Yan-based New York Wine and Grape Foundation. "This new varietal is an opportunity for our industry to diversify with a new product and it is a very positive new development for consumers as well."

About the New Grape Variety
The new varietal is the first generation progeny of the famous Gewürztraminer grape grown in the Alsace region of northeast France. The seed that gave birth to the new wine was first planted at the Geneva Experiment Station in 1968. The new variety, which has been officially named Traminette, can trace its roots back to the village of Tramin, Italy, around 1000 AD.

"This Gewürztraminer varietal produces wines of excellent quality, with similarities to its well-known vinifera parent," explained professor and grape geneticist Bruce Reisch, of Cornell University. "While noted for distinctively spicy and fragrant wines, GewŸrztraminer has been difficult to grow due to problems with disease susceptibility, cold damage and sugar/acid/pH balance. The new varietal solves many of these problems."

"Traminette is a new category of white wines that ages extremely well," explained Arbor Hill wine master John Brahm. "The wine starts out spicy, but with aging that spicy character is reinforced with honey and apricot flavors and begins to take on the character of a superb French Sauterne. This is truly a wine to be savored for years." Arbor Hill will package its Traminette wine in a brown hock bottle to emphasize the unusual aging characteristics of the new white wine variety.

Bringing a New Grape Variety to Market
"Typically it takes about 20 years to fully develop a new grape hybrid in order to achieve predictable grape yields under regional growing conditions," according to Reisch. Traminette is one of only five new varieties of wine grapes to be developed at Cornell's Geneva Experiment Station. Once the grape variety is established, Reisch says it can take between five to ten years before the variety can be released for commercial wine production.

John Brahm with brothers Tom and Paul, operating as Randal-Standish Vineyards, have been experimenting with the new grape, known as Geneva Gewürtz, since 1985. The Naples, NY-based company offers a complete line of home winemaking supplies and has been selling the new grape in limited quantities over the last several years.

One of their customers, William Murphy of Fairport, recently won "Best Hybrid" at the 1995 American Wine Society National Home Wine Competition. This same grape also has garnered a Gold Medal at the 1994 New York State Home Wine Competition for Ontario resident, Ronald Jones, and a Gold Medal at the 1995 contest for Fairport resident Larry Lavery. The New York State Home Wine Competition is a regional contest sponsored by The American Wine Society.

On the commercial side, Arbor Hill also has been blending the new variety into their Celebration and Onnalinda white table wine for the last five years. The company's Traminette 1994 will be the first 100% Traminette wine produced by Arbor Hill winery and represents the first time the new grape variety will be available commercially.

"Small wineries like Arbor Hill perform an important role in testing out these niche varieties and bringing new products to market. This level of experimentation would be too costly for the state's larger wineries," added Tresize who says that New York's wine industry continues to grow both with new wineries and increased wine production.

About Arbor Hill
Located in Naples, NY, in the heart of America's second largest wine producing state, Arbor Hill has distinguished itself as a producer of a dozen award-winning wines and gourmet-quality grape food products since opening its doors in 1986. All of these products are available at the historic Arbor Hill Commons or at quality liquor stores, upscale department stores, gift shops and gourmet food stores across the country. Arbor Hill also operates a growing mail order and custom gift basket business.

For more information about the new Traminette wine or other fine Arbor Hill products, contact Arbor Hill at 716-374-2406.

John Brahm graduated from the Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1964 with a BS in Pomology and Ag Business.

Contact: Linda McCandless, Communications Services

Telephone: (315) 787-2417

e-mail: llm3@cornell.edu

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