The Story of Benmarl Vineyards
January 30, 2010
This continues our series highlighting activities for residents of New York’s rich and fascinating Hudson Valley, along with a measure of its history.
The Hudson River from Benmarl Vineyards
In the last 30 years we have become a country of wine consumers and are drinking increasing amounts of wine grown in our own native soils. This acceptance of our own wines has come about through the efforts of a few American winelovers who were determined to demonstrate that fine winemaking, both as an art and as a business was well within the capability of our nation’s climate, soils, and talents. Many stories can be told of the difficulties and rewards experienced by these dedicated people.
One such story concerns the Miller family, which began appropriately on a vineyard in the Hudson River valley, perhaps the oldest wine district in the United States. Wine has been made from the grapes of this region since the 17th century when the French Huguenots grew vines and made wine in nearby New Paltz.
Among the young farmers attracted to this burgeoning industry in the early 1800’s Andrew Jackson Caywood bought and planted a handsome piece of land high above the river in a Hudson region grape-growing community dating from 1772. When it incorporated as the Village of Marlborough in 1788, a cluster of grapes carved in its seal commemorated its major crop. Mr. Caywood became an outstanding viticulturist and leading authority in the development of new grape varieties.
When the Miller family, led by well-known artist-illustrator Mark Miller, bought the Caywood property in 1957 and re-named it Benmarl (meaning slate hill), it had outlived all its early contemporaries to become America’s oldest professional vineyard. The Millers rebuilt its steep terraces, replanting them with excellent European wine grapes, hybrid and vinifera, carrying on Caywood’s private experimentation at a time when New York’s wine industry was at a low ebb and long before New York State officially began experimental wine study.
To help them support their work, in the early 1970’s the Millers created the Societe des Vignerons, inviting friends interested in perpetuating the Valley’s viticultural traditions to become “vicarious vignerons” by taking on the annual support of two or more of Benmarl’s experimental grapevines and receiving in return their produce in the form of wine.
The Societe caught the imagination of serious wine lovers, and its work in the vineyard inspired many regional farmers to plant better wine vines. In just a few years the Societe saw its crusade to bring about a renaissance of our country’s first vineyard region evolve into a veritable fountain of astonishingly fine wine enhanced by a regional character which sets it apart from any others in the world. Benmarl’s Societe grew from a few friends to many hundreds all over the United States.
Benmarl’s wines were well received. In fact, there was perhaps no other American vineyard, during those early years, which received more attention from those who write about, think about, and enjoy good wine than this tiny vineyard in the Hudson Valley. Benmarl wines were featured at prominent New York restaurants, including Windows on the World, the Four Seasons and the Quilted Giraffe.
TIME Magazine, in a full-color feature, described Benmarl and its Eastern farm winery counterparts as “a new breed of winemakers, whose wines of fine quality and elegance are shaking California’s throne.” New York Times wine columnist Frank Prial became interested in Benmarl and its Societe when it sought his help in publicizing the need for legislative reform to encourage farm wineries in New York, and he described its wines as “remarkable examples of what dedication can produce.” Author and wine authority Alexis Lichine wrote in his Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits that “Benmarl promises to be among the finest vineyards in the nation”.
New York Governor Hugh Carey (a member of Benmarl’s Societe) signed the Farm Winery Act in 1976, permitting New York’s grape farmers to produce and sell wines directly to the public. As Mark Miller’s reward for helping to put the New York fine wine industry on the map, Benmarl was awarded NY State Farm Winery license #1. Benmarl was the inspiration, and Mark Miller the acknowledged parent, of the farm winery industry with its new wineries in New York State and throughout America.
Benmarl was gratified to have one of its wines voted the “Best US Red Wine” by the judges at the prestigious 2000 Atlanta Wine Summit International Competition.
The Miller family sold Benmarl to another wineloving family, the Spaccarellis, in 2006. They are replanting the old vineyards to make them more productive, renovating and restoring the old winery buildings, expanding the line of Benmarl’s fine wines, and winning more gold medals. You might wish to spend an afternoon at their Marlboro winery, now called Benmarl Winery at Slate Hill, 5 miles north of Newburgh in southern Ulster County, to taste for yourself what are certainly among the finest wines that New York offers. You won’t be disappointed with either the wines or the views over the river from “America’s Oldest Vineyard”. For directions, see their website, www.benmarl.com. Photos by Arlene Gould.
Castle of the Month: Schoenburg
January 16, 2010
A majestic medieval castle sitting high on a hilltop overlooking the Rhine, sacked and burned by the French under Louis XIV, neglected and deteriorating for two centuries, then rescued and restored by a rich American with a special interest in the romance of castles. A movie story?
Maybe. Across the Rhine from the famed Lorelei Rock (below, where a Rhine maiden lured sailors to their destruction in the swift currents of the river) lies the medieval town of Oberwesel, dominated by its fortified castle, “auf Schoenburg”, one of the most imposing on the Rhine. Built from the 10th to 13th centuries on the site of a Roman fortress built by Julius Caesar, Schoenburg boasts a massive shield wall (seen in the photo above) and two large keeps.
Already controlling much of the territory west of the Rhine, in 1688 Louis XIV’s army captured all the Palatinate and middle Rhineland towns from Koblenz to Heidelberg, precipitating the War of the Grand Alliance. In the following year’s retreat from the League of Augsburg, the French army undertook a scorched-earth policy, which resulted in the destruction of many Palatinate towns, villages and castles, including Schoenburg, whose interior was gutted, while the war precipitated a massive emigration of Palatinate Germans to America (the “Pennsylvania Dutch”).
Despite the intentions of some wealthy patrons to restore the castle after 1825, little was done, and it continued to deteriorate. The picturesque town of Oberwesel attracted tourists in the 19th century, including one Thomas Jackson Oakley Rhinelander, a young member of a prominent New York family of real estate tycoons, whose Huguenot ancestors had lived in the area until the revocation by Louis XIV of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, when some members fled to New York.
In 1883 the 25-year-old Rhinelander purchased the castle and over the next 30 years invested some $800,000 in its restoration. For many years Rhinelander spent two months a year living in his castle, until his death in 1946. The town of Oberwesel bought it from his son in 1950, and from 1957 it has housed a first-class hotel and restaurant, with fantastic views of the Rhine from its rooms, ramparts and terraces.
What is special about Schloss Schoenburg for the Staging Prince? It was the first castle in which I spent a night (as a tourist). After a cruise up the river from Remagen, my wife and I spent a romantic night at Schoenburg in 1968. The hotel garners rave reviews from visitors for its 22 charming guest rooms and and its excellent food and wines and has become a particular favorite of Americans.
Castle photos by Jerry White of The Staging Prince.
Sell Your Castle in Weeks not Months
“I Can Stage my Own House”
January 1, 2010
Some sellers think staging is just decluttering, missing that its goal is to foster a potential buyer’s emotional connection to the house.
A problem that sellers usually have in staging their own houses is that all the experiences that have gone into making their house a home can interfere with the objectivity needed for staging. Sellers are often emotionally attached to their homes, and this attachment will make it difficult for them to make the changes needed to seduce a buyer into seeing the house as his home. You may not want to pack up a favorite collection or change a favorite room’s color or remove a wallpaper border that matches your favorite comforter. The result: houses that you are competing with get sold ahead of yours (or instead of yours).
Professional home stagers are objective. They are specially trained to help homeowners sell their houses by making them attractive to unknown buyers. Visit The Staging Prince’s website for information on the benefits of professional home staging.