New York Farm Breaks Ground on Urban Vineyard
Big Apple grapes will be bottled in 2007.
New York state's newest vineyard has been planted in a most unlikely location: New York City.
This is good news for carless Big Apple residents, who can't easily get out to the state's wine regions, such as the Finger Lakes and Long Island's North Fork, for tours and tastings. To visit the vineyard at the Queens County Farm Museum, all one needs is a subway card.
The 47-acre farm is nestled in Floral Park, on the east side of Queens, not far from La Guardia Airport. Even after visitors overcome the shock of stepping from a cramped residential neighborhood into the countryside, it still doesn't feel like wine country.
In addition to the barns, gardens and tractors, there's a corn maze and a pumpkin patch. A pack of chatty roosters patrol the grounds, and for $1 you can buy a Dixie cup of feed and let pigs and sheep nibble from your hand. The only thing redolent of the big city is the smell.
A pair of high-rise apartment buildings peer over the trees, an eyesore in what's otherwise an urban oasis.
But to James Trent, who founded the museum in 1975, a vineyard made perfect sense. "We have great soil, a longer growing season and warmer weather than Long Island," he said. "I thought, why not make wine here?"
In early May, Trent and vineyard consultant Reed Jarvis, who has managed vineyards for other New York wineries such as Pindar and Duck Walk, planted about 900 vines of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc on the 1-acre plot. Jarvis said he plans on producing a Chardonnay and a Meritage, and possibly some single-varietal reds. Starting in 2007, the vineyard should yield about 175 cases a year, he said, and an additional 6 acres could be converted to vineyard if the wines are successful.
Trent said he sees the vineyard as a way to boost the museum's business. "After 9/11, we lost a lot of our regular class trips and are now more dependent on adults and families," he said. He hopes to build a winery on the grounds and use it as an educational tool. "We want visitors to see the whole process, from vine to bottle," he said, likening the experience to another of the farm's attractions: "from sheep to shawl."
Adjacent to the vineyard is a pavilion, which Trent hopes will attract weddings, tastings and private parties. "There's something so special about sitting next to a vineyard," he said. "It feels like you're in France."
The farm dates back more than 300 years and is the oldest continuously operating farm in New York. Before Trent founded the museum in 1975, it was owned by the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, where the patients plowed and planted the fertile soil.
Although the vines are still taking root, people have already suggested to Trent and Jarvis that they apply for their own appellation, a Queens AVA. But the two don't want to dissociate themselves from their neighboring region. "We're banking on the success and experience of Long Island's wineries," Jarvis said. Trent said he hopes to join the Long Island Wine Council.
"It's definitely an experiment," Trent said. "I think we'll have a niche audience. Of course, our first bottling won't be of the highest quality, but we'll be able to sell it as a novelty, then later on its own merit as the vines mature and the wines get better."
The farm is free and open year-round. More information can be found at www.queensfarm.org or by calling (718) 347-3276.
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