In the 1830’s and 1840’s, European settlers found that the Finger Lakes region provided favorable growing conditions. They began growing grapes that surpassed home growing capabilities. On March 15, 1860, Charles Davenport Champlin and 12 local businessmen consolidated their holdings under “Articles of Association for the Manufacture of Native Wine” and, with $10,000 capitalization, built the first winery in this region, The Hammondsport and Pleasant Valley Wine Company, which was designated as Bonded Winery No.1 in its State and Federal districts. The original winery carved caves deep into the hillside of Pleasant Valley for wine storage. You may explore these caves on your visit to Pleasant Valley Wine Company!

The years of the Civil War brought supply and labor shortages, as well as price increases and transportation difficulties. The enterprise was sufficiently successful in 1865 to invest in champagne-producing equipment. Twenty thousand bottles of Sparkling Catawba were made that year. In 1867, this wine was awarded honorable mention at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the first American Sparkling wine to win an award in Europe. In 1873 in Vienna, the winery’s champagne was awarded first prize and its first European medal; since then the Company’s champagnes have received numerous European gold medals and other awards. .

Because of the internationally recognized excellence of Pleasant Valley Champagnes and because of the similarities of climatic and soil conditions between the area and the Champagne district of France, Pleasant Valley came to be called the “Rheims of America.” When the U.S. Postal Service opened a branch at the winery in 1870, it used the postmark, “Rheims, N.Y.”, which was used until 1945 when rural delivery took its place.

In March 1871, Mr. Champlin sent a case of champagne to his close friend, Marshall P. Wilder, who was a well-known wine connoisseur in Boston. After introducing it at a dinner party at the Parker House, Wilder declared it to be "the Great Champagne of the Western World." The Champagne was thus dubbed ”Great Western.”

Shipping records of the 1860’s, 70’s, and 80’s are filled with such prestigious accounts as S.S. Pierce, Macy’s, Park Tilford, George F. Hueblin and Brother, Palmer House of Chicago, Parker House of Boston and individuals such as Professor Henry W. Longfellow of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pleasant Valley wines appeared on the lists of the most fashionable restaurants. They were even heartily recommended by doctors for their medicinal qualities.

These were exciting years at Pleasant Valley. From 1872 to 1875, Mr. Champlin and area businessmen built the nine-mile Bath to Hammondsport Railroad to combat price increases of canal transportation. Not only was this a successful business venture, but it also brought tourists to the area to ride the Keuka Lake steamers, such as Lulu and Urbana, at 10 cents a ride!

Adding further excitement, on July 4, 1908, Glenn Curtiss made the first pre-announced airplane flight on the Pleasant Valley flats directly below the winery entrance. The world-renowned Curtiss Museum, dedicated to his flying endeavors and the remarkable decades when Hammondsport epitomized the country’s spirit of innovation. Today, the Glenn Curtiss Museum attracts aviation enthusiasts from around the world to its spacious quarters across Pleasant Valley from the winery.

The good news that Pleasant Valley had sold more champagne in the first six months of 1919 than in any previous year was marred on July 1 by the enactment of Prohibition. The winery was left with an inventory of 70,000 cases of champagne and substantial quantities of still wine. Yet it survived the 14 years of Prohibition on sales for sacramental and medicinal purposes.

Having survived Prohibition and several ownership changes, the winery returned once again to local family control in 1995.

Today, eight stone buildings of the Pleasant Valley Wine Company are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The winery is the largest producer of bottle-fermented champagnes in the eastern United States. For over a century, Great Western Champagnes have been the most-honored American Champagnes in European competition and have enhanced the wine lists of some of the most prestigious American hotels and restaurants.

During your visit, you will be greeted at the Visitor Center, which has a comprehensive wine museum with displays that depict how wine was made back in the 1800’s up to today!
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Founded 1958

Did you know that Walter S.’s family has been in the wine making business since 1883? It’s true, and today Bully Hill Vineyard is the 2nd largest winery in the Finger Lakes Region! Bully Hill Vineyards entertains and educates over 200,000 visitors each year on how making quality wine can be fun! Visitors enjoy this unique approach to wine making, while tasting wine and viewing Walter Taylor’s unique labeled artwork. But before your adventure to Bully Hill, let’s explore its fascinating history!

Greyton H. Taylor and Walter S. Taylor started Bully Hill Farms in 1958. Walter S. Taylor represents the fourth generation of his family to be involved in grape growing and wine making. Bully Hill Vineyards was the first small estate winery in the Keuka Lake area since Prohibition, and became the cornerstone for the growth of many wineries.

In 1920, as the Taylor Wine Company rapidly expanded, the Taylor family bought grapes from numerous local vineyardists. The successful winery needed a consistent water and electrical power supply, which it could not get at its original site. In 1919, the Taylor family moved the winery to a new site, two miles outside the Village of Hammondsport. The original winery site atop Bully Hill was sold to Lloyd Sprague. In 1958, Greyton H. Taylor purchased the vineyards back from Lloyd Sprague. Greyton and Walter began to convert the vineyards from Native American grapes to French American hybrids, pioneering these varieties in New York State.

Until 1970, Walter Taylor was the Assistant Vice President of the Pleasant Valley Wine Company, when he left the Company after speaking out against the large New York State wineries for using as much as twenty-five percent of California juice in New York Sate wines and for adding water to the wine to reduce its acidity. Taylor believed in producing pure wine, without adding foreign ingredients. Taylor didn't’t ameliorate (add water to) his wine; his slogan became “Wine Without Water”. He was very against blending with California juice and spoke out against tank car wine. Taylor felt so strongly he placed a railroad car outside the vineyard to illustrate his point. You can find this tank car still there today.

To emphasize his cause, labels began listing each of the ingredients on their bottles, as well as the growers where they purchased grapes. Slowly they rebuilt a winery, and in the year of 1970 Bully Hill Vineyards, Inc. were formally incorporated. Ever since, Bully Hill has been known as the home of innovation.

But in 1977, Taylor Wine Company, with its parent company, Coca-Cola, filed a suit against Walter S. Taylor to prevent him from using the Taylor name on his wine labels. Bully Hill labels were then found in retail stores with his last name blackened out. Walter S. Taylor won this case against Taylor Wine Co. “They have my name and heritage but they didn't get my goat!”

Walter Taylor made many quality wines, but was also a talented artist. His labels are so creative that many people collect them today. Upon your visit to Bully Hill, you may taste wines called Mother Ship Over Paris Champagne Rouge, or Love My Goat Red.
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Dr. Konstantin Frank, an immigrant to the United States from the Ukraine, watched grape growers in the Finger Lakes Region plant increasing acreage of French-American hybrid grape varieties. Dr. Frank, who was an experienced oenologist and viticulturist, asked why Vitis Vinifera varieties, European grapes such as Chardonnay and Riesling, were not being planted. He was told that the winters were too cold, and that the European varieties couldn't survive here.

Dr. Frank had grown Vinifera varieties in the Ukraine, along the Dneiper River, "where the temperature goes to forty below, where we had to bury the entire vine in the winter, and where when we spit, it froze before it hit the ground." He pointed out that Vinifera vines didn't die from the cold, but from disease, such as mildew and fungus and from vine pests. Furthermore, modern technology controlled these problems.

Charles Fournier, the president of Gold Seal Winery, heard Dr. Frank's comments and realized that he might be right. Fournier had seen Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varieties at Epemay and Rheims, which are seven degrees of latitude farther north than Hammondsport. He had also experienced temperatures that dropped below zero degrees Fahrenheit in the Champagne district of France. In 1953, Fournier hired Dr. Frank as a consultant to Gold Seal.

They grafted Vinifera vines, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Gewuüztraminer, and Riesling, which they obtained from the University of California at Davis, onto Canadian rootstock. Over a four-year period, thousands of grafted vines were planted.

Dr. Frank bought property for a vineyard on Middle Road in Pulteney and planted his own vines. By 1973, Dr. Frank's Vinifera Wine Cellars, Ltd., had expanded to seventy-eight acres of vineyards and had a winery capacity of 60,000 gallons. His Trockenbeerenauslese 1961 was served in the White House and in the executive mansion in Albany.

Dr. Frank built his winery behind his house and next to his home maintained a small pilot vineyard, which included at least two vines each of about fifty varieties / clones. He planted some little-known varieties, such as Fetjaske from Hungary, Kara Bumi from Bulgaria, and Sereksia Tschomay from the Ukraine. Dr. Frank died in 1985. The Frank tradition is being carried on and expanded upon by his son, Willy, and his grandson, Fred. Willy asks the same question that his father asked: "Why not the best?"
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Spring of ‘72 saw the Ingles plant twenty acres of grapes - including Chardonnay, Riesling and Seyval Blanc. They cleared the land, a tangle of poison ivy, and planted some 12,000 vines. They pounded posts, strung wire and battled weeds and pests. After some four years of nurturing their vineyards they were ready for harvest, unfortunately, at that time, New York State was experiencing an excess of grapes, As a result, the Ingles could find little or no market for their crop.

To solve the problem, while inevitably creating several others, the Ingles built Heron Hill Winery on Keuka Lake, being next door to Walter Taylor’s Bully Hill Winery and Dr. Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars, two of the more prominent winemaking figures in the Finger Lakes. The year 1997 marked the 20th anniversary of Heron Hill.

There has been much learning, much fun and many people met on their odyssey through the winery-owner experience. Yes, there have been ups and downs, but the future looks very bright. Heron Hill has a superb winemaker, a dedicated team of helpers and a strong reputation for quality products.
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Domenic Carisetti and Patrice Demay, owners of Chateau Renaissance, are longtime friends and veterans of the Finger Lakes winemakers. They designed and built Chateau Renaissance Wine Cellars in Normandy/Tuscany style architecture.
Domenic and Patrice started the winery to provide training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities and people on public assistance. In conjunction with our mission, we are also a teaching wine making in partnership with
Corning Community College located in Corning, New York, and offer classes in both viticulture (grape-growing) and, Oenology (wine science).
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Ravines Wine Cellars is a boutique winery on the eastern slopes of Keuka Lake in the heart of the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Winemaker owned, Ravines specializes in elegant European-style Finger Lakes wines. Taste the wine and witness the beauty!
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