The Hudson River Valley: Cradle of American Winemaking

The Hudson River has long been one of New York’s great defining features a deep, majestic waterway that carved both the landscape and the state’s history. When English explorer Henry Hudson sailed its length in 1609 on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, he was seeking a passage to the Pacific. Instead, he found a corridor of trade and culture that would help shape a new world. The river’s navigable route made it a lifeline for commerce, and its mouth, with its natural harbor, became the foundation of New York City’s rise as a global metropolis.

Yet far beyond the city skyline lies another side of New York a world of rolling farmland, forested hills, and serene riverbanks where vineyards have thrived for centuries. The Hudson River Valley, with vines first planted by French Huguenots in 1677, holds the distinction of being the oldest winegrowing region in New York State.

Just forty miles north of the city, the valley’s vineyards follow the gentle bends of the river, drawing on its moderating influence and the region’s fertile soils. The area’s wineries including Benmarl and Cascade Mountain are mostly small or medium-sized, focusing on both vinifera and hybrid grape varieties. Among them, Millbrook Vineyards & Winery stands out as one of the most progressive. Founded by John Dyson, a former state commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, Millbrook experiments with more than twenty-five vinifera grapes, from Chardonnay to Sangiovese, helping to define the frontier of New York’s fine-wine potential.

Brotherhood: America’s Oldest Winery

In the foothills of the Catskills, fifty miles northwest of New York City, stands a true landmark of American winemaking Brotherhood Winery, the oldest continuously operating winery in the United States.

The story begins with Jean Jaques, a Huguenot immigrant and shoemaker who settled in the Hudson Valley in 1809. Jaques originally cultivated fine table grapes to sell in New York City’s markets, but when hard times in the 1880s made shipping unprofitable, he turned his efforts to winemaking. Naming his enterprise Blooming Grove, he sold his first batch a sacramental wine to his own church in 1839.

By the 1870s, Jesse and Edward Emerson were purchasing Jaques’s wines and blending them with those produced by a local religious commune known as the Brotherhood of New Life a devout and insular group that eventually disbanded. When Jesse Emerson purchased Blooming Grove in 1885, he renamed it Brotherhood in tribute to the former community.

Through the decades, Brotherhood built its reputation on sweet fruit and dessert wines, and today it remains celebrated for its holiday spiced wines and Eiswein, a delicate, luscious wine made from grapes frozen naturally on the vine. Though varieties like Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Johannisberg Riesling joined the lineup in the 1980s, Brotherhood’s legacy endures in its balance of history, craft, and tradition.

Brotherhood Winery

100 Brotherhood Plaza Drive, Washingtonville, NY 10992

📞 (914) 496-3661