I had the wonderful experience of visiting Clearview Vineyard located in 35 Clearview Lane, Warwick,New York 10990. The drive was about two hours long to upstate New York,but upon my arrival I met Frank and Karen Graessle, the Vintners who gave me the tour of their establishment. They have been opened for eight years,producing organic wine for seven years and in June their tasting room has been open for three years and have been selling to the people for six years.
Picture of wine bottles served in tasting room

Karen was serving me in the tasting room, which is very welcoming with a table for people to write their names on a cork, along with signing up to be apart of their wine club. I enjoyed the band playing music along with the food I had ordered in from the kitchen. Karen was very informative of the wines she was serving. She explained the different wines they had for tasting,I had the pleasure of tasting their sangria. I purchased a bottle and glass with logo on both, to bring back home.

Picture of vines

Frank gave us a tour of their vineyard, which is his backyard viewing the different grapes grown in their vineyard. They have nine different grape varieties grown; Seyval Blanc, Traminette, Vidal Blanc, Baco Noir, Noriet, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Franc, Cayuga white and Divinity. The most interesting grape variety that Frank has is the Divinity, it is called that because it has no name besides New York eighty one. This vinifera varieties, known as Divinity is an hybrid developed grape variety.
Frank practices cane pruning, as you can see in the picture the training of the veins and the buds that are beginning to grow about one inch. All the veins in the field are in the process of blooming.

Picture of Fertility

As shown in the picture their is gravel used in the soil.
Franks agriculture and vinification practices are ” as organic as possible”. He does not use fertilizers.However he does use small amounts of chemical stabilizers that are sprays used to control for mildew that grows throughout the year. Franks says “next week I will spray a little to protect my crops”. Everything they do during the Viticulture is manually. Frank is proud to say he tries to stay as organic as possible it was only last year that he started to spray due to his crops being destroyed from blackroot. That is not the only thing that destroys his grapes. Frank has wild turkeys and other birds and Deers that eat his grapes. To keep all animals away from eating grapes Frank uses CD’s, big balloons and has gates with white tape on it to prevent deer from jumping through his gates.
I did not get to view the wine making process but Frank tells me he crushes his grapes and uses stainless steel containers during fermentation .

I had a wonderful time visiting Franks vineyard I admire his dedication to staying as organic as possible and his lovely wife Karen.