Behind the Label: Estate Single Vineyard Wines

As the plants matured and Tom cared for the vines, he noticed subtle differences in the vines and grapes grown in four different sections of the vineyard.  To explore these differences, we harvested, vinified and aged grapes from these four sections in separate lots.  As the wines became approachable in the cellar, it became clear that each wine reflected the nuances of the four types of terroir: the unique soil, geology, slope, and altitude had a notable impact on wine aromas and flavors.  We decided to craft a unique wine from each section so that our patrons could deeply explore our vineyard’s terroir.

We gave each wine a unique vineyard name:  Hedrick Vineyard, Higgins Vineyard, Charlie’s Vineyard and Old Quarry.  Each of these special vineyard names have either sentimental meaning, or historical relevance:

We named Hedrick Vineyard in honor of U.P. Hedrick, a pioneering vinifera researcher who grew and researched vinifera grapes at the Cornell Experiment station in the late 1800s.  His pioneering publications provided insight and guidance on how to successfully grow and research vinifera grapes in the late 1800s.   The Higgins vineyard bears our family name.   We named Charlie’s Vineyard in honor of Susan’s father, in gratitude for his ongoing commitment of time, energy, and love during his years on our harvest team.  And finally, we named Old Quarry in honor of a small, abandoned quarry that we discovered on our property, as well as the many nearby quarries that provided limestone for foundations of homes and buildings – some as far away as Wall Street in New York City.

These wines hold a very special place in our hearts and we wanted to be sure that their labels told the story of the specific vineyard from which the wine originated.

The front label is a pared-down minimalist design – a black label which fades in to the bottle.  The top edge of the label is where the story begins.  Instead of a traditional square, the top of the label is cut in a slanted line which runs upward from left to right.  If you look closely, you will note that the line isn’t perfectly straight – it meanders up and down a bit as it marches upward.    This line represents the slope on our vineyard hillside, and shows  shows its actual slope and topography.  On each label, gold foil covers a section of the line, indicating the location of the vineyard on the hillside.

On the back label, the slope design is repeated, and includes the addition of information describing elevation of the unique vineyard location.  The back label also includes a vineyard row layout for the Estate vineyard. Gold foil highlights vineyard rows and shows the exact location from which the wine in the bottle was harvested. As always, the back label has all of our usual statistics describing the wine’s harvest dates, yields and chemistry.  Finally, each label offers a detailed description of the vineyard location, slope and soil types, and describes the story behind the vineyard name.