Meadowdale Winery

Connected to History and Land

Taking a cue from the land’s history and relying on the area’s Dutch heritage, Meadowdale Winery owners Bernard Melewski and John Sheehan are producing award-winning niche wines. Their mission is “to produce high-quality wines that carry forward this region’s centuries-long tradition of winemaking excellence.” And they’re doing so implementing local traditions and using apples sourced from their own trees in Altamont and Westport, and from nearby Indian Ladder Farm. To make this a destination worth visiting, the owners put the Capital District’s rich Dutch history to their advantage: Not only do they use age-old recipes to produce their wines, but they also offer up a fascinating historical connection between the land, its produce and its structures, including a 300-yearold Dutch-style “H”-structure barn.

The concepts behind Meadowdale Winery are straightforward:

• adapt to changing consumer trends (i.e., more young people are drinking wine but want a different flavor profile, that is, a change to lighter wines with lower alcohol content and a newer variety of wines not normally found in the U.S.),

• produce wines that reflect the taste of the region,

• produce wines that are easy to pair with casual, “unfussy” foods for a well-rounded taste experience.

The pastoral land, nestled in Altamont with the Helderberg Escarpment as a backdrop, was originally given to John Fryer as a Patroon land grant in 1730 to bring new settlers to the area. Transitioning from a self-sustaining farm to a fruit orchard, producing maple syrup and fresh fruits and vegetables, this land is now home to an award-winning winery and a newly renovated Dutch 1730s Dutch barn, now a tasting room. Using materials from another nearby barn, an 1840s expansion incorporated original beams that extend the entire length and width of the barn. To strengthen their connection to the history, region and land, the partners are making wines using fruit tied to the geographical place and its natural elements (e.g., ponds, wind, temperatures, land) and incorporating age-old methods, locally sourced products, and what were thought to be long-lost recipes.

In addition to using all New York ingredients, Meadowdale is helping the environment by being an ultra-low-carbon, zero-waste winery. It is heated, cooled and powered by renewable, emissions-free solar and geothermal energy.

Take, for example, their Meadowdale 1736 Birch Raisin Wine, made from a local Dutch recipe similar to one made in Virginia by Martha Washington. Yes, that Martha Washington. Washington’s original recipe, found in the Booke of Sweet Meats, used birch sap as a base, claiming it was good for the appetite and a possible cure for kidney stones. Our region’s early spring initiates the flow of white birch sap, which the owners use as a base (as opposed to traditional yeast) to produce this unique wine, reimagined for the Dutch farming community. This use of white birch sap yields a crystal clear beverage. To give further distinctiveness to this wine, Meadowdale is the only American commercial winery producing this wine. Typically found in Northern and Eastern European countries, Birch Raisin Wine expresses an herbaceous juniper flavor profile reminiscent of light dry gin. It’s an easy-drinking or sipping wine, typically after dinner.

To further showcase land and product living together, the owners make ice cider (a still wine), what the Europeans call “ice apple wine,” from apples grown on the property. The owners were trying hard ciders and other beverages typically not seen in the American market before, giving rise to the idea of making wine from apples. Who would know that the winery’s quick rise to prominence would be achieved by fulfilling a unique niche. Their success is attributed to a “good recipe” and cider made from five late-season varieties of apples. Currently the owners are experimenting with adding sour apples to the mix, bringing up the acidity levels.