It’s a new year, and as the winter winds howl, Claire, Monte, and Kaliis visit Black Birch Vineyard in North Hatfield. Listen to the conversation with Ian Modesto and Michelle Kurzbergen, the dog Yogi, and the cats Pinot and Chardonnay.

Learn about how their flock of 40 sheep help sustain the land, how valley weather suprises hearty winegrowers in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, and how local residents can sit a spell in a cozy tasting room, sipping wines and enjoying the arts this winter.

One highlight for winter is a red nouveau. Modesto explains its timing with the new year, “Our Nouveau is a take on Beaujolais, so to speak–an early, that’s very different. Typically our reds won’t be bottled for a year or longer after they’re harvested. But this Nouveau bottled a few weeks ago from our 2025 harvest, which is an unusual way of making it, but we wanted a Beaujolais style with our Marquette. It’s a very light, fruity red wine. It’s a really enjoyable wine, but it’s just different. And that’s the great thing about wine and what we were talking about earlier about changing your winemaking strategies to reflect what happens in the vineyard with farming. It’s a little different style than we typically make with our Marquette, so that’s why we’re excited about it.”

Photos courtesy of NEPM.

This show aired on NEPM on 1/29/26.