Generations see growth at Fulkerson Winery

Video of Fulkerson Winery

For six generations, the Fulkersons have been part of the land above Seneca Lake. At Fulkerson Winery on Route 14, winemaking, juice production and grape growing happily coexist.

JEFF RICHARDS/Star-Gazette A drawing of the new Fulkerson Winery tasting room and juice plant now under contruction in Dundee. The top drawing is from the side looking north. The bottom photo is from the front looking west from state Route 14.

Sayre Fulkerson is the winemaker and vineyard manager and runs the juice business. His wife, Nancy, handles the financial end. They continue a family tradition, common in the Finger Lakes, that includes a love of the land and a belief in the fruit of the Finger Lakes.

When Caleb Fulkerson and his wife, Deborah, came to the area in 1805 they bought 600 acres of land, stretching from the shore of Seneca Lake up the west side to the top of the hill. Caleb's interest was in the mill business. He sold sites for development throughout the area.

"Water power was everything," Sayre explains. Black raspberries were the main crop on the property from the 1870s to the 1960s, and they got the best soil, Sayre says.

When he expanded grape plantings in the 1960s, they were placed in many of the sites where raspberry bushes had once grown.

Sayre and Nancy literally met by accident. Both were square dancers, and one night were in different circles, dancing to Woody Woodhull and his accordion. As they danced, they bumped into each other, "and both of us fell to the floor," Nancy remembers. They got married two years later in 1979.

Sayre and Nancy now own 90 acres of grapes, much of it on Caleb's original 600 acres. The land where the winery is today was sold out of the family in 1816, but was recovered in 1981.

The grapes planted on the Fulkerson's 90 acres are a mix of well-known and more obscure varieties. They include Riesling, vidal, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, pinot noir, Dornfelder, Dechaunac, ravat, Cayuga, traminette, baco noir, marechal foch, chancellor, Niagara, concord, diamond, Vincent, aurora, Catawba and himrod. Whew.

Even with all these varieties, Sayre still must buy some of his grapes. One of his suppliers is his brother, Harlan, who owns vineyards nearby.

JEFF RICHARDS/Star-Gazette Sayre Fulkerson, owner of Fulkerson Winery and Juice Plant in Dundee, samples some of his 3003 Riesling wine still in tanks in mid-June. One lot of the 2003 Riesling has since been released.

Soil types vary on the property, but a lot of it is a "big sand and gravel deposit," Sayre says.

He says his property is at the same elevation as the Holding Point in Horseheads. An Ice-age glacier in the region drained south to the Chemung River, leaving big gravel deposits, which provide good drainage for most of the vineyards. Sayre says there also is a band of clay on about 12 acres of the property that he estimates would take "four miles of tile" to provide proper drainage for.

The family plot is almost at the crest of the hill, surrounded by vineyards. You can trace the Fulkerson family history by reading the headstones. Caleb Fulkerson is there, as is his wife. So are other generations of Fulkersons. One notable exception is the gravesite of Penn Yan judge Lyman H. Smith, who died in 1996.

"He was a wonderful friend," says Sayre, and had asked to be buried in the Fulkerson plot. His headstone says that Lyman considered himself a lifelong student, a soldier (he was at the Remagen Bridge in World War II) and a jurist.

Sayre is a 1975 graduate of Cornell University who earned a degree in pomology (the study of small fruits). He didn't originally open a winery. In 1979, he had purchased the Jensen Juice business from Glenora Wine Cellars and he sold juice and his own grapes to home winemakers and lovers of fresh fruit.

A major hailstorm in August 1988 devastated his vineyard crop.

"The hailstorm took two years of crop off" the vines, Sayre says. "The grape leaves were knee-deep along the center line of Route 14 after the storm."

Traffic going north and south piled the leaves between the lanes.

Sayre and Nancy decided they needed to diversify and added the winery in 1989. Their first year they made 500 to 1,000 cases of wine. Although they started small, they now have expanded production to about 10,000 cases per year.

In February of this year, Sayre opened a new, temporary tasting room south of the previous one, which has since been torn down. This building will eventually be used for storage after the new tasting room/juice business building is completed on the site of the old tasting room. Parking will be south of the new tasting room, which will have a wraparound porch affording lake views. The section for the juice business must be completed first, in time for this fall's harvest.

Sayre says the juice business - simply for drinking or winemaking - "is part of the plan for the future." It is a major part of the plans for the new building, and will occupy the back portion of the L-shaped structure.

"We learn a lot from our customers," Sayre says.

Steve Fulkerson, 19, represents the next generation of winemaking Fulkersons. He graduated from Dundee High School this year and plans to attend Cornell University this fall in a brand-new viticulture and enology program. The program is a joint venture between the food and plant sciences departments at Cornell, and Steve is one of only a handful of students participating in the program. Right now, he's looking at heading west for an internship while working toward his degree and plans to return to the winery and rejoin the family business.

Sayre says that he has learned a lot in the winemaking business. "The more I learn, the more I know I don't know. It's a competitive market. We've got to work extremely hard to make the Finger Lakes a premier area and keep it that way."

Wine Guy picks for Fulkerson Winery

- 2003 Johannisberg Riesling: Lots of melon and lemon fruit flavor in a soft, full, semi-dry wine.

- 2002 Vidal Ice Wine: Smooth luscious wine bursting with flavors of honey apricot and some tangerine.

Wine picks from Sayre Fulkerson

- 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon: plum currants meld with black fruit flavors and a taste of French oak.

If you go ...

Phone: 607/243-7883.

Web site, e-mail: Web site www.fulkersonwinery.com under construction.

Winery hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, year round. The winery is closed on Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter.

For comments or questions, Jeff Richards can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail: jrichards@stargazette.com.