Hello from wintery NYC! 🥶
Last week I was in Chicago during a blizzard, this past weekend felt like spring in Kansas City, and now I’m back in New York for a few days before heading to Switzerland via Milan this weekend.
(Yes, I’m unintentionally testing my winter wardrobe in all conditions.)
In the spirit of winter resilience and in honor of the immigrant stories that shape our industries and communities, I wanted to share a story I mentioned during last week’s virtual fundraiser:
It’s about New York wine…and the Ukrainian immigrant who helped make it what it is today.
Pour Decisions
You might not know it, but New York is actually the third-largest wine-producing state in the U.S. (after California and Washington), with 400+ wineries spanning from the Hamptons to the Finger Lakes and the Canadian border.
If this is news to you, you’re not alone!
For a long time, it was assumed that New York winters made it too cold to grow vitis vinifera — the European grape vine that produces almost all of the wines we drink today, like cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, syrah, etc.
The only grapes that could survive these cold winters were American grape vines like Concord, which make great juice and jam…but don’t really make great wine.
Previous European settlers in NY did try to grow vitis vinifera but failed (the Dutch in 1647, the French in 1667). It was just too cold, and vines would freeze and die over the winters.
Enter Dr. Konstantin Frank.
Born in Ukraine in 1899, Dr. Frank was working vineyards by age 12 and made his first wine at 15.
He got the wine bug when he was young:
“It was 1906 in Strasbourg at a festival; my uncle gave me two glasses of wine.
I became drunk and he taught me a bad Russian word. I repeated it and my mother nearly fainted from shock. Since then I have been interested in wine”.
In 1939, he earned a Ph.D. in viticulture studying how to grow vitis vinifera in the near-subarctic climate of Ukraine.
Image from Dr. Konstantin Frank Vineyards
After fleeing the Soviet regime, he arrived in NYC with his wife and children in 1951: broke, speaking little English, and washing dishes at night to support his family.
Eventually, he made his way to the Finger Lakes and began working at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station.
At that time, New York wine research was focusing on hybrids: cross pollinating American vines with vitis vinifera in an attempt to grow vines that were winter resilient like the American parent, but with the attractive aromas and flavors of the European parent.
This research was spearheaded by French winemaker Charles Fournier, who had moved to New York from Veuve Cliquot, and knew that American grapes weren’t capable of making wines good enough to stand out in the competitive global market.
Left to right: Dr. Frank & Charles Fournier. Image from Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery
When Dr. Frank asked his colleagues why they were growing hybrids and not vitis vinifera, he was repeatedly told it wasn’t possible. “It’s too cold, and too risky.”
When he insisted that he could do it, they assumed he was uninformed.
He finally connected with Fournier in 1953 and, being able to speak French, he explained that he could do the so-called impossible. Excited at the prospect and desperate to grow vitis vinifera, Fournier hired him immediately as his director of vineyard research.
This work would lay the foundation for NY’s wine industry today.
After gaining U.S. citizenship in 1957, Dr. Frank purchased property in the area and began planting his own vitis vinifera on the weekends and evenings, both to continue his research and to make commercial wines. At one point, he even had over 60 varietals on the property!
He went on to release his first commercial vintage in 1962, and proved that his resilience and immigrant expertise could build something remarkable, even in ice-cold conditions. The New York wine industry would grow significantly in the 60s and 70s thanks to his research.
Images from Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery
While he passed away in 1985, the winery is still owned by his family and operates today in the Finger Lakes — I had a stunning cab franc and riesling from Dr. Konstantin Frank last summer. Highly recommend!
Image from Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery
(No, this is not sponsored by New York Wine or Dr. Konstantin Frank. I wish! 😅)
Sip Happens
Just like Dr. Frank’s vines, we too are navigating cold, difficult conditions…although with a different kind of ICE.
At last week’s Pour, Plan, Persist fundraiser (thank you again to those who joined!), attorney, advocate, and author Misasha Suzuki Graham shared how we can protect ourselves and our communities.
As Misasha noted,
“Fear is a huge tool to keep people silent. And we can be scared. But we also can’t stay silent. We live in a binary world where it's often one thing or the other, but we need to hold those two things together right now.”
Here are a few takeaways I wanted to pass along:
Know Your Rights with ICE.
If you are concerned about ICE coming for you, read here about family preparedness.
Know the difference between a judicial warrant and an administrative warrant. You don’t have to open your doors for anything other than a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
If you see ICE activity, let others know using a whistle - three short blasts indicate ICE is in the vicinity; one long blast means someone is being actively detained. This alerts others to come watch, film, and bear witness. It is your legal right to film them and don’t let them tell you otherwise.
Want to become a legal observer? Learn more here, courtesy of COPAL.
And if you're ever feeling hopeless, this helps: a video of Minnesota protesters singing outside the hotel housing ICE agents.
If you’re looking for some more resources, including the 5 ways we can all take a stand, just hit reply and I’ll send them your way!
When I have grandchildren and they ask me what I did during this time, my answer can't be "nothing."
We can all adapt. We can all resist. And we can all grow.
See you next week,
P.S. Share this issue far and wide! Stories matter, but so do tools, and the ICE resources included are meant to be passed along.
