History and Winemaking

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History

Song Hill Farm was the home of Song Hill Thoroughbreds and H. James Bond Racing Stable for 25 years. In 2005 the horses moved to Mechanicville, NY and in 2009 we began converting some of the pastureland into vineyard. This year we planted 100 more vines and we plan to add more in the years to come. We received our Farm Winery license in the summer of 2013 and that fall marked our first full harvest.

Winemaking

new-york-finger-lakes-wineries-11_smallWe use a hands-on approach for everything from fermentation to bottling to cleaning our equipment. All of our grapes are hand-picked (no machine harvesting) and hand-sorted upon arrival at our winery.

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Our sparkling wines follow the méthode champenoise, or traditional method, which are the guidelines laid out for wines made in Champagne, France. This includes very gentle press fractions, the addition of yeast and sugar at bottling (liquer de tirage), secondary fermentation in bottle, hand-riddling, and disgorging.

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Our still red wines are fermented in small batches of 1 ton or less and are aged on high quality French and American Oak for at least 1 year. Our still white wines are barrel fermented on high quality French or American oak and get extended lees contact with hand-stirring of the barrels, a process known as sur lie et bâtonnage.

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Conor S. Gallagher is the winemaker at Song Hill Winery. He received his Certificate in Winemaking from the University of California at Davis. He first started working in the industry at Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery in Chicago, Illinois. In August of 2011, he and his family moved to the Finger Lakes where he worked as an assistant winemaker and vineyard assistant before he and his wife founded Song Hill Winery.

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