Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars
Country:
USA
Region:
New York Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars is probably the Finger Lakes' most well-known winery. Dr. Konstantin Frank, an immigrant from Ukraine, started planting European vinifera vines in the Finger Lakes in the 1950s. Locals who had been growing American varieties for over a century thought that this was a rather daft thing to do. It was simply too cold for European vinifera vines to grow so far up north, they said. But even if he had wanted to, Dr. Konstantin Frank would not have been able to listen to those locals because he did not speak any English.
Dr. F. - magic deep inside in the Finger Lakes
Back then, roughly sixty years ago, the fate of a whole wine region took a turn because of one man's vision - and his lack of the English language.
But Dr. Frank, a professor of plant science in the Ukraine, spoke six other languages. One of them was French, which allowed him to discourse at great length with Charles Fournier, a French champagne maker and president of nearby Gold Seal Vineyards. The influential Fournier supported Frank's idea to grow vinifera varieties in the Finger Lakes. A decade later, Dr. Frank was bottling the first Rieslings from vines he had planted on his own vineyards at Keuka Lake. His now over 50 year old vines are still bearing fruit for some of the Finger Lakes' finest Rieslings.