Our Climate
Our estate vineyards sit at 817 ft. along the north shore of Lake Waramaug in the picturesque Litchfield Hills. Their relatively high elevation and southwest exposure ensures abundant sunshine which promotes a slow, even ripening, steady sugar accumulation and natural acidity. Hopkins Vineyard has the only vineyard in Connecticut influenced by an in-land lake. Lake Waramaug is the second largest natural lake in Connecticut. It provides a tempering factor in our vineyards by warding off an early frost or freeze.
Winemakers Corner
My philosophy is – what happens in the vineyard is what you get. When making wine, I like for the fruit to show itself. So, the challenge is in the vineyard. There’s certainly lots of things you can do to the juice and to the wine itself to change it, but then you’re making it something other than what it is. So, most of the important stuff happens in the vineyard. We have 20,000 plants, and each is an individual and needs to be treated as such. If you treat your plants nicely, they’ll return the favor.
