Wine and Networking: A Perfect Combo

I met the owners of the Black Birch Vineyard in Southampton at the vineyard itself, which is also the home of two of its owners, Ed and Mary Hamel.

I was there with Ruth Griggs and Maureen Scanlon, my fellow colleagues in The Creative, and Dave Sweeney of viz-bang, a video production company. Together, we are co-sponsoring a Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce Arrive @ 5 networking event that will be held at Black Birch.

Along with vineyard owners Michelle Kersbergen and her husband, Ian Modestow – who was outside putting the final touches on new batches of red wine – we were planning the details of the June 4 event, which promises to be a great gala!

It was late in the day, so, of course, the meeting was held over Black Birch wine – a smooth and fresh Riesling and a sumptuous Cabernet Sauvignon

I had never met Ed, Mary, Michelle or Ian before, and it was fun to get to know them and to work together on a joint venture. My Beetle Press colleague, Judy Kelliher, had written about the vineyard for The Republican, and my dear friend Bonni Alpert is friends with Michelle and Ian.

I enjoyed talking about all these various connections with my new wine friends and learning more about the vineyard.

The Black Birch bunch were all friends before they started the vineyard. The idea came to them one night while they were gathered to watch “American Idol” in March 2010. Ian spied Ed’s books on wine-making and inquired about them; the discussion that followed led to the now award-winning vineyard on the Hamel’s property.

Since their initial planting in 2010, the owners have been creating hand-crafted, small-batch wines, mostly from whole grapes purchased from growers in the southeast coast of Massachusetts and from New York state – until their own crops come in.

The four owners have put what Ed calls “sweat equity” into the business, meaning they have done most of the work themselves to build the winery, including cutting all the wooden posts and installing the trellis system for the multiple rows of grapevines.

The Chamber event will take place in an 1850s-era shed on the property that Ed and Mary converted into a wine tasting area and retail space, where Michelle handles the sales of the bottled wine and other products, such as Black Birch T-shirts.

Guests can meander out to the deck via a Dutch door that opens out to the back side of the sprawling property, where visitors typically sit in Adirondack chairs to admire the panoramic view of the Mount Tom range, or at tables to enjoy their picnic lunches.

The wine is made in the lower level of the shed in large temperature-controlled metal tanks and stored in oak barrels until ready for bottling. Besides the Traminette, the winery features Vidal Blanc, Naked Chardonnay, Riesling, Blaufrankisch and Cabernet Sauvignon, among other varieties.

Across the street, also part of the vineyard’s property, are 16 different varieties of grapes growing on another acre and a quarter to test and expand what they can offer.

In addition to the Chamber event, the vineyard hosts a summer concert series, weekend wine tastings and other events.

I suggest you take the time to check it out. The vineyard is breathtaking, and the wine is fabulous.

I recommend the Riesling, which I normally find too sweet, and Naked Chardonnay!