A brief history
There’s an adage that says, “You reap what you sow,” and we take those words to heart at Hazlitt. We address the world and our work with intention and care — from our wine-making practices to protection of the land we tend and our support for the greater community around us.
The Hazlitt winemaking and vineyard teams work very closely together in order to produce the highest quality wines. The separation between vinifera production at Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards (Hector, NY) and native and hybrid variety production at Hazlitt Red Cat Cellars (Naples, NY), has allowed the winemaking teams to be more focused on their craft.
The bulk of Hazlitt’s wine is made from native Labrusca (and hybrid) grapes like Catawba, Niagara, and Concord. These grapes produce wines like Red Cat, White Cat, Pink Cat, and Bramble Berry. The Hazlitt family works with local Finger Lakes farmers to source the grapes needed to produce thousands of cases of these wines each year.
The Hazlitt family owns over 55 acres of vineyards which are used to produce our estate-grown vinifera wines like Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and more. Since harvests tend to vary year to year, Michael Reidy, the Vinifera Winemaker, gets to have more of an artistic license when it comes to crafting the grapes into wine. The production of these wines tends to be smaller (generally, less than 150 cases of each variety).
