Brotherhood Winery

The Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville may not be as big as one of its Napa Valley rivals, but it has history on its side. A tour and tasting at Brotherhood costs a mere $5 per person, and includes the chance to explore the cool underground areas of the winery (great on a summer day!) and taste a variety of wines made on site. The winery's store is open year round and offers discounts on purchases of cases of wine. The winery also hosts events on an almost weekly basis: coming up in the near future is the Bounty of the Hudson Food and Wine Festival, July 29 and 30. link: http://www.brotherhoodwinery.net/pages/default.asp more

The Brotherhood Winery, located in the heart of the Hudson Valley is considered to be America's oldest winery (dates back to 1839). Located about an hour's drive north from metro New York, the Winery offers visitors a delightful opportunity to "step back into history". The original buildings on the property house vast underground cellars comparable to those of famous European wineries. Stroll the beautifully landscaped premises, tour the underground cellars (the largest in the country) and learn about champagne making, oak barrel aging and taste a variety of award-winning wines from sweet to dry, dessert to table. Visitors can purchase wines by the bottle or case and are specially priced. My favorites include the NY Chablis (a crisp, dry white wine) and Holiday (a spiced red wine). Brotherhood hosts a number of special events including a Grape Stomping, Polka Fest, Jazz Festival or the Haunted Cellars at Halloween. Brotherhood is open seven days a week from 11-5PM; winetasting tours are available seven days a week from April to October (check their website for daily and weekend hours). more

Brotherwood winery is a great trip. The buildings are great to look at, the wine is really good (especially the riesling, their best selling bottle), and the prices are very low. But the staff could definitely use a little more training. I bought a few cases of personalized bottles as favors for our wedding, and the graphic designer took a really long time getting back to me, to the point that the owner's wife had to get involved. And the person working in the store had trouble finding it, and could not figure out the sales tax. Also, we had to point out to them when we picked it up that we hadn't yet paid. more