The Three Sisters Project started over dinner one night. Carlo DeVito, his wife Dominique, David Jackson and his wife Kathy Troidle were together for dinner discussing wine, and of course, Hudson-Chatham Winery. The summer before, Hudson-Chatham Winery had introduced its Empire, a Red Table Wine that was a blend of Long Island Merlot, Hudson Valley Baco Noir, and Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc. The idea behind Empire was to represent all of New York, and it had become a cult wine of sorts selling all 70 cases of the first production in a few weeks. Empire was the inspiration for the Three Sisters Project. Could the three regions of Empire be represented by wineries in each region showing wines from the other two?
David actually brought The Three Sisters idea up in the dinner conversation and Carlo agreed that it would be a fabulous idea. We recruited our friends Evan Dawson and Lenn Thompson to help us find wineries that would sign up for the project. Without Lenn and Evan, The Three Sisters would not have ever come to life.
So whose idea was it? Like most good ideas inspiration comes from several places, and the tough part is actually getting something done. Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. Carlo had the idea for Empire, David said the idea, Lenn contacted people on Long Island and Evan had the contacts in the Finger Lakes. Anyone who knows Carlo knows he is a force of nature who is seldom denied, and Carlo pushed everything until it happened.
We hope that over the next years many more wineries will join together in the spring to represent the wines of New York. After all, wine in the New World had its roots here!
