Doyle oversees resurgence at Pleasant Valley Wine Company

Beer is made by men, wine by God. 

— Martin Luther

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.   — W.C. Fields. 

HAMMONDSPORT — The popularity of grapes precedes recorded history. The sap of the grapevines was used to cure skin and eye disease, the leaves were used to stop bleeding and even the inflammation caused by hemorrhoids, unripened grapes soothed sore throats, and raisins were administered to treat consumption and constipation. Ripe grapes were thought effective in treating cancer, cholera, smallpox, nausea, and kidney and liver disease. The most popular use of grapes, however, was in the making of wine. In 1996, 7,000-year-old wine-storage jars were discovered in northern Iran. Hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia portray vineyards and the skills of winemakers. The first written account of grapes and wine appears in the Epic ofGilgamesh, a Sumerian text from the third century B.C.E.

In the mythology of Mycenean Greeks, Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, was recognized as the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, and wine. The son of Zeus, he purportedly wandered the world teaching people the cultivation and wonders of wine. The Johnny Appleseed of ancient Greece is often depicted promoting the pleasure of drinking wine while riding in a chariot drawn by panthers and preceded by wild female followers and bearded satyrs or surrounded by a choir of nymphs. Assuredly, Dionysus would be pleased that wine is cultivated today on every continent except Antarctica. 

Winemaking came to North America in the 17th century, brought by European colonists. The first winery in the Finger Lakes didn’t appear until the mid-19th century. “Charles [Davenport] Champlin established what is now the oldest winery in the Finger Lakes,” says Michael J. Doyle, the owner of the Doyle Acquisition Corp. and president of both the Pleasant Valley Wine Company and the Great Western Winery. “In 1860,” Doyle continues, “Champlin and 12 other investors … [put up] $10,000 to create the Pleasant Valley Wine Co. near Hammondsport, which was designated as ‘Bonded Winery No. 1’ in its state and federal districts. The first recorded shipment of 100 gallons of wine occurred in [August] 1862. Under the direction of the company’s two French winemakers, the Masson brothers, the winery produced 20,000 bottles of Sparkling Catawba in 1865 … Two years later, it was the first American sparkling wine to win a medal at a European Exposition.”

After nearly a century of ownership through Prohibition and two World Wars, the Champlin family lost control of the company in 1955 when it was sold to Marne Obernauer, a businessman from New Jersey. The Taylor Wine Co., the next-door neighbor of the Pleasant Valley Wine Co., bought the operation in 1962. The Coca-Cola Co. acquired the combined business (Great Western and Taylor) in 1977 and sold it in 1983 to Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. In 1987, Seagram’s sold the Taylor, Gold Seal, Great Western, Lake Country, Pleasant Valley, Taylor California Cellars, and Paul Masson brands to Vintners International Co, Inc. In 1993, Vintners sold all of its brands to the Canandaigua Wine Co. (now Constellation Brands) but retained its East Coast wineries, which Vintners subsequently closed. The ownership merry-go-round stopped in October 1995 when Doyle struck a deal with the owner of the Mercury Corp., a Hammondsport contract-manufacturer and assembler of metal, plastic, and electronic-components solutions, which agreed to purchase the sprawling complex. Mercury then occupied the former Taylor offices and its bottling and packaging facility, and Doyle leased the Pleasant Valley Winery with an option to buy. 

“My friends and colleagues thought I was crazy,” muses Doyle, who first joined Pleasant Valley in 1976 as the Taylor Corporation’s general counsel. He was appointed president in 1980. “I came to Hammondsport from Rochester, where I had practiced labor and corporate law at Nixon, Hargrave, Devans, and Doyle (now Nixon, Peabody, LLP). What can I say? I fell in love with the place and the people. I left the winery late in 1989 after buying all of Vintners’ East Coast vineyards, which I then leased to the Canandaigua Wine Co. … It broke my heart to see the winery close. That’s when I partnered with Mercury to acquire the Pleasant Valley/Great Western property. I exercised my option to buy the Great Western Winery from Mercury in 2002.”

Thriving winery 

Now, 13 years later, the business is thriving. Pleasant Valley Wine Co. employs 50 people and occupies 30 buildings encompassing 445,000 square feet. Its site at 8260 Pleasant Valley Road near Hammondsport (town of Urbana) is complemented by two additional retail locations — the Seneca Harbor Wine Center in Watkins Glen and the Caywood Vineyards in the town of Lodi, on the east side of Seneca Lake. Doyle owns about 1,500 acres, of which about 500 acres are planted with grapes. Doyle recently sold 185 acres at Caywood to his son Matthew, who manages the vineyards. The winery bottled more than 500,000 cases last year and has a storage capacity of 15 million gallons. Pleasant Valley Wine Co. generates between $5 million and $10 million in annual revenue. Doyle is the sole stockholder. 

Doyle’s strategy hasn’t changed since he bought Pleasant Valley Wine Co. and the Great Western Winery: Leverage and enhance the existing, unique assets. “This business has four different revenue streams,” he notes. “each representing about a quarter of our sales: direct sales of our brands and sales through wholesalers and our own retail stores; bulk storage of wine and juice for other wineries; warehouse storage of customers’ bottled wines; and contract pressing, winemaking, and bottling. The last category is the fastest-growing part of our business, necessitating a $4 million investment in a new line that will fill, cap, and label 400 bottles a minute. The plan is to have the line operational in late 2015. I also plan next year to convert an old boiler room into a distillery, which opens up a whole, new line of possibilities for the company. I’m just a[n inveterate] dreamer: a guy with big ideas and [unfortunately] a small checkbook.”

Doyle is also considering converting unused space in the eight stone buildings listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, five of which were built in the 1860s. The structures resemble an old-world abbey with caves dug into the hillside. “It’s an architectural masterpiece done in Italian Renaissance style,” Doyle says, “nestled right here in the Finger Lakes. We also have a visitor’s center that includes a large museum that tells the story of winemaking in our region …. There is a lot of unused office space that could be converted into an inn or conference center, preserving the architecture while generating additional revenue. After all, the Finger Lakes is now a destination for [hundreds of thousands of] visitors who not only tour the more than 200 area wineries but also support its restaurants, hotels, and B&Bs. This region offers something for everybody, whether it’s boating, fishing, hiking, cycling, shopping, spas, museums, or weddings.” The Finger Lakes was recently ranked as the fourth-best wine destination in the country by TripAdvisor.

Growing wine consumption

Pleasant Valley Wine Co. is riding a national wave of increasing wine consumption. According to Liz Thach, a professor of management and wine business at Sonoma State University in California, wine consumption in the U.S. has increased every year since 2000. Statistics for 2014 include: 375 million cases of wine shipped (nearly 900 million gallons), revenues estimated at $35 billion to $38 billion, the number of wineries rose to 8,287, and wine consumption per-capita increased to 3.14 gallons per year. Sparkling wine nationwide, long a tradition at Great Western, was up 7 percent and is projected to grow in 2015. In Thach’s words: “Sparkling wine is hot.” Mark Twain put it more elegantly: “Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right.”

New York state is certainly part of the wine-consumption wave. As of April 11, Jim Trezise published in the weekly newsletter from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation that the state now boasts 400 wineries located in 59 of its 62 counties, 37 percent of which were added in just the past four years. He also reminded his readers that last year New York was number three in wine production, behind California and Washington, ranked number four in the number of wineries, and generated a total economic impact (grapes, grape juice, wine) of just under $5 billion. (The Wine and Grape Foundation claims that the industry attracted more than 5 million visitors in 2014 and supported 25,000 full-time jobs.) Wine Enthusiast magazine recently designated New York as the “2014 Wine Region of the Year.” It appears that New York consumers have adopted Louis Pasteur’s scientific aphorism: “Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.”

The Finger Lakes has traditionally relied on Catawba, Delaware, and Niagara grapes, which tend to be sweet. The focus on vinifera grapes, beginning in the 1980s, has consistently raised consumer demand for chardonnay, Riesling, cabernet franc, merlot, and pinot noir grapes, which command a higher price. That was the motivation for Doyle to plant vinifera vines at Caywood Vineyards on Seneca Lake, as well as having a retail location on the Seneca Wine Trail, the most popular destination of the Finger Lakes wine tours. 

“While there is a lot of attention on the European-style wines, I see a resurgence of consumption of sweeter wines,” observes Doyle. “These are the customers we have traditionally served. Our Gold Seal Catawba Pink and Concord; Widmer Lake Niagara; Brickstone Cellars Extra-Dry; Autumn Frost, Peach Chardonnay, Strawberry White Zinfandel, and Blackberry Merlot; Brickstone Cellars Vidal Ice Wine; and Chocolate Lab: All of our brands are selling well.” 

Thach says 75 percent of all wine sold in the U.S. in 2014 was priced under $9 a bottle. That is Doyle’s sweet spot.

Doyle attributes his success to his employees. “There is a long tradition of winemaking at Pleasant Valley. After I reopened the plant, a number of veterans returned to continue the area’s history. There is no issue recruiting employees.” Doyle has also relied on outside professional companies to support his company. Visions Federal Credit Union furnishes financial services, William B. Joint of Bath provides legal advice, and Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co., LLP handles the wine company’s accounting.

Doyle, 73, has been a leader in the New York wine industry for four decades. A native of Clinton, he graduated from Williams College in 1964, earned an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1966, and his law degree from Syracuse University in 1972. He practiced law for four years in the Rochester area before moving to Hammondsport. His wife and partner of 40 years — Jana — died in 2007. Doyle’s three children and eight grandchildren all live in Upstate. Doyle lives in downtown Hammondsport.

This interview was conducted at the winery under the painting of the founder, Charles Champlin, who looked approvingly over Doyle’s shoulder. It’s not likely that the current president will promote the 155-year Pleasant Valley tradition in the Bacchanalian fashion by parading down Hammondsport’s main street in a chariot drawn by panthers and surrounded by admiring females and satyrs. But, in his own quiet way Mike Doyle is preserving the long history of Finger Lakes winemaking and the first bonded winery. The next generation is preparing to ensure the continuation of that tradition.        

Beer is made by men, wine by God. 

— Martin Luther

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.   — W.C. Fields. 

HAMMONDSPORT — The popularity of grapes precedes recorded history. The sap of the grapevines was used to cure skin and eye disease, the leaves were used to stop bleeding and even the inflammation caused by hemorrhoids, unripened grapes soothed sore throats, and raisins were administered to treat consumption and constipation. Ripe grapes were thought effective in treating cancer, cholera, smallpox, nausea, and kidney and liver disease. The most popular use of grapes, however, was in the making of wine. In 1996, 7,000-year-old wine-storage jars were discovered in northern Iran. Hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia portray vineyards and the skills of winemakers. The first written account of grapes and wine appears in the Epic ofGilgamesh, a Sumerian text from the third century B.C.E.

In the mythology of Mycenean Greeks, Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, was recognized as the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, and wine. The son of Zeus, he purportedly wandered the world teaching people the cultivation and wonders of wine. The Johnny Appleseed of ancient Greece is often depicted promoting the pleasure of drinking wine while riding in a chariot drawn by panthers and preceded by wild female followers and bearded satyrs or surrounded by a choir of nymphs. Assuredly, Dionysus would be pleased that wine is cultivated today on every continent except Antarctica. 

Winemaking came to North America in the 17th century, brought by European colonists. The first winery in the Finger Lakes didn’t appear until the mid-19th century. “Charles [Davenport] Champlin established what is now the oldest winery in the Finger Lakes,” says Michael J. Doyle, the owner of the Doyle Acquisition Corp. and president of both the Pleasant Valley Wine Company and the Great Western Winery. “In 1860,” Doyle continues, “Champlin and 12 other investors … [put up] $10,000 to create the Pleasant Valley Wine Co. near Hammondsport, which was designated as ‘Bonded Winery No. 1’ in its state and federal districts. The first recorded shipment of 100 gallons of wine occurred in [August] 1862. Under the direction of the company’s two French winemakers, the Masson brothers, the winery produced 20,000 bottles of Sparkling Catawba in 1865 … Two years later, it was the first American sparkling wine to win a medal at a European Exposition.”

After nearly a century of ownership through Prohibition and two World Wars, the Champlin family lost control of the company in 1955 when it was sold to Marne Obernauer, a businessman from New Jersey. The Taylor Wine Co., the next-door neighbor of the Pleasant Valley Wine Co., bought the operation in 1962. The Coca-Cola Co. acquired the combined business (Great Western and Taylor) in 1977 and sold it in 1983 to Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. In 1987, Seagram’s sold the Taylor, Gold Seal, Great Western, Lake Country, Pleasant Valley, Taylor California Cellars, and Paul Masson brands to Vintners International Co, Inc. In 1993, Vintners sold all of its brands to the Canandaigua Wine Co. (now Constellation Brands) but retained its East Coast wineries, which Vintners subsequently closed. The ownership merry-go-round stopped in October 1995 when Doyle struck a deal with the owner of the Mercury Corp., a Hammondsport contract-manufacturer and assembler of metal, plastic, and electronic-components solutions, which agreed to purchase the sprawling complex. Mercury then occupied the former Taylor offices and its bottling and packaging facility, and Doyle leased the Pleasant Valley Winery with an option to buy. 

“My friends and colleagues thought I was crazy,” muses Doyle, who first joined Pleasant Valley in 1976 as the Taylor Corporation’s general counsel. He was appointed president in 1980. “I came to Hammondsport from Rochester, where I had practiced labor and corporate law at Nixon, Hargrave, Devans, and Doyle (now Nixon, Peabody, LLP). What can I say? I fell in love with the place and the people. I left the winery late in 1989 after buying all of Vintners’ East Coast vineyards, which I then leased to the Canandaigua Wine Co. … It broke my heart to see the winery close. That’s when I partnered with Mercury to acquire the Pleasant Valley/Great Western property. I exercised my option to buy the Great Western Winery from Mercury in 2002.”

Thriving winery 

Now, 13 years later, the business is thriving. Pleasant Valley Wine Co. employs 50 people and occupies 30 buildings encompassing 445,000 square feet. Its site at 8260 Pleasant Valley Road near Hammondsport (town of Urbana) is complemented by two additional retail locations — the Seneca Harbor Wine Center in Watkins Glen and the Caywood Vineyards in the town of Lodi, on the east side of Seneca Lake. Doyle owns about 1,500 acres, of which about 500 acres are planted with grapes. Doyle recently sold 185 acres at Caywood to his son Matthew, who manages the vineyards. The winery bottled more than 500,000 cases last year and has a storage capacity of 15 million gallons. Pleasant Valley Wine Co. generates between $5 million and $10 million in annual revenue. Doyle is the sole stockholder. 

Doyle’s strategy hasn’t changed since he bought Pleasant Valley Wine Co. and the Great Western Winery: Leverage and enhance the existing, unique assets. “This business has four different revenue streams,” he notes. “each representing about a quarter of our sales: direct sales of our brands and sales through wholesalers and our own retail stores; bulk storage of wine and juice for other wineries; warehouse storage of customers’ bottled wines; and contract pressing, winemaking, and bottling. The last category is the fastest-growing part of our business, necessitating a $4 million investment in a new line that will fill, cap, and label 400 bottles a minute. The plan is to have the line operational in late 2015. I also plan next year to convert an old boiler room into a distillery, which opens up a whole, new line of possibilities for the company. I’m just a[n inveterate] dreamer: a guy with big ideas and [unfortunately] a small checkbook.”

Doyle is also considering converting unused space in the eight stone buildings listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, five of which were built in the 1860s. The structures resemble an old-world abbey with caves dug into the hillside. “It’s an architectural masterpiece done in Italian Renaissance style,” Doyle says, “nestled right here in the Finger Lakes. We also have a visitor’s center that includes a large museum that tells the story of winemaking in our region …. There is a lot of unused office space that could be converted into an inn or conference center, preserving the architecture while generating additional revenue. After all, the Finger Lakes is now a destination for [hundreds of thousands of] visitors who not only tour the more than 200 area wineries but also support its restaurants, hotels, and B&Bs. This region offers something for everybody, whether it’s boating, fishing, hiking, cycling, shopping, spas, museums, or weddings.” The Finger Lakes was recently ranked as the fourth-best wine destination in the country by TripAdvisor.

Growing wine consumption

Pleasant Valley Wine Co. is riding a national wave of increasing wine consumption. According to Liz Thach, a professor of management and wine business at Sonoma State University in California, wine consumption in the U.S. has increased every year since 2000. Statistics for 2014 include: 375 million cases of wine shipped (nearly 900 million gallons), revenues estimated at $35 billion to $38 billion, the number of wineries rose to 8,287, and wine consumption per-capita increased to 3.14 gallons per year. Sparkling wine nationwide, long a tradition at Great Western, was up 7 percent and is projected to grow in 2015. In Thach’s words: “Sparkling wine is hot.” Mark Twain put it more elegantly: “Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right.”

New York state is certainly part of the wine-consumption wave. As of April 11, Jim Trezise published in the weekly newsletter from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation that the state now boasts 400 wineries located in 59 of its 62 counties, 37 percent of which were added in just the past four years. He also reminded his readers that last year New York was number three in wine production, behind California and Washington, ranked number four in the number of wineries, and generated a total economic impact (grapes, grape juice, wine) of just under $5 billion. (The Wine and Grape Foundation claims that the industry attracted more than 5 million visitors in 2014 and supported 25,000 full-time jobs.) Wine Enthusiast magazine recently designated New York as the “2014 Wine Region of the Year.” It appears that New York consumers have adopted Louis Pasteur’s scientific aphorism: “Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.”

The Finger Lakes has traditionally relied on Catawba, Delaware, and Niagara grapes, which tend to be sweet. The focus on vinifera grapes, beginning in the 1980s, has consistently raised consumer demand for chardonnay, Riesling, cabernet franc, merlot, and pinot noir grapes, which command a higher price. That was the motivation for Doyle to plant vinifera vines at Caywood Vineyards on Seneca Lake, as well as having a retail location on the Seneca Wine Trail, the most popular destination of the Finger Lakes wine tours. 

“While there is a lot of attention on the European-style wines, I see a resurgence of consumption of sweeter wines,” observes Doyle. “These are the customers we have traditionally served. Our Gold Seal Catawba Pink and Concord; Widmer Lake Niagara; Brickstone Cellars Extra-Dry; Autumn Frost, Peach Chardonnay, Strawberry White Zinfandel, and Blackberry Merlot; Brickstone Cellars Vidal Ice Wine; and Chocolate Lab: All of our brands are selling well.” 

Thach says 75 percent of all wine sold in the U.S. in 2014 was priced under $9 a bottle. That is Doyle’s sweet spot.

Doyle attributes his success to his employees. “There is a long tradition of winemaking at Pleasant Valley. After I reopened the plant, a number of veterans returned to continue the area’s history. There is no issue recruiting employees.” Doyle has also relied on outside professional companies to support his company. Visions Federal Credit Union furnishes financial services, William B. Joint of Bath provides legal advice, and Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co., LLP handles the wine company’s accounting.

Doyle, 73, has been a leader in the New York wine industry for four decades. A native of Clinton, he graduated from Williams College in 1964, earned an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1966, and his law degree from Syracuse University in 1972. He practiced law for four years in the Rochester area before moving to Hammondsport. His wife and partner of 40 years — Jana — died in 2007. Doyle’s three children and eight grandchildren all live in Upstate. Doyle lives in downtown Hammondsport.

This interview was conducted at the winery under the painting of the founder, Charles Champlin, who looked approvingly over Doyle’s shoulder. It’s not likely that the current president will promote the 155-year Pleasant Valley tradition in the Bacchanalian fashion by parading down Hammondsport’s main street in a chariot drawn by panthers and surrounded by admiring females and satyrs. But, in his own quiet way Mike Doyle is preserving the long history of Finger Lakes winemaking and the first bonded winery. The next generation is preparing to ensure the continuation of that tradition.