Ravines Wine Cellars

Ravines Wine Cellars is a boutique winery in an emerging world-class wine region, the Finger Lakes of upstate New York. It is the dream and passion of Morten & Lisa Hallgren, a European Winemaker/Oenologist and his Chef/Foodie wife. Together they have created a small, distinctive winery crafting elegant and food friendly wines using Old World winemaking traditions with New World innovation. Morten was raised in the Provence region of the South of France, a region world famous for its religion of food and wine. The Hallgren family owned and operated Domaine de Castel Roubine, a 270 acre estate with 170 acres of vineyards. He received an advanced degree in both Enology and Viticulture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie in Montpellier, and spent his first harvest in Bordeaux, at Chateau Cos d’Estournel, a world reknown winery in the Medóc region owned by the legendary Bruno Pratts. After working for a French negociant on a project in West Texas, he moved on to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, the most visited winery in America. He was recruited by Willy Frank who offered him a job as chief winemaker for Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars on Keuka Lake, the most scenic of the five Finger Lakes of Upstate New York, where he continued working for six years. In 2000 the Hallgrens purchased a 17 acre parcel of land on a glacier-carved hillside on the Eastern slopes of Keuka Lake. This land is located at the widest part of the lake which allows grapevines to receive maximum benefit from its temperature- moderating effects, it has a good slope which keeps the mineral rich soils well-drained, and is situated between two deep ravines, which drain cold air from the land during the winter. These ravines are the namesake of the winery. The charming tasting room with scenic views of the lake, opened in spring 2003 and is decorated in a Provençal style.

website: ravineswine.com