Open: Year Round
The story of Six Mile Creek Vineyards originates in the mid-1970s when Roger Battistella, then a Cornell professor of health policy and management, returned from a sabbatical year in England and subsequent travels to France and Italy where people consider wine an everyday essential. Prior to that his only association with wine evoked remorseful memories of youthful overindulgence of mass marketed frizzy stuff less noted for quality than for being inexpensive. At that time the U.S wine industry was still in the early stages of its rise to international respectability. Consequently, wine was not high on his list of preferred beverages. But soon afterwards wine began to play a more important role.
With the encouragement of a home-winemaker friend, Roger began making increasingly larger amounts of wine in his basement. The first results were pretty awful but gradually improved to the point that in the early 80s Roger began winning awards in serious competitions. This early success led him to join the American Wine Society, a national organization, founded in Ithaca by a group of Cornell professors and local professionals. The group consisted of serious students of wine; many of them excellent winemakers. Roger learned a lot about wine from such knowledgeable company and greatly enjoyed the frequent evenings sampling wines from around the world.
