Clover Pond Vineyard wins 11 medals at New York Wine Classic
Enterprise file photo — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
James and Joyce Besha have 16 acres of vines planted and annually harvested and their winery, on Route 20 in Guilderland, offers over 15 different varieties all grown and produced on the farm.
GUILDERLAND — Less than a decade after starting their vineyard, Joyce and James Besha have won 11 medals at the 38th Annual New York Wine Classic competition.
The annual competition, organized by the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, is independently judged by the Beverage Testing Institute.
“We work hard to produce amazingly complex and delicious wines that are starting to be recognized as world-class,” said James Besha in a statement announcing the gold-medal winners: estate-grown wines Leaf, Red Tail, Rouge Première, and Blanc Première along with silver and bronze winners Blanc Première 2019, Marquette Reserve, Sweet Puppy, Sweet Louise, Rosebud, and Rosé Première.
When the Beshas were getting started in 2018, James Besha told The Enterprise, “A farm winery is one that makes wine from grapes grown on a farm. It’s a winery where we can grow product, but it’s not a large-scale commercial winery,” he said.
Wine production was new for the couple. Joyce Besha had retired from working as a Berne-Knox-Westerlo school nurse; she has a green thumb, her husband said. James Besha, a professional engineer, owns Albany Engineering Corporation.
The Beshas both grew up in Guilderland and went to Guilderland High School but later moved to the Hilltowns and raised their family there, spending about 40 years there. “It’s hard growing things up there,” James Besha said. “There’s a lot of rocks up there.”
The couple moved “back down here — wonderful soil — and we said, ‘Let’s grow something,’” Besha recalled. “We’re back to where we started,” James Besha said of the couple’s return to Guilderland.
The family-owned and operated vineyard and tasting room is on Route 20 in the rural part of Guilderland. With 16 acres of vines planted and annually harvested, the winery offers over 15 different varieties all grown and produced on the farm.
“Calling it a ‘vineyard’ is high-falutin’,” said James Besha in 2018. “We’re grape farmers.”
The vineyard is recognized as a New York Certified Sustainable Vineyard. It is part of the Upper Hudson Valley American Viticultural Area, one of the newest grape-growing areas of national distinction.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer
