Constellation Brands Donates New York Winery To School
Constellation Brands is making a big gift of one of their wineries. The Widmer winery in upstate New York will be donated to the Rochester Institute of Technology to round out their programs in culinary arts, viticulture and sustainable farming. Constellation announced that it will close Widmer Winery in 2011, moving the production of Manischewitz, Widmer, Paul Masson and Taylor wines to its Canandaigua Winery. Many of Widmer's 55 employees will be given jobs at Canandaigua. Widmer has a long history. John Jacob Widmer bought his first New York farmland in 1882 and the Widmer wine business started in 1888 back when orders were filled only in kegs and barrels. During the years of Prohibition, Widmer's Wine Cellars produced unfermented grape juice, fruit and wine jellies, syrups as well as a limited amount of wine for sacramental and medicinal use. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Widmer went back into the wine business. Over the years the Widmer business grew to 860 acres of land on which there are 220 vine acres with 640 vines to the acre.
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