A Love Letter to America's Forgotten Wine Grapes
Dear Native Grapes is a small vineyard and winery in the Western Catskills of New York, run by Deanna Urciuoli and Alfie Alcántara — two former film students who traded the freelance production life for a radical mission: to revive America's native and hybrid grape varieties and prove that the Northeast can make honest, natural wine without chemical farming. [^29^] [^30^] Their farm is a living archive of pre-Prohibition viticulture, a no-till, regenerative vineyard where Catawba, Delaware, Norton, and other heritage varieties grow alongside modern hybrids, all farmed with holistic sprays, deep mulch, and a belief that the best wines come from grapes that belong to the land they grow on. [^30^] [^34^]
From NYU Film School to the Western Catskills
Deanna Urciuoli and Alfie Alcántara did not grow up in wine. They met in film school at NYU in 2010, working on a senior thesis project in New Paltz where they fell in love. [^30^] Both came from a film background, working freelance production jobs in New York City. Alfie had a "very green thumb" — they always had a balcony full of vegetables and flowers. A farm project was always on the horizon, but they weren't sure what it would look like. [^30^]
Around 2010, they began discovering natural wine. The sense of place — growing a grape where it's from — was deeply inspiring. [^30^] Alfie had felt a calling since childhood to work with grape vines, reading about viticulture in high school but never figuring out how to materialise it. [^30^] Deanna, the planner, put them on an aggressive savings plan so they could buy farmland. She encouraged Alfie to reach out to small wineries in the area and learn from them. He connected with Todd and Crystal at Wild Arc Farm in the Hudson Valley, coming up a couple of times a month to absorb everything he could. [^30^]
The turning point came during a New Year's Eve trip to Maryland. Alfie went for a hike to avoid a stomach bug and stumbled upon a tiny vineyard being ripped out — vinifera vines that had been "pummeled year after year by disease." [^30^] That night, in bed sick, they started reading about America's native grapes. They learned that these grapes were once the foundation of American winemaking, that Prohibition had wiped out much of the innovation around them, and that the Northeast was actually perfect for vitis labrusca and French-American hybrids if you stopped trying to force European varieties into an environment they didn't belong in. [^30^]
They initially looked in the Hudson Valley but were priced out, eventually finding land in the Western Catskills — Delaware County, near Walton. [^30^] They bought the property in 2019, a double-wide house on open land, and began the slow process of turning it into a home and a vineyard. [^30^] The pandemic accelerated their timeline: Deanna transitioned to full-time remote work, Alfie threw himself into the project, and they began mapping the land, measuring rows, and ordering vines. [^30^]
"We want to make sure that these wines are accessible and that people get a chance to drink them and really think about the alternatives in the future of American winemaking. And also encourage them to plant a vine or two! Some of our vines are growing up on a rooftop in Brooklyn and some are growing out in suburban Massachusetts."
— Deanna Urciuoli & Alfie Alcántara
Holistic Sprays, No-Till & Heritage Varieties
Dear Native Grapes' farming is rooted in regenerative, holistic principles adapted from apple orchard management. [^30^] Alfie and Deanna follow the work of Michael Phillips, the late orchardist who pioneered regenerative farming and holistic sprays for fruit trees. Since Phillips' climate in New Hampshire is very similar to theirs, they saw immediate synchronicity and began adapting his foliar spray recipes for their vineyard. [^30^]
Their spray program uses neem oil to boost plants' immune response before rain events, combined with kelp seaweed, stinging nettle, and yarrow — all materials found on or near the farm. [^30^] These are not chemical interventions but immunity boosters for the foliage, working with the plant's natural defences rather than overriding them. They have also experimented extensively with deep mulch, which suppresses weeds, builds soil structure, feeds mycorrhizal fungi, and protects young vines from field mice and voles who cannot burrow through it as easily as bare soil. [^30^]
The vineyard is no-till. Alfie and Deanna do not disturb the soil, instead working with the native perennials, grasses, and herbs that grow between the rows. [^30^] This is not laziness — it is a deliberate philosophy. "We don't want to force anything because we really want to be hands off in our land management," Deanna explains. [^30^] They expand based on what thrives. Anything that doesn't survive is given away to a good home rather than coddled with chemicals. [^30^]
Their first plantings included Delaware — an early-ripening, super cold-hardy, pre-Prohibition variety that "checks all the boxes." [^30^] They found a small organic vineyard in the Finger Lakes making wine with Delaware and were so impressed by its complexity that they expanded their own Delaware block by another acre and a half. [^30^] The vineyard is a living experiment, a place where rare and forgotten varieties are given the chance to prove what they can do when farmed with respect rather than force.
Neem oil, kelp seaweed, stinging nettle, and yarrow — all sourced from the farm or the immediate region. [^30^] Adapted from Michael Phillips' regenerative orchard management. Immunity boosters, not chemical interventions.
No soil disturbance. Deep mulch suppresses weeds, builds soil structure, feeds mycorrhizal fungi, and protects vines from rodents. [^30^] Working with native perennials and grasses rather than against them.
Delaware, Catawba, Norton, and other heritage American grapes. [^30^] [^33^] Varieties that survived Prohibition, that thrive in the Northeast without chemical support, and that carry the genetic memory of American viticulture.
Indigenous yeasts, minimal intervention, no additives. [^28^] Wines made with the same holistic philosophy that governs the vineyard — letting the grapes speak, letting the place express itself, refusing to manipulate or mask.
Reviving America's Wine History
The history of American wine is deeper than most people realise. The French Huguenots planted the first vines in New Paltz in 1677. [^30^] In the 1800s and early 1900s, the Hudson Valley was a hub of vitis labrusca activity — native grapes bred and selected for wine quality. French-American hybrids followed in the 1950s. [^30^] Then Prohibition arrived in 1920 and effectively wiped out most of the cultivation and innovation around these varieties. When the industry returned, it did so with European vinifera — grapes that required chemical farming to survive in the humid Northeast, and that never truly belonged here. [^30^]
Dear Native Grapes is part of a small but growing movement to reverse this. Alfie and Deanna are not alone — they have connected with growers in Missouri (TerraVox Vineyards, growing native varieties planted by T.V. Munson in the 1800s), Ohio, Colorado (where Alfie discovered Norton — the only grape that survived 150 years of neglect), and across the Northeast. [^30^] They are active participants in rediscovering what these grapes can do, finding rare cuttings, establishing vineyards dedicated to them, and building community along the way. [^30^]
Their approach is humble and iterative. "Everything has been a massive learning curve that we're still on — farming in general. Thank God for YouTube!" Alfie jokes. [^30^] Deanna is the planner, the roadmap-maker. Alfie does the reading and research. They complement each other: he finds varieties he thinks are cool, she figures out how many to plant and where. [^30^] Their naivety, they believe, has actually helped. "We were in the mindset of 'we can do this'." [^30^]
The first vintage was released in 2023 — nerve-wracking, but people responded. [^30^] The wines are accessible, designed to open the general public's idea of what a vineyard is and how it could be "a vine in your backyard that provides joy." [^30^] Dear Native Grapes is not just a winery — it is an invitation to rethink American viticulture, to plant heritage vines, to drink wines that carry the genetic memory of a continent.
Sparkling Delaware — Finger Lakes, Citrus & Floral Complexity
"Dear native grapes is a vineyard and winery run by Deanna Urciuoli & Alfie Alcántara. They are focused on growing North American native and hybrid grapes." [^37^] Their Sparkling Delaware is made from fruit sourced from a small organic vineyard in the Finger Lakes — the same vineyard that convinced them to expand their own Delaware plantings. [^30^] Delaware is an early-ripening, super cold-hardy, pre-Prohibition variety that Deanna finds "super complex" with "a lot you can do with it." [^30^] The sparkling expression captures the grape's natural acidity and floral aromatics, fermented with indigenous yeasts and bottled with minimal intervention. It is a wine that tastes like the Finger Lakes — crisp, bright, and unmistakably American. A love letter, indeed. ~$28–$32.
The Dear Native Grapes Range
Dear Native Grapes produces a small but focused portfolio of natural wines from native and hybrid grape varieties, sourced from their own Western Catskills vineyard and partner organic sites across New York State. [^29^] [^30^] All wines are made with indigenous yeasts, minimal intervention, and no chemical inputs — reflecting the same holistic philosophy that governs the farm. [^28^] The range celebrates heritage American grapes that have been largely forgotten since Prohibition: Catawba, Delaware, Norton, and others that thrive in the Northeast without the chemical support required by European vinifera. [^30^] [^33^] Prices are approximate and in USD.
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