Marlboro, NY
Growing up, Victor Spaccarelli Jr.’s four children all loved the outdoors – hunting, fishing, camping, anything they could do outside. Victor always wanted to buy a piece of property where his children could do whatever they wanted, be as loud as they wanted, and not have to worry about disturbing anyone. Victor explained that there was a time when his children were young that everything was private or posted, so they weren’t free to go where they pleased. This was something his family talked about doing for quite a while, and as time went on the idea seemed more and more realistic. What Victor never imagined would happen, was becoming the owner of the oldest vineyard in America.
Victor had been in the commercial construction industry entire life. He took over his father’s business after he retired and continued to successfully grow it for many years. In 1994 he was living in Hopewell Junction, working on the construction of Highland Water Treatment Plant. All of the people he worked with knew he loved to drink wine, and around the holidays that same year, one of them brought him a bottle from Benmarl Winery. His coworker told him about how beautiful the winery was and how the owner comes out to talk to customers, advising Victor to go check it out sometime.
“Believe it or not, it took me ten years to go there,” but when he finally did, Victor told us, “I was blown away. I came up the driveway and I said to myself, ‘Man! It took you 10 years to come here.’”
But he never once got out of his car during that visit. A year before this, Victor’s father had a stroke and Victor began taking him driving on the weekends to look at different farms in the area.
“He loved to just spend the whole day out, we’d drive everywhere.”
By this point, Victor had been looking for that perfect piece of land for his family for a couple of years. After all the driving he had been doing with his father, Victor soon realized he had been limiting his search to one side of the river.
The weekend after visiting Benmarl Winery for the first time, Victor picked up his father like he did every weekend, and they ended up going to a different winery in the area. To this day, Victor told us, he still doesn’t know why they didn’t go to Benmarl after he had been so amazed driving there the week prior. But that visit seemed to spark something in Victor as he became more determined than ever before to find the perfect property. Victor left Glorie Farm Winery that day with the name of the oldest realtor in Marlboro, a woman named Margaret. Margaret happened to be born and raised in Marlboro and was in her late 70’s.
“She had to know everything, right?”
By everything, Victor meant that Margaret would be the one to help him find exactly what he was looking for. While Victor was probably right, he ended up running into another salesman at the realtor’s office a week later. Victor introduced himself and explained the kind of property he had been searching high and low for.
“Ya know, there’s an old listing in here for Benmarl Winery,” the salesman told Victor.
“I heard exactly what he said,” Victor told us, “and I’m thinking there’s no way it could be the whole winery, maybe it’s a piece of the property or something.”
The salesman went rummaging through a file cabinet Victor claimed they couldn’t possibly be using anymore and pulled out a folder, showing everyone in the room an old picture of the entire Benmarl estate.
“And I never stepped foot on the property until after I bought it.”
Benmarl Winery is not only one of the oldest wineries in America, it also holds farm winery license number 1. In the mid-1700’s the property was owned by a man named Andrew Jackson Kanewood, who was a young pioneer viticulturist, and the first one to plant grapes there. After Kanewood, the property went to the Wardell family where it remained a vineyard. Mark Miller then bought the property from the Wardell family in the late 40’s, early 50’s, who later sold it to Victor. In 300 years, only four different families have owned the Benmarl Winery property. However, Mark Miller was the first owner to make wine.
“I’m 65, I always say my winery was being built when I was 4 years old.”
Mark Miller was an illustrator, “the romantic type,” Victor told us, during the days of Norman Rockwell. Some of his artwork can still be found hanging in the tasting room today. The property was still a vineyard when Mark Miller purchased it, but he was the reason they had the first farm winery license as he was an advocate for the farmers. He fought for them because he felt they were paying too much in licensing for their wineries. He was a monumental part of getting an affordable price for farmers licenses. Mark was the one who built the buildings that are there today, with the exception of some additions done by Victor’s family.
By the time Victor was in the process of purchasing the property, Mark was much older and had been living in South Carolina to be closer to family as he had become quite ill. In dealing with the purchase of the property, Victor was doing everything through Mark’s son, Eric. Mark did, however, write a book about his time living on the vineyard making wine. Victor learned everything about Benmarl from reading his book; he said he had read it a million times, “from front to back, upside down, inside out”. After reading the book and being on the property for a couple months Victor began to not only feel connected to Mark but overwhelmingly thankful for what he had built, and what Victor has been given the opportunity to continue. Victor reached out to Eric to see if he could meet his father.
“I don’t wanna ask him one question, I don’t want to ask him anything, I just want to touch the man’s hand because what he has done here is just phenomenal.”
Unfortunately, Mark passed away before Victor got the chance to meet him. There was a memorial service for Mark on the Vineyard a couple months later, and Victor said it was the closest he ever got to Mark Miller, to listen to those close to him talk about his life. At the end of the memorial, they had a cannon blow Mark Miller’s ashes over the Vineyard.
“You know what’s funny is the first time I pulled up this driveway, I said, whoever lives here is going to live here forever, and Mark lives here forever.”
Growing up in an Italian family in the Bronx, Victor had been making wine since before he could remember. It was an activity that took place all day long with all generations of the family: his father made wine, his grandparents made wine. It was a tradition, and that tradition continues at Benmarl Winery. Victor’s son is the head winemaker and his other children help here and there when they can. Victor’s nephew had also been working at the winery on and off for ten years helping with festivals, but he officially began work as the general manager in 2015.
While sticking to their value in family and the rich history of the vineyard, Victor’s family has continued to focus on quality, investing in technology and expansion where it is needed including planting close to 15 more acres of grapes in the past two years. One of the first changes Victor was committed to making when he took over the winery was to make all the grounds handicap accessible. 45 percent of the grapes they use for their wines come from their property and 55 percent come from either the Finger Lakes or North Fork Long Island.
Benmarl won Hudson Valley Winery of the year for 2018, offering about 20 different wines. They specialize in dryer whites and reds. They are well known for their Cabernet Franc and Baco Noir Reds. Their Stainless Steel Chardonnay and dry Rose are extremely popular as well. While the majority of their wine is sold on-site, it can be found in a handful of restaurants and liquor stores in The Valley, that are listed on their website.
The winery has a Bed and Breakfast of which there are two different rooms that can be rented through Airbnb. They also have a wine club that includes perks such as complimentary wine tastings year-round, 15% off wine purchases at the winery, the Member’s Only Spring Barrel Tasting Gala, free admission to their Sangria Festival, Grape Stomping Festival, and Bud Breaking Festival.
From January to the end of March, the tasting room is open Friday, Saturday, Sunday from 12-5pm. From April through January, they are open Sunday through Thursday from 12-6pm, Friday’s from 12-8pm, and Saturday’s from 11-8pm. Being one of the most popular tasting rooms in The Valley, Benmarl now has two tasting rooms giving them the ability to accommodate many more guests on the weekends. There are tours available of the vineyard and wine cellar. Adjacent to the tasting room, the winery has a bake shop and a wood-fired pizza oven. With plenty of room to sit and relax, there isn’t a spot without a beautiful view, and on a clear day, they say you can see all the way to Connecticut.
“It’s so eerie sometimes, there’s something here, it’s an energy, a peacefulness, it is a lot of things,” Victor described, “but the strange thing about it is that, I don’t know you, you don’t know me, someone will pull in here and they don’t know anyone else, but they all leave feeling the same way.”
CONTACT:
Phone: (845) 236 – 4265
Location: 156 Highland Avenue Marlboro, NY 12542
Click Here to visit Benmarl’s website