Dad’s dream bearing fruit at Geneva winery
Wine was always on the dinner table when the three Zugibe brothers were growing up in Newark, Wayne County.
Their wine-loving father, Frederick Zugibe Jr., a cardiologist, always hoped to go into business with his sons one day.
The senior Zugibe died suddenly three years ago at age 54, but Frederick III, 34, and his brothers, Brendan, 32, and Sean, 27, will make their father’s combined passions bear fruit this weekend.
They’re welcoming the public to the brand-new tasting room of Zugibe Vineyards, overlooking the east side of Seneca Lake four miles south of Geneva. The Zugibe brothers, along with their mother, Anna, who will run the tasting room, will also showcase at least 12 wines they’ve made from the 2007 and 2008 harvests.
The winery’s logo features a flame-colored phoenix, a tribute to both their Lebanese heritage and the struggle they endured getting started.
“When we lost our dad, it was almost like rising from the ashes,” Brendan Zugibe said as he took a break from crushing grapes this week. He lamented that his father never got to taste wine the family made from its first harvest, and said the doctor’s death almost halted their plans.
A tribute to the Zugibe patriarch is on every bottle of wine and his picture — he’s the gray-haired man carrying grapes on his shoulder — is on the company’s Web site, www.zugibevineyards.com.
Fred Zugibe, the winemaker, said he had considered becoming a doctor like his father and grandfather, but a shared love of wine led him and his father to talk about starting a winery together. The younger Fred studied winemaking at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
At the time, Brendan Zugibe was getting a business degree and running a coffeehouse/restaurant in North Carolina. Sean, who was just making plans to go to college, decided to learn how to grow grapes at a California school.
“‘I could bring all my boys back together,’” the patriarch mused, according to Fred III.
And today they are. Brendan and Sean live in two houses next to the winery barn and across East Lake Road from the tasting room. Brendan lives in Canandaigua. Their mother still lives in Newark, but the family is talking about building her a home in the vineyard so she can be closer to the business and her grandchildren.
This week, the winery contractor was putting final touches on the 4,000-square-foot tasting room. When the Zugibes bought the vineyard’s original 23 acres, a row of black walnut trees lined the railroad tracks parallel to Seneca Lake and blocked the view.
That view is open to the lake now, and you only have to look around the tasting building to see where the trees went. The 20-foot bar, the stall doors in the restrooms and all the woodwork in the building are made from black walnut.
The brothers declined to reveal the cost of the new building, which also includes a spacious deck for taking in the lake view.
Since starting the vineyard in 2005, the Zugibes have planted an additional 17 acres. Yields are increasing as the plants mature, so Fred Zugibe said they expect the 2009 harvest to triple 2008’s, which resulted in 2,000 cases of wine.
“It’s encouraging that young people are entering either from outside or are following in the family tradition,” said Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. “Compared with 20 years ago, when kids couldn’t wait to get out of here, in terms of the business, there’s a lot of hope.”
Unlike the restaurant industry, where businesses fail more often than succeed, there’s been very little attrition in the New York wine industry, Trezise said. “I think that’s because people are doing their homework before doing the leap.”
With a degree in business, a degree in oenology (winemaking) and another in viticulture (raising grapes) among them, the Zugibes fit that description.
DCARTER@DemocratandChronicle.com
If you go
Zugibe Vineyards, 4277 East Lake Road, Geneva, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through November. In December, tasting room hours will be 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information, call (315) 585-6404 or go to www.zugibevineyards.com.
