Fall Mountain Vineyard

Hi, I’m Joe Laramie, and this is my wife, Caroline. We live in Fair Haven, Vermont. About a dozen years ago, we decided to grow some grapes. We made a trip to the Finger Lakes in Western New York, and I told Caroline while driving, ‘I think we can do it.’ So we returned and started a hobby with about 45 vines.

We purchased our vines from Andy Farmer. Our grapes are bred out of the University of Minnesota so that they can handle the cold climates around here. The vines can handle about 30 below zero. After starting with 45 vines at my Mom and Dad’s house, we continued to purchase vines every year, and at this point, we are around 300 vines. Our biggest year was about 3000 pounds of grapes.

We grow red grapes and white grapes, and we also have a rose. We learned a lot as we’ve gone along, made trips to Lincoln Peak and New Haven, and spoke to Chris Grandstrum, who gave us a lot of support–told us what to do. We went to Cambridge, Vermont, and spoke to Boyden Valley, and they gave us some recipes to use. We’ve also stopped in Shelburne and seen their vineyard, and we went to Wilmington, Vermont, and saw Honora vineyard, so we spoke with them down there. We were licensed in October of 2022 and are pleased to become members of The Vermont Grape and Wine Council!