Preston Hollow Nursery Offers Heirloom Hybrid Grape Vines

Preston Hollow Vineyards doesn't offer chardonnay vines, nor pinot noir, nor cabernet franc, nore merlot. You won't find one noble grape here. But what you will find are grapes that grow in cold weather, are easy to grow, and are relatively disease resistant.

This is the brain child of several men who are out to save the heritage of the Hudson Valley by keeping alive many of the great hybrid grapes developed both in France and here in the the Hudson Valley over the last century-and-a-half. These are vines many other nurseries don't carry. They have hybrids developed by Cornell more than a half century ago that even Cornell no longer has.



Some of the greatest American hybridizers were located here in the Hudson Valley including Caywood and Underhill. This project is the brainchild of Stece Casscles, Jimmy Walker and his partner, Dennis Pitts. Steve Casscles, a grape grower and award winning winemaker, is the brainchild of the project. He's out to help remind everyine what a valuable wine region and grape growing region the Hudson Valley was for years.



Jimmy and Dennis are professional nursery managers who believe in local sustainable agriculture. Dennis Pitts has come from a family of gardeners and
landscapers. He recently returned from several years of work in California where he was most recently studying Landscape Architecture at UCLA Extension. He has experience in landscape design, site planning, and greenhouse propogation.
Jimmy Walker moved to Preston Hollow from Manhattan in 2003, and purchased several acres and supported the establishment of the greenhouse with Valerie Molloy, where they grow other heirloom vegetables. This is a grass roots local wine initiative.

Among the large and varied family of grape hybrids, some are very suitable for cultivation in every part of the Hudson Valley. Each grape variety on their list is identified by its common name and hybrid number.

From their website:
Our catalog offers unique wine grape varieties that are generally not available from other nurseries, but which make quality wines. We also list those wine grape varieties that are suitable for cultivation in the Valley, but which are readily available from other nurseries. Our plants are generally smaller and younger than those offered by other commercial nurseries because they are propagated in less than six months instead of one to two years. We do this because our offerings are so unique that there are limited supplies of plant material to propagate new plants. However, we wanted to get these varieties distributed to both professional and amateur growers as quickly as possible.



An asterisk (*) indicates our safest and surest plants for beginning growers or those growers who are located on cold, wet or windy sites. An (e) indicates an experimental variety that we believe will advance the Hudson Valley’s wine industry into a new era of making uniquely new and exciting wines.

Tel. 518-239-4039 or Fax: 888-281-6476
Preston Hollow Nursery is located on State Highway 145 in the Hamlet of Preston Hollow, N.Y. 12469