New tasting room features No. Country wines

Inside the new tasting room.

PLATTSBURGH, NY -- The Champlain Wine Company, a year-round tasting room, has been opened downtown.

It specializes in North Country wines and is the sole retail outlet for the North Star Vineyard, a 4,000-vine winery located in Mooers, Clinton County.

Colin Read and Natalie Peck planted their first vines at their Mooers farm in 2008 and now have 4,000 coldhardy vines under cultivation. They are European-American hybrids that will withstand our cold winters and short summers with long days and plentiful sunlight, and are particularly disease resistant. In October this year, they had their first harvest of a variety called Marquette.

Vesco Ridge Vineyards under snow.

Among others wines also featured at their new tasting room are those from another Clinton County winery, Vesco Ridge Vineyards, a small operation in West Chazy that produces about 1,000 gallons annually. It is owned by Dan and Nancy Vesco who took it from hobby to business in a five-year period.

The tasting room is located at 8 City Hall Place. Phone: (518) 564-0064. It is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Wine bottle prices range from $8.99 to $17.99. Wine tastings are $3 per person and include samples of five wines and a souvenir glass.