Alumni Wine
by Cornell Alumni Affairs

A New York State of Wine

Welcome to the 2024 collection of Alumni Wine by Cornell Alumni Affairs! These limited-edition alumni-made wines embrace true Cornell excellence. This year’s picks feature all New York wines adorned with custom Cornell wine labels and are perfect for gifts or your holiday table.

Explore the alumni-made wines and the stories that surround them below—and be sure to make your selections while they last.

20% off Library Wines (automatically applied)

Snowshell Vineyards

A project by Nova Cadamatre ’06, Master of Wine, Snowshell Vineyards originates in the Finger Lakes. Nova Cadamatre was one of the first to graduate from Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sceinces viticulture program, and holds a Diploma of Wine and Spirits from WSET in London. She was the first female winemaker in the U.S. to earn the title Master of Wine in 2017.

Having worked with fruit from all across California and the Finger Lakes over the past two decades, Nova has become one of the most versatile and experienced winemakers in the industry. She has worked with some of the best vineyards in the world, including the iconic To Kalon Vineyard while working as the Senior Director of Winemaking for Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, CA. While there, Nova crafted the #6 wine of 2022 for Wine Spectator's top 100 list.

Today, Nova splits her time between Napa and the Finger Lakes to manage the three women-owned brands she's founded: Trestle Thirty One and Snowshell Vineyards in the Finger Lakes, and Fiadh Ruadh in Napa, CA. She has been named to Wine Enthusiast's Top 40 under 40 list and has numerous 90+ scoring wines to her credit from both coasts.

The name Snowshell Vineyards came from Nova's oldest son finding snail shells in the melting snow and called them "snow shells," thinking them similar to seashells. The style is very classic for the Finger Lakes area with a fruity nose and clean, dry finish.

The 2023 vintage was sourced from three different vineyards from all around Seneca Lake. It was fermented in stainless steel tanks and then stopped at the precise balance point where the acid and sugar married together to create a crisp, fresh wine with soft mouthfeel.

Harbes Vineyard

In 1978, Ed and Monica Harbes settled on the family farm in Mattituck, NY. Ed became a 12^th generation vegetable farmer, and began retailing their produce in 1989 while raising their eight children. In 2003, Harbes Vineyard was planted on a boulder-strewn, south-facing slope near the coast of Long Island Sound. A selection of Chardonnay and Merlot clones were carefully chosen to produce the most aromatic and flavorful wines possible. In 2019, the vineyard underwent an expansion as Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Cabernet Franc vines were added.

As Long Island’s first certified sustainable vineyard, Harbes is dedicated to ensuring maximum quality in all of their estate wines. Harbes works closely with Cornell’s integrated pest management system to grow fresh produce and healthy grapes with a minimum of inputs.

Ed and Monica’s son, Ed Harbes IV ’05, is a graduate of Cornell's Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economincs and Management, and serves as vineyard manager. Striving to capture the best of farm and family, Ed says, “we try to make wines that focus on the natural quality of the fruit. I strongly believe that fine wines are produced in the vineyard, and that the winemaker’s role is to guide well-grown fruit to achieve its potential.” Today, Harbes Vineyard includes 10 acres of vines, and Harbes has handcrafted award-winning wines for the past 13 years.

Johnson Estate Winery

The story of Johnson Estate begins with an English orphan named Frederick Johnson ’01, who purchased a family farm in Westfield, New York, in 1908. By 1920, he had built an apple cold storage facility, which currently houses the tasting room, barrels, and offices. After his death in 1960, the estate passed to his son, Frederick Spencer Johnson ’43, who became the first farmer to plant French-hybrid wine grapes in Western New York. A generation later, his three children – Frederick Johnson Jr ’75, MBA ’77; Elizabeth Johnson ’76; and Anthony Johnson ’80 – inherited the farm, planting new European vinifera vineyards and introducing Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir in addition to fruit, sparkling, and ice wines.

The estate, with 115 acres of vineyards, currently grows 13 varieties of grapes under the direction of Frederick Jr and his wife Jennifer Johnson, MBA ’79, who became owners in 2010, just in time to celebrate the winery’s 50th anniversary. In thinking about what it means to own a family winery and farm, designated as a Century Farm in 2018 by the New York State Agricultural Society, Fred and Jennifer say, “Perhaps the best part is the appreciation that we can – in building and creating new traditions on this Century Farm – continue to be stewards of the family land, its business, and our community in ways that leave each in a little better condition than we found it.”

Library Wine

The Artist

Wendy Goldberg '74

Wendy Goldberg grew up in New York and New England and received her BFA from Cornell University in 1974. It was there that she fell in love with the dynamic skies and landscapes that inspire her work today.

Wendy’s rural and urban landscape drawings and paintings have been variously classified as Intimist, Tonalist and Impressionist. In truth, they are difficult to categorize. Her atmospheric, semi-abstract, luminous landscapes have an eerie expressiveness, and demonstrate a capacity to draw out the essential mood of a subject through simplicity and suggestion.

Although Wendy has lived in northern California for many years, with frequent trips to the East Coast, she is equally inspired by the sensibilities of these two quite different and dramatic landscapes. “Seasons on the East Coast have both definition and drama,” Wendy notes. She adds, “I use landscape as a point of departure. Most [of my works] are portraits of a place or time of day where or when shadows are deep and the light is intense, uncommon, or fleeting.”

Wendy’s work is included in the Achenbach Collection of Prints and Drawings of the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum; Stanford Hospital Medical Center; the Haas Collection; Genentech Corp; Loyola University Health Systems; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artist’s Gallery; New York Drawing Center Viewing Program; Engel & Davis, LLP; Anderson Consulting; Berkman, Bottger, & Rodd; as well as many other private and public collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

A detail from Mt Mansfield appears on the 2023 Reserve Riesling by Snowshell Vineyards.

Time Away appears on the 2021 Cabernet Franc by Harbes Vineyard.

A detail from Metamorphosis appears on the 2020 Sparkling Wine by Johnson Estate Winery.

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