Early AWS Board Meeting

The AWS was a creation of Konstantin Frank and a small number of wine enthusiasts, spearheaded by a group of home winemakers from Ithaca. Frank believed, with all the zeal of the grateful immigrant, that America could and should produce wine that ranked with the best in the world. Pictured are Board members at an early meeting, probably the first, held at Franks' home in 1968.

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Front Row (L to R): Walter Taylor, Al Fogelsanger, Konstantin Frank, Herman, A. W. Laubengayer, Proctor.
Back Row (L to R): Axtel, Mrs. Danenhauser, Borgstedt, Danenhauser, Harold Applegate, Ham Mowbray, Harry Kerr, Tom Clarke.

I took my first wine appreciation classes from Dr. Hamilton Mowbray at the Adult Education Center, University of Maryland in the early 70's. Nice to see him in this photo. We took a field trip to the dairy farm near Westminster, MD (Carroll County) where Dr. Mowbray had his vineyard and winemaking facility for Montbray Wines.

After posting the picture I realized that one member of the Board is missing. That would be Elmer (Flip) Phillips, one of the Ithaca contingent. Flip's other great hobby besides winemaking was photography. Always with a camera, he likely was the photographer.

Also missing is Walter's goat

Walter was known as a great character, perhaps less so as a serious winemaker. Yet he knowingly went all in for hybrids at Bully Hill at a time when Frank and others were leading the charge for viniferas as the destiny of the Finger Lakes. In truth, I've never much liked the wines of Bully Hill but the development of hybrids in general suffered here in direct proportion to the success of the viniferas. Across the border in Niagara Ontario the hybrids were given more breathing room and have won greater acceptance.

I think that Walter should be better known as the man who went all out for terroir wines. He championed (and pissed off many) by insisting that NY wine should be made from NY grown grapes, rather than juice/must shipped in from California as many other wineries were doing.

I think he was deadly serious - if he hadn't have been a serious winemaker with his own standards he wouldn't have stood up for his principles and subsequently suffered the travails he did with the Taylor Wine Co.

Bully Hill makes wines that are adored by their customers and I think one has to be a good winemaker to make good wine from the native and hybrid vines that Bully Hill use.

We don't see them in UK, and they're not my first choice taste profile, but I've been to Bully Hill four times and I applaud what they are doing to promote wine as something that is enjoyable and not snobby.

Your comments, Peter, recalled a spirited discussion in the early days of the American Wine Society. Walter Taylor believed that the society should be about wines from indigenous grapes and hybrids, which would have left California pretty much out of the picture. Others argued that first and foremost it was a wine society, that "American" was an adjective. The latter view prevailed and the dispute was largely forgotten. Apart from that, providing an antidote to the snobbish image of wine and wine societies was a strong unifying theme.