The Adirondack wine industry, and a local family, took a hit over the weekend when fire gutted Plattsburgh’s Elfs Farm Winery & Cider Mill.

The winery, owned by Tom Frey and his two sons, produces apple wine and hard cider, as well as wines from cold-climate grape varietals. Frey spent the past seven years renovating a former motel to create the winery, and 2010 was its first full year of operation.

The building and all the wine on the premises — about 1500 cases in bottles and tanks — were lost, according to local reports. Many of the grapevines survived undamaged, and no one was injured.

This article appears in Aug 3-9, 2011.

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Corin Hirsch was a Seven Days food writer 2011 through 2016. She was also a dining critic and drinks columnist at Newsday from 2017 to 2022, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She’s spoken often on colonial era...