Hank has been making homemade wine since the mid-1960s. At first he bought his grapes at the farmers market in Newark, New Jersey, but soon planted his own vineyard. In 1998 his vineyard contained over 200 grape vines in eleven different varieties which produced about 180 gallons of wine. Every drop was produced naturally with no additives such as sulfides.
White grapes in his vineyard:
Cayuga
New York 52314
Seyval
Traminer
Vignoles
Red grapes in his vineyard:
Baco Noir
Cascade
Chelois
De Chanauc
Leon Millot
Marshall Foch
The following photographs chronicle the process of making fine wines from the Doktorski vineyard, beginning with Hank and Terri picking only the most select vine-ripened grapes and ending with Terri, the chief taste tester, sampling the quality of the new wine.
As you can tell from the photos, Hank takes his wine making seriously, while Terri has a more bacchanalian approach. (No, she really doesn't squish the grapes by stomping on them with her feet!)
Ha Ha! If you didn't guess it already, the photo of the ancient Italian sculpture at the top of this page is a hoax!
The original bas-relief sculpture depicted two men carrying grapes. Eileen's husband, Bill Trent (a professional photographer), cleverly overlaid the faces of Hank and Terry onto the photograph by the skillful use of computer technology in order to print labels for Hank's bottles (see image at left).
