Hazlitt to buy Widmer Winery in Naples

An affiliate of a Schuyler County winery is buying Constellation Brand’s Widmer Winery in Naples, with plans to produce its core brands there and to pursue a previously announced collaboration with Rochester Institute of Technology.

Hazlitt’s Red Cat Cellars, owned by Hazlitt’s 1852 Vineyards of Hector, a Seneca Lake winery, is the purchaser, paying an undisclosed amount for the vineyards and the production facility, Hazlitt’s president John Keeler said Wednesday. “We haven’t completely decided on the name of the new business but that’s the leading contender,” Keeler said, referring to Red Cat Cellars.

Closing is expected in June, with the new owners taking over by the end of 2010.

Keeler said the affiliate will produce its Red Cat, White Cat, Cabin Fever and Bramble Berry brands at the Widmer complex.

Some of the Widmer vineyards will be used, though Keeler said not all of the existing acreage is suitable for use by Hazlitt’s.

The purchase is an added wrinkle to an unusual arrangement announced last September by Constellation Brands and RIT. Constellation said then that it intended to close Widmer and produce its wines, including Manischewitz and Paul Masson, at an expanded Canandaigua facility, with renovations there expected to cost more than $7 million.

The Victor-based wine company, the world’s largest, said then it would donate the Widmer grounds and buildings to RIT for use as an educational outgrowth of the school’s technology, sustainability and hospitality programs.

Constellation later began working with the Ontario County Office of Economic Development and the Ontario County Industrial Development Agency on a use for the property that would bring jobs to the Naples community in addition to supporting RIT.

Hazlitt’s expects to hire 21 people over two years at the Widmer farm.

Keeler said the affiliate plans to expand the wine-tasting rooms at Widmer to provide hospitality training for RIT students. He said that the new business will work with the university on sustainability projects, particularly those related to making the new business a “green,” energy-efficient enterprise.

“This opportunity is a true public-private partnership,” RIT president Bill Destler said in a statement.

Sands statement

In his own statement, Constellation Brands president and CEO Rob Sands called the arrangement a “unique opportunity.”

“This preserves a historic landmark in upstate New York as a functioning winery,” Sands said.

RIT and Constellation have been partners before, most notably in the creation, along with Wegmans Food Markets, of the Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua.

The Hazlitt family has been in the grape-growing business on the eastern side of Seneca Lake for more than 150 years. Hazlitt’s 1852 Vineyards was established in 1984 and, besides Red Cat and White Cat, produces Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon at its winery.

Keeler said the move to Widmer Winery is less about being able to grow there than it is a chance to control production of their core wines by owning their own facility.

“This is about the future and the next generation,” Keeler said.