Ravines Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc

Finger Lakes, New York

When Morten and Lisa Hallgren started Ravines in 2001, they were the only winery in the Finger Lakes with a Winemaker holding a formal degree and training from Europe and a winery pursuing a traditional winemaking approach – making exclusively dry, vinifera wines. Ravines quickly became regarded as a top wine destination in the Eastern USA and has consistently gained national awards, noteworthy press, high scores and international accolades.

Morten, Danish by birth, grew up on his family’s estate winery in the Côtes de Provence region of France, a region that’s world famous for its food and wine “religion”. His parents owned and operated Domaine de Castel Roubine, a 170-acre vineyard and estate winery where Morten spent years honing his viticulture skills, and in the cellar, learning the traditional methods of fine, European winemaking. After secondary school, Morten received an advanced degree in both Enology and Viticulture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie in Montpellier, one of the world’s top winemaking schools, and then went to work for Chateau Cos d’Estournel, a world-renown “2^nd Growth” winery in the Medóc region of Bordeaux. In the following years, he made wine at Cordier Estates in West Texas and then the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. In 1998 he went to work as Chief Winemaker for Dr. Konstantin Frank Cellars, one of the pioneers of vinifera grape growing in the Finger Lakes, located on Keuka Lake.