Hunt Country Vineyards - Our Management Team

Art and Joyce Hunt, owners of Hunt Country Vineyards, first met in high school in Corning, New York. After graduating from Syracuse University in 1971, Joyce began her career as a social worker. Art received his BS in Management from Virginia Tech the same year. He started selling insurance, but was "saved" by the flood of 1972: HUD needed people to help victims get settled in temporary housing.

In 1973, Art and Joyce moved to the 170-acre Hunt family farm, whose Keuka Lake location and soil were extremely promising for growing superior wine grapes. They planted about 60 acres of premium varieties for eventual sale to wine producers. It took a few years for the vines to mature and yield wine-quality fruit. Then Coca-Cola Company purchased Taylor/Great Western Wine Company and moved all operations to California. The market for wine grapes collapsed, bankrupting many growers. Art and Joyce evaluated the idea of a small farm winery and in 1981 launched Finger Lakes Wine Cellars, which they guided from a small proprietorship to incorporation in 1985. In the fall of 1987, they formed Hunt Country Vineyards, combining Joyce’s love of horses with the Hunt family name.

Hunt Country first achieved national attention in the 1990s for Vidal Blanc Ice Wine. Since then, the winery has increased production to about 30,000 gallons and expanded to 20 wine varieties, from traditional dry vinifera (European) and French-American varietals, to complex and intense late harvest, sherry and port wines.

Art handles regulatory, fiscal and legal issues for the business, and maintains an active schedule in front of the public at festivals and tastings. He enjoys working with his hands, and around the farm, there is never a lack of things to fix! He is an active member of the Branchport–Keuka Park Volunteer Fire Department, and though rarely has the time, loves to sail with family and friends.

Joyce is extremely active in the business, in strategic analysis, designing and planning of (and even cooking for!) major events, banking and public relations. She was appointed by Gov. Cuomo in 1987 to the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council. She is a founding member and past president of the Keuka Lake Wine Trail, and serves in several other local organizations. She divides her precious free time among riding, walking, reading and learning about the stock market.

The Hunts’ three children are all happily pursuing their interests and passions. Carolyn is attending Northeastern University School of Law in Boston and specializing in immigration and human rights law. Suzanne is pursuing a broad agenda of initiatives as an independent consultant in clean energy and principally biofuels. And Jonathan, after graduation from Cornell and internships in wineries in California and New Zealand, is working full-time here at the winery, making him the sixth Hunt generation to till the farm’s soil.

Hunt Country winemaker Christopher Wirth has over 25 years’ experience in the wine industry, mostly in California and Oregon. It is his passion for cool climate wines and for his native upstate New York that brought Chris back to the region.

He studied winemaking at Santa Rosa Junior College, and worked with famed winemakers Julia Iantosca of Lambert Bridge (formerly at William Wheeler) and Kevin Hamel of Preston Vineyards.

In 2001 Chris moved to Oregon to pursue his passion for Pinot Noir. There he worked for Elvenglade Vineyards, a small producer of premium wines, and consulted for Raptor Ridge and Owen Roe wineries. He became enraptured not only by Pinot Noir, but also by Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc! He recalls, “One of my oenology professors would simply say, ‘Wine should be fun.’ I take winemaking seriously, but at the end of the day, whether paired with food or all by itself, the purpose of wine is to bring enjoyment to family and friends.”

Both Chris and his wife, Joanne, have returned to their roots. Joanne grew up in Hammondsport and Chris is from Ilion in central NY. Their two grown children, Hanna and Micah, are both involved in the wine industry. Chris’s hobbies include gardening and cooking, playing the guitar and singing.

Dave grew up on a dairy farm in the area, and is a graduate of Penn Yan Academy and Morrisville College, where he majored in animal husbandry. In 1985, after three years working for Monroe Tree Surgeons, Dave joined Art and Joyce, first on a part-time, then a full-time basis. Dave was promoted to Vineyard Manager and he has been crucial to our achievement of world-class wines, helping us to improve the quality, consistency and yield of our vines and grapes. Dave also maintains all the tools and machinery for vineyard management, including our 1973 harvester. He even helps out with the manual harvest of our Vidal Blanc ice wine grapes, in 10-degree weather (photo at left)!

Dave is a dedicated volunteer fireman and certified instructor. He served as Chief of the Branchport-Keuka Park Volunteer Fire Department for 3 years, and regularly conducts fire safety classes for area school children. He is also a talented musician, playing guitar and singing solos at wedding services.

Jim's early career consisted of 20 challenging and wonderful years at Eastman Kodak in a variety of operations, marketing and general management positions in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, with a focus on Kodak's Health Imaging business. In his own words, “The experience living and working abroad was fantastic and the friendships that formed are irreplaceable.” After taking a full year off to spend with family and friends, he completed the Executive MBA program at Cornell’s Johnson School. “I then spent two fascinating, but spectacularly unsuccessful years (financially speaking) as an independent consultant to start-up ventures, before finally finding true happiness in the wine business at Hunt Country!”

Jim met his wife, Cecilia, while living in Egypt. She is a native of Buenos Aires and an agronomist specializing in remote sensing, and their son Marc is a 10th grader at Allendale Columbia School in Rochester. Jim especially enjoys playing tennis and hiking in the Adirondacks with his family, NFL football (the Cleveland Browns!), genealogy, learning languages (now fluent in French and Spanish), playing the piano and participating in Cornell alumni activities. A dog lover, he occasionally brings his Standard Poodle Freddie to the winery for a day of rough-housing with Mollie.