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Connections
Connections

A historic local winery gets ready to close

By Evan Dawson,
Megan Mack, Julie Williams
Published April 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM EDT
Three people wearing headphones sit at a table in a radio talk studio: a man at left is wearing a white baseball cap, green button-down shirt and black t-shirt; a woman at center has long brown hair and is wearing a black shirt and tan and black plaid vest; a man at right has short dark hair and is wearing a grey button-down shirt and jeans.
Gary Pudup
/
WXXI News
Matt Kelly and Suzanne Hunt on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Thursday, April 17, 2025
A smiling man with short dark hair wearing a blue button-down shirt and a grey blazer. He is holding a pair of eyeglasses. The word "Connections" appears on the left side of the photo in vertical letters.
WXXI News

Hunt Country Vineyards is one of the pioneering wineries of the Finger Lakes, and come 2026, it will cease to exist as a wine producer.

The new generation of owners have made the painful decision to end the winery. Dozens of other Finger Lakes wineries will soon face similar decisions, as owners age out of the grinding work demands.

Hunt Country will transition into other sustainable farming and business endeavors, and we discuss it with our guests:

Connections
Evan Dawson
Evan Dawson is the host of "Connections with Evan Dawson." He joined WXXI in January 2014 after working at 13WHAM-TV, where he served as morning news anchor. He was hired as a reporter for 13WHAM-TV in 2003 before being promoted to anchor in 2007.
See stories by Evan Dawson
Megan Mack
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.
See stories by Megan Mack
Julie Williams
Julie Williams is an associate producer for "Connections with Evan Dawson" and is also the office administrator for radio, news and technology and operations. She started at WXXI in 2019 and has been working on Connections since 2022.
See stories by Julie Williams