Chateau Buffalo, located on thriving Hertel Avenue, is perhaps best recognized for its well-received Dancing Buffalo Cidre, but visitors quickly understand that Chateau Buffalo is not your average wine shop.  Specializing in wines from New York state, the owners of Chateau Buffalo, Carl Schmitter and Erwin Rakoczy, put the "local" in "locavore" long before it was trendy.

On occasion, a local winemaker stops into the North Buffalo wine boutique for a tasting and a meet and greet.  This Saturday, Chateau Buffalo will host Duncan Ross, Arrowhead Spring Vineyards' owner and winemaker.  Ross, along with his wife, Robin, operate their sustainable Cambria, NY vineyard and winery in a way that is healthy for the earth and tasty for their clients.  Arrowhead, a relatively new wine operation, has quickly jumped to the head of the pack, bottling restaurant-quality wines which are currently available at local wine shops and fine dining establishments--the latter being a difficult market for a small, local winemaker to capture.  Highly-awarded and critically-acclaimed, Arrowhead is one of the few WNY winemakers consistently producing a wine that is capable of meeting the exacting standard of a restaurant owner or chef.

Duncan is a passionate and knowledgeable winemaker, whose strong opinions regarding the local wine-in-supermarkets controversy led to a large article in a recent version of the Sunday Buffalo News (you can read it here).  While Robin, who tends the vines, is a well-spoken farmer eager to discuss the sustainable methods they have chosen to use in their vineyard.  So whether you are curious to sample a tasty, well-balanced Western New York wine, or interested in chatting up one of our region's most talented winemakers, this weekend's your chance.

Meet the Winemaker
Saturday, March 20th from 4pm - 7pm
Chateau Buffalo
1209 Hertel Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14216

--Image taken by author at Arrowhead Spring Vineyards, September 2009