Leon Millot is a grape developed in Alsace, France in the early 1900s with blue skins and small berries. Charles Fournier, a winemaking and grape growing pioneer in the Finger Lakes, planted 1 1/3 acres of two clones, Boordy and Foster, around 1950. In 2009 and 2014, KLV planted another 1 + acres with cuttings from the Fournier Vineyard. The Foster clone and the newer vineyard are farmed on VSP trellis to permit airflow and limit shading, while the one acre of Fournier loose clustered Boordy clone remains on its original umbrella trellis allowing shoots to be tucked downwards to help check this variety’s high vigor. The soils are silty loam with large stone fragments from glacial till, allowing for good drainage but high erosion. Each year we blend the wine made from the two different clones in making our neutral-oak aged, medium-bodied red wine.
