During Harvest, Finger Lakes Wineries Play Santa for Each Other with “Secret Cellar”

From Lizzo to T-Rex: Kelby James Russell’s beer-laden visit sparks a community-wide tradition

It all began, as many things in the wine industry seem to, over beers. In 2014, Kelby James Russell, then head winemaker for Finger Lakes’ Red Newt Cellars, stopped by Anthony Road Wine Company to check on some fruit he was going to purchase for his eponymous wine project.

After a full day of managing his own harvest at Red Newt, and a long drive to the Anthony Road vineyards after dark to examine the grapes via his car’s headlights, Russell noticed after he had turned for home that the Anthony Road facility was “lit up like a beacon, going full tilt for harvest,” he says. Knowing full well what it felt like at the end of a long harvest day, he decided to stop in to say hi and bring some beers for the crew. “And they were so excited to see me,” says Russell, who mostly “tried to stay out of their hair,” but the Anthony Road folks were keen to socialize and have him taste some of their ferments in progress.

That experience of sharing in another winery’s harvest, even briefly, really stuck with him. “This time of year you kind of feel like you’re in your own bubble,” says Russell. “You and your team are working these 12-plus hour days, nonstop. Everyone’s exhausted, and there is something very comforting about remembering that a bunch of our colleagues are feeling the exact same way.So even though we’re all kind of in our own bubbles, we’re actually all in it together.” 

He wondered whether it was possible to somehow formalize the experience of propping up another winery during harvest. Thus “Secret Cellar,” an annual tradition in the Finger Lakes, was born. “I think it was equal parts of that original inspiration, and equal parts enjoying how the name rolled off the tongue,” says Russell.
While many wineries within the same region are more cooperative than competitive in nature, the Finger Lakes wineries are especially so, given their extremes of climate and accessibility, aided and abetted by organization from the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance to bring attention to the region. Programs such as FLX Riesling Camp, FLX Roadshow, and FLX Roadtrip engender cooperation and participation among a large number of the region’s wineries. Nothing embodies that spirit of camaraderie in the region more, however, than the Secret Cellar phenomenon that Russell started.

When he put out an email to a handful of wineries to gauge interest in somehow sponsoring each other during harvest, and got an immediate and enthusiastic response, he knew he was onto something that was about much more than just free beer. Participating wineries are instructed to organize three “drops” sometime during harvest, with the final drop including bottles of their own wine in order to reveal themselves as that season’s benefactor. “Harvest is such a busy time, and you’re so in your own head that to have something that breaks you out from it in order to put something together for another cellar is not a small ask,” says Russell.

Despite the inherent challenge of planning, organizing, and delivering packages for another winery during the busiest time of the year, the Secret Cellar program has grown, with more and more wineries participating, and with more and more elaborate packages being dropped, including sending a masseuse for a day, or employing a local chef to show up and make breakfast sandwiches. 

“It speaks to the fact that this isn’t just perfunctory, and people aren’t doing this just because they feel like they have to,” says Russell. “You have people coming up with elaborate creations, and packages with themes, codes, or riddles in them,” he says. Some favorite themes of the past have included dinosaurs, superheroes, and Lizzo, complete with reimagined, team-specific lyrics to “Good as Hell.”  Equally memorable are the costumes that are sometimes employed to maintain anonymity during drops. “I think the amount of fun people have with it speaks to the spirit of where it comes from,” says Russell. (Also in the spirit of where it comes from, beer is almost always included.)

I learned of this phenomenon when I visited the Finger Lakes last year as part of their annual Riesling Camp event for trade and media. (“I don’t know which appeals to me more,” I wrote in my application, “the word ‘Riesling,’ or the word ‘camp.’”) During a Riesling Camp bus ride, Sarah Blagg, the marketing manager for Silver Thread Vineyard, offhandedly mentioned the Secret Cellar program to me as evidence of the fun and friendly vibe of the Finger Lakes. Perhaps it is the innate camp counselor in me, but I was immediately obsessed, and keen to talk about it with anyone who would share. I found that even more than the high levels of acidity in the Riesling, nothing made people’s eyes light up quite like the mention of Secret Cellar.

“It really is one of those things you look forward to all year,” says Jordan Harris, winemaker and COO of Heron Hill Winery. “You get those prizes when you really need them. It’s a good sign that shows what the FLX community is like.”

“When you’re two-thirds of the way through harvest and you hate everything, it’s uplifting,” says Chad Hendrickson, brand ambassador for Lakewood Vineyards. “Plus there’s good stuff in there. It’s not a bag of Cheetos.”

Being on the receiving end of well-timed harvest gifts is one thing, but many people also spoke specifically about the uplifting nature of doing the gifting. 

“I think we have more fun being the Secret Cellar,” says Colleen Hardy, co-founder of Living Roots Wine and Co. She would know, as someone who personally donned a T-rex costume to make a dino-themed delivery.

“It’s such a nice microcosm of our community,” says Christine Maguire, general manager of Sheldrake Point Winery, who has had the pleasure of also doing drop offs for other wineries in order to help them stay anonymous. “My favorite thing is how personalized and detailed people can be,” she says, for example sometimes including hand-written notes or homemade baked goods. “I get to be someone that’s dropping it off, and I love it. I love surprises and presents, and watching people.”

Russell, who now helms his own winery, Apollo’s Praise, along with his wife, Julia, is confident that the program will live on locally, but also hopes that other wine regions may be inspired to get in on the fun. “Nothing would make any of us in the Finger Lakes happier than to be able to point to something that is happening in Napa Valley in five years and be like, ‘oh, that started with us.’”