Pleasant Valley’s Spiked Vine Artisanal Hard Soda Wins 2nd Place in New York State Concord Grape Beverage Competition

Pleasant Valley Wine Company won 2nd place in the Concord Grape Beverage Competition at the first New York Concord Grape Innovation Awards, aimed at stimulating growth and innovation in the state’s Concord grape industry.

The prize was awarded in early December at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva.

The competition was hosted and organized by the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture (COE) at Cornell AgriTech and sponsored by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (NYSDAM).

The plans for the competition date back to 2018, when State Commissioner of Agriculture Richard Ball gathered with then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, former Senator Catherine Young, who is now executive director of the COE, and Cornell researchers at the New York State Concord Grape Summit in Westfield, New York, to discuss challenges and identify new opportunities for the state’s Concord grape industry.