Until roughly three hundred years ago, Downs Woods and the adjacent McCall vineyards were the cultural center of an Algonquin Indian tribe.
Known as Fort Corchaug, the natives selected this unique maritime property along the estuary as their home.

About two hundred years later in 1902, Russell Simeon Walker, president of the Dime Savings Bank in Brooklyn, rode his horse and buggy out to the North Fork to find a summer home. From the Walkers to the Munkenbecks down to the McCalls, the property remained in the family.

In 1996 Russell McCall joined forces with the Peconic Land Trust to save Down’s Woods, Fort Corchaug, and the farmland adjacent to his family’s property from the threat of development, after which he replanted the corn and potato fields with twenty one acres of vineyards. A few years later, Mr. McCall purchased and gifted the North Fork Stewardship Center to the Peconic Land Trust in allegiance to their shared commitment.

In 2007 we made our first vintage and founded McCall Wines. In 2010 we opened our tasting room, erected our wind turbine, and began raising cattle. And in 2011 we acquired North Ridge Vineyard giving us the opportunity to expand our production of estate-grown wines with this old-vine planting.