HVADC Client: Dear Native Grapes

The forklift arrived before the grapes did. It sat there — new, bright, symbolic — on a Delaware County property that, not long ago, was an old dairy farm waiting for its next chapter.

For Alfie and Deanna Alcántara, founders of Dear Native Grapes, — named like the opening of a love letter to America’s forgotten grapes — it meant something bigger than logistics. It meant they could finally scale. And it meant they didn't have to haul tons of grapes by hand anymore. It was made possible, in part, by a bridge loan from the HVADC Agribusiness Loan Fund — the kind of financing that doesn't always exist for small farms, but did this time.

"By the end of harvest season, you're just completely dead," Alcántara said with a laugh. "[This forklift] is going to save us hours and hours of labor."

But before the forklift, there was Brooklyn. And wine tasting. And a hunch.

From Film School to Farmland

Alfie and Deanna met in college film school. He went to work as a freelance cameraman; she moved into advertising management. By 2015, they found a passion, and were deep into natural wines and heritage varieties, reading viticultural history, and chasing down obscure cultivars. The wines they kept returning to had something in common: they tasted alive.

"We found out about the whole history of America's own native grapes — this really rich viticulture, especially in New York and the Northeast, that was basically halted by Prohibition," Alcántara said. "After that, we lost so much of that diversity. We thought, ‘This would be an awesome project.’"

Deanna pushed them from dreaming to doing. "She said, I'm tired of hearing you talk about it — let's start saving money for a down payment on farmland," Alcántara noted. They took Cornell Small Farms Program courses. They volunteered at wineries. By 2019, they were ready to buy land.

They weren't set on New York at first — they'd even looked as far as Colorado. But it was too expensive and too dry, and all their family and friends were back east. The Hudson Valley had priced them out. Three hours north of the city, land opened up — a former dairy farm in Walton, Delaware County, with sweeping pasture, perfect sun exposure, and the drainage a vineyard needs. It was the first property in the area they visited. They bought it in October 2019.

Then COVID hit.

"Our idea was to start the vineyard gradually, slowly," Alcántara said. "But suddenly I was out of work. We were like, let's just move up there and do it." Friends and family came in shifts, quarantining on the farm, planting vines two or three weeks at a time. The vineyard got its start in a matter of months.

Building a Winery — and a Community

The early years were scrappy. They made wine in the garage. Everything — the bar, the tables, the labels — they built or designed themselves. That DIY ethos kept overhead low, and it still defines the business.

In 2023, they put up a new building that now doubles as a production facility and tasting room. By July 2025, it was open to the public, and the community showed up.

"It started to feel like it wasn't just ours anymore — it belongs to the community," Alcántara remarked. The winery now hosts music nights, food pop-ups, ticketed dinners, and book readings, and participates year-round in the Delhi Farmers Market. Revenue runs roughly 60 percent direct-to-consumer, 40 percent wholesale to local shops, restaurants, and bars. "You can't just do one thing," Alcántara noted. "You have to diversify."

Their film backgrounds translate perfectly. "Film school is constant storytelling," Alcántara said. "And that's what this whole project is, really."

Where HVADC Comes In

In 2025, the company was awarded a Business Builder grant through the NASDA Foundation — administered in New York by Farm and Food Growth Fund (FFGF), an HVADC affiliate — to purchase a forklift capable of lifting and tilting a full grape bin directly into the crusher-destemmer. The catch: the grant was reimbursable. Dear Native Grapes had to cover the cost upfront, and wait for the grant funds until their project was complete.

"We were like, we don't have that cash flow," Alcántara said.

Their NASDA grant adviser pointed them toward organizations that specialize in bridge loans for farms and agribusinesses. HVADC was the right geographic fit. The process took three to four months — longer than a conventional bank loan, but worth it. HVADC structured repayment with interest-only payments for the first several years and understood the seasonality of farm cash flow in a way traditional lenders often don't.

HVADC Business Services Manager Taylor Mignone made a site visit once the forklift arrived. Alcántara gave him a demo. They ended up talking about New York history.

"Visiting Dear Native Grapes felt deeply personal to me,” said Mignone. “A naturally beautiful vineyard, remote in the best possible way, with breathtaking mountain views. The devotion to winemaking is unmistakable, from the thoughtful care of the vines to the beautiful tasting room, the expressive white and red wines, and the personalized bottle art. This is truly a labor of passion."

"You could feel that they're working for your best interests," Alcántara said of the HVADC team. "It's a small team, but they really get it. They're so familiar with how USDA grants work. It made the whole thing so easy."

The forklift's first real harvest is still months away. In the meantime, the winery keeps running out of wine — "a good problem, but also stressful," Alcántara said. Plans are underway to scale production, add a small commercial kitchen, and keep dreaming up new events.

The letter to America's forgotten grapes, it seems, is just getting started.

From small family farms to large horticultural enterprises, HVADC supports agribusinesses at every stage through business technical assistance, loans, grants, and marketing opportunities. Learn more at https://www.hvadc.org/agribusiness-growth.