The most recent edition of the Wine Press, a newsletter from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, brought the sad news that David and Debra Whiting, owners of Red Newt Cellars, a winery and bistro in New York’s Finger Lakes region, were in a horrific car crash last Thursday. Deb, aged 52, was killed. Dave (47) is in a Syracuse hospital and is
expected to recover from his injuries.
It is inevitably heart wrenching when tragedy strikes such a relatively young and still awesomely energetic and talented couple. The lives of families and friends will always be shattered by such tragic events, but in the case of the Whitings the circle of grief is even wider, for Dave and Deb’s influence is sending shock waves through an entire region.
I first met Deb&Dave (or Dave&Deb—everyone who knew the devoted couple spoke of them as a single unit) in the early 1990s, at the very beginning of the renaissance of the Finger Lakes’ wine industry. Dave, whose own Red Newt winery was still a dream for the future at that point, had started his career as winemaker at McGregor Vineyard, and went on to work at other Finger Lakes’ wineries including Chateau LaFayette, Swedish Hill and Standing Stone. Deb was just beginning to translate her passion for food into a successful career. Together this visionary couple would go on to create one of the most respected and influential wineries in the eastern United States. “Red Newt Cellars and Bistro, perched high above Seneca Lake’s east side, is a mecca for foodies and wine lovers alike,” wrote Jim Trezise in the Wine Press. This spring their leadership in the Finger Lakes wine community was recognized when they received the Wine & Grape Foundation’s “Industry Award” for major contributions in advancing the industry.
Debra Whiting didn’t invent the locavore concept, but she instinctively embraced it. As Executive Chef at the Red Newt Bistro she used locally sourced foods as much as possible in creating her imaginative and delicious menus. For years she has served on the executive board of Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty, a network of local farmers, food producers, distributors and restaurants. She also mentored innumerable other chefs who have gone on to successful careers of their own.
Dave Whiting’s wines are among New York’s best, and getting better all the time. His reputation has begun to reach wine lovers even beyond New York, in part because of his collaboration with two other Finger Lakes winemakers, Peter Bell (Fox Run Vineyards) and Johannes Rheinhardt (Anthony Road) in making Tierce, which Dan Berger has called the best Riesling made in America. (Tierce is most definitely a favorite wine of mine). For that matter Dave’s Red Newt Riesling is unquestionably one of the best in America. I was thrilled, recently, to discover it on the list at the Wine Market, one of Baltimore’s best restaurants.
I cannot express my sympathy to and to the New York wine community any better than Jim Trezise did in the current Wine Press. “Today the Finger Lakes is widely recognized as one of the finest wine country destinations in the world, in large part because the quality of the food has caught up to the wine,” he wrote. “That is the legacy of Deb Whiting.”
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