Wait, where are we? Wildflower Farms, an Auberge Resorts Collection property in Gardiner, New York.

Pour Me Another

A surge of investment in hotels, restaurants, and distilleries is remaking upstate New York in the image of Napa Valley

By Christine Muhlke

I sampled brandy from 2022 in a $21 million tasting room overlooking a hillside. I dined on the season’s first fava beans at one of the country’s best restaurants. I drove on bucolic back roads in an electric BMW borrowed from my $1,100-per-night hotel.

“Isn’t Napa lovely?” you might be thinking. Yes, but all of this happened at Klocke Estate, in upstate New York.