Just ducky: Winery honors late decoy carver with a new wine and label of distinction | Community Giving

CHAUMONT — The heritage of a late, local artisan will be celebrated at White Caps Winery on Point Salubrious on Sunday with a party and a toast or two.

White Caps Winery owner and Chaumont native Gail W. Miller has a history of honoring local history and heritage with the labels of the wines at the business, which opened in 2017. Ms. Miller’s endeavor to build a winery on her 178-acre family farm, Cedar Grove Farm, began in 2012 when she started planting 1,200 grape vines.

A new White Caps wine, a dry Reisling, will be introduced on Sunday to honor the late DeWayne R. Benney, who died in 2016 at the age of 86. Mr. Benney was an award winning carver, specializing in duck decoys. In his youth, he built river skiffs with his father.

The label to the new wine will feature two of Mr. Benney’s blue ribbon award-winning decoy carvings. The unveiling is from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

“We’re hoping to have a lot of the carvers in the area come, because DeWayne was very-much loved,” Ms. Miller said. “We’ll also be open to all guests.”

But Mr. Benney’s skill set extended well beyond decoy carving and building boats. He was a pastor, a dowser, an Army veteran, an inventor and a pretty good harmonica player and angler.

Mr. Benney served in the Army in the 1950s, spending time in Germany in Korea. In the Army, he was honored for an invention he devised.

“He invented the split-rim tire changer,” son Kerry D. Benney, Chaumont, said.

Mr. Benney said that previous to the invention, changing tires on a rim could be deadly, with the rims rising up, striking workers.

“They wanted something to prevent them from getting hit with the rims,” said Mr. Benney, who shared an Army photo of his father with his invention.

“He basically welded all that stuff together because he was a tech sergeant, an E-8 when he left,” Mr. Benney said.

The White Caps wine label, Mr. Benney said, is a great honor for the Benney family.

“It means a lot to us,” he said. “I’m very grateful to Gail and I hope everything works for her, just as much I hope it helps honor our dad’s legacy and to push his name out there to show what he did in the community.”

Ms. Miller, a fifth-generation descendant of Nathaniel Warner, a soldier raised in a Connecticut regiment, to fight in the War of 1812 in Sackets Harbor, said her family and the Benney family have been acquaintances for generations. The Benney family also has community roots from the 1800s.

Mr. Benney recalled working alongside his father when working on decoys and Ms. Miller paying a visit.

Ms. Miller, also a licensed real estate broker with Lake Ontario Realty, (along with daughter Amanda Miller) said that herself and her sister, Edith Miller of Maryland, had a tradition of purchasing carvings from DeWayne and exchanging them as Christmas gifts.

“Part of the fun of buying them was just talking to DeWayne and hearing about his shows and ribbons,” Ms. Miller said. “It was just all great fun.’’

“My dad would make them for them,” Mr. Benney said. “They’d tell them what they wanted and he’d make them. He did that a lot with people around here. He loved to carve decoys.”

Mr. Benney, who has also taken up decoy carving, said that later in his life, his dad had a goal of carving a male and female of every species of duck found in New York State. According to the website Bird Watching HQ, there are 21 types of ducks found in the state.

“He got up to 30 until he passed away,” Mr. Benney said. “He basically wanted them to be used as a guide for me, as far as painting. He had patterns for everything, and said, ‘That way, it’ll help you — guide you.’”

a custom crush

The wine related to the duck-themed label was produced at Hunt Country Vineyards, located near Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes. It was formulated by wine maker Craig Hosbach.

“He’s was also our original wine maker, and our original consultant,” Ms. Miller said. “He’s got quite the reputation and is becoming pretty famous.”

About a decade ago, Mr. Hosbach served as vice president of the Northern New York Grape Growers Association. In 2013 he helped establish a teaching winemaking facility at Tug Hill Vineyards in conjunction with Jefferson County Community College.

“If you want a very special wine made, one of the things you can do is to do a custom crush, where you find another farm winery and maybe they’re growing a grape that you’re not,” Ms. Miller said. “We can’t grow Reisling here. You hire them to do a custom crush from their vineyard. It’ll make a reserve, the very best, and they’re making it for you as if it were their own.”

The wine label for the Reisling was created by artist/illustrator Edward Yancey. “Our labels are cobalt blue, very classic, and he’s designed them all,” Ms. Miller said.

A new barn at White Caps, with a processing room, is nearly complete and operational at her winery, Ms. Miller said.

At first, Ms. Miller transitioned the farm to a bird sanctuary habitat to save it from development. The winery, with a nautical theme, became a natural extension of her vision.

The winery includes walking trails and customers are encouraged to walk them or cross country ski in winter. The farm also features rescued, four-legged animals.

In a couple of months, the business, which includes 50 feet of frontage on Chaumont Bay, will add to its nautical theme.

“We’re just about to put in dockage from the lake,” Ms. Miller said.

She said the complex is awaiting “permits and such.”

“We anticipate putting it in this fall,” she said. “You’ll be able to access the winery by water.”

She said the winery also recently put in a “bog pond.”

White Caps is open until Labor Day from noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. It’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.