For a while, it looked rough. Red Hook Winery was established in 2008, and it moved to its waterfront space six months before Sandy struck the city.

Red Hook Winery is a boardwalk away from the water’s edge. When the water crested, it poured into the winery. Christopher Nicholson, Red Hook’s soft-spoken resident winemaker, remembers water, damage, lost vintages, and “grape skins strewn all over the floor.” Red Hook lost equipment and furnishings, but “the saddest thing is the wine,” Nicholson says. “We lost so much.” The vintages that survived the storm are cherished. The business is still standing, which is not a little thing, and the future is looking sunnier.

The 2012 storm didn’t dampen Nicholson’s belief in Red Hook or in his place there. That’s fortunate, because he took the long road to New York City. Nicholson hardly harks from wine country; his family business is fishing, and the clan is in Alaska. He came to Red Hook via winemaking in California and Italy. In Brooklyn, one of Nicholson’s key aims is to “keep the focus on the viticulture of the region, and the way Abe, Bob and I see those places.”

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