Ellison Estate Vineyard

Kendra and Rob Knapik founded Ellison Estate Vineyard in 2018 when they purchased an abandoned vineyard on a 50-acre farm in the Lake Champlain Islands in Vermont. With their three young children in tow, the Knapik family lives on the farm during the growing season. Together with a small team, including sheep that are integral to the process, they grow the grapes, make the wine, and run the business. Kendra and Rob are working to restore the land’s health using organic and biodynamic farming practices and have a strong commitment to regenerative agriculture. At harvest, the grapes are processed in the family’s basement winery an hour away in Stowe, Vermont. 

Ellison Estate Vineyard makes natural wine from one of the oldest and largest single plantings of grapevines in Vermont (initially planted in 2001).  All wines are made with native yeast fermentations and minimal intervention in the winery. The only ingredient is grapes with no filtering and zero to only a small responsible amount of sulfites added at bottling in still wines (20-30ppm if any).  Ellison Estate Vineyard wines are designed to achieve the purest expression of the Champlain Islands’ terroir. The vines grow on a shallow bedrock of limestone and clay right on an island in Lake Champlain.

Kendra’s family is originally from the Lake Champlain Islands so a deep connection to the land anchors their pursuits. After almost losing their third child to pregnancy complications, Kendra and Rob re-assessed what was important to their family. They decided to take a risk to build something generational that would bring them closer to the land and bring joy to their community. Kendra, a veterinary oncologist and Rob, a particle physicist, use their strong scientific and problem-solving skills from their unlikely backgrounds as the foundation to run their farm and winery. They embrace the creative, messy, and sometimes unpredictable journey they have embarked upon as they strive to achieve balance in their lives, their vineyard, and their handcrafted wines.

Ellison Estate works with hybrid grapes. Currently they make wines from Marquette, St. Croix, Frontenac Noir, Louise Swenson, La Crescent & Prairie Star, which were all present on the 10.5 acre abandoned vineyard that Kendra & Rob started rehabilitating in 2018. Six additional varieties were planted in the Spring of 2023 for a total of 14.5 acres under vine. Ellison Estate's annual production is approximately 1000-1200 cases currently. They produce 20-24 small batch cuvées yearly.