Vineyards in Stonington in the 1980's --- Crosswoods Vineyard

This is the third and last post on the topic of Vineyards in Stonington in the 1980's and it is about Crosswoods Vineyard featured in the 1984 article in The Day. Crosswoods Vineyard was located on Chester Main in North Stonington. Hugh Connell, a former New York advertising agency executive and his wife Susan, purchased the 432 acre former 19th century dairy and land in 1981 and named it Crosswoods Vineyard. They planted primarily vinifera on the 27-acre farm. They also hired an expert winemaker from California with the aspiration of making some of the finest Chardonnays and Rieslings in the area.
In 1984, they were hoping to produce some 3,000 bottles of their first wines in the fall that included Gamay noir, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Chardonnay. At that time, Crosswoods was open only by appointment and sales were to retailers rather than to customers at the vineyard.
Four years later, in the 1988, The New York Times documented their harvest which started in late September and ran into October. Coordinating the harvest was Russell Valvo, the vineyard manager.

In 1988, the Connells hired between 15-20 people and paid them $4.75 an hour to harvest 25 acres of grapes. A full time crew working from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. harvested six tons of grapes a day, or approximately 3 acres!
One of the harvesters, Dr. Filderman, an assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Yale University School of Medicine said after an entire day of picking grapes, he felt like a "big thing of grape jelly."
The last mention that I could find of Crosswoods Vineyard was in The New York Times. In 1991, John Pettine was the president of Crosswoods Vineyard.⁴
What Stonecrop Vineyard, Clarke Vineyard, and Crosswoods Vineyard have in common are that they were the first vineyards planted in the Southeastern corner of Connecticut. I hope that people reading this blog can fill in more details about these pioneers in the wine industry in our area. I would love to hear from you!
References:
1. Clare Collins, New rural wineries give tastes and tours, The Day, June 19, 1984.
2. Bess Liebenson, Vineyards Beckon to Wine Lovers, The New York Times, Sunday July 27, 1986.
3. Clare Collins, Workers Heed the Call of the Vine, The New Hork Times, Sunday October 9, 1988.
4. Jackie Fitzpatrick, Pride and Reputations are Growing in the State's Vineyards, The New York Times, October 20, 1991.