Stable Gate Winery Owner Val Feldman Featured in The Dishing

If you’ve ever spent an afternoon at Stable Gate Winery, attended a wedding on the farm, or stopped by the tasting room, you’ve already experienced a little of Val Feldman’s story.

Now, that story is getting some well-deserved attention.

Stable Gate Winery owner Val Feldman was recently featured in The Dishing, where she talked about growing up in a four-generation hospitality family, planting her first vineyard in her early twenties, becoming a Certified Sommelier, making natural wines and meads, and creating a welcoming place for people to gather.

The feature is a great introduction to Val. But there’s a lot more behind the winery you see today.

Stable Gate is part vineyard, part working farm, part wedding venue, and part family gathering place. And nearly every corner of it connects back to the Feldman family and the generations of hospitality that came before.

Meet Val Feldman, the Person Behind Stable Gate Winery

Val grew up around food, events, and hospitality.

Her family’s catering history dates back to 1936, so helping people celebrate was part of her life long before Stable Gate Winery existed. In her conversation with The Dishing, Val shares that she knew from a young age that she wanted to be part of the family business.

She just needed to figure out what her part of it would look like.

Val studied hospitality in Boston and spent time abroad, including learning about wine in Italy. She later worked in California wine country in Napa and Sonoma and became a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Those experiences gave her a different perspective when she returned to her family’s farm in Castleton-on-Hudson, NY.

Rather than simply stepping into an existing role, she began creating something of her own.

The vineyard became that place.

The Vineyard Started Long Before Stable Gate Became What It Is Today

One of the best parts of Val’s story is that Stable Gate Winery didn’t arrive fully formed.

It grew slowly.

Val explains in The Dishing that she planted the first vineyard when she was just 21. The idea began after studying abroad and discovering that wine grapes could be grown in New York. After college, she worked at Hudson-Chatham Winery and started learning more about what it would take to grow grapes on her own family’s land.

That land already had a story.

The Feldman family purchased the former Payne Farm in 2000. Before becoming home to vineyards, weddings, and a tasting room, the property operated as a dairy farm and was once associated with Elsie the Cow of Borden Dairy fame.

Over time, former pastureland became vineyard acreage.

You can learn more about that history on Stable Gate’s About the Farm page.

For Val, farming offered something slightly different from the catering and event world she had grown up in.

She describes it in The Dishing as creating a “parallel path” within the family business. She was still part of the same larger story, but now she had room to explore wine, farming, and her own ideas.

What Makes the Wine at Stable Gate Different?

If you’re looking up Stable Gate Winery because you’re thinking about visiting, this is probably one of your first questions.

The short answer: Val likes to experiment.

Her approach to winemaking developed over years of learning from other winemakers and asking what could be done differently. In The Dishing, she talks about repeatedly questioning whether certain additions and interventions were really necessary during the winemaking process. Eventually, she discovered a larger community of producers exploring similar low-intervention methods.

Stable Gate produces wines and meads using estate fruit and honey, along with some locally grown grapes.

The vineyard grows hybrid grapes that are better suited to New York’s climate. In the tasting room, you may come across varieties you don’t usually see on a typical wine list, which is part of the experience.

Val has also been making mead since 2020, using estate honey and experimenting with different botanicals and flavors from vintage to vintage.

You don’t need to know a lot about wine before you visit.

Actually, arriving curious might be better.

Part of Val’s approach is introducing people to grapes, fermentation styles, and flavors they may not have tried before. So if you normally order the same wine everywhere you go, Stable Gate gives you a reason to branch out.

Stable Gate Is a Family Business in the Most Literal Sense

One thing you quickly learn about Stable Gate is that “family-owned” isn’t just a line on the website.

The family is actually here.

Val’s mother, Wendy, helps with events and works in the tasting room. Her sister, Serena, coordinates weddings in the barn. Her father, Steven, works with the farm equipment and helps care for the horses. Her grandmother, Felice, tends to the flowers and gardens.

Val talks about that dynamic in The Dishing, explaining that several family members live on the farm and have naturally found their own areas of expertise over the years.

That’s part of what gives the property its personality.

One person may be working in the vineyard while someone else is preparing for a wedding. Another may be helping guests in the tasting room while the gardens are being tended nearby.

It all feels connected because it is.

A Winery, Vineyard, and Wedding Venue in One Place

Stable Gate isn’t only somewhere you stop for a glass of wine.

The property is also home to weddings, private celebrations, public events, and full wedding weekends.

For engaged couples, that means the farm can become much more than a ceremony backdrop.

Stable Gate offers several wedding settings, including the Original Dutch Barn, the Vineyard Grove, Hudson 360 with views toward the Catskill Mountains, and a nearby non-denominational chapel.

Couples can also add experiences such as a winery gathering before the ceremony, outdoor cocktail hours, rehearsal dinners, farewell brunches, and different bar options depending on how they want the weekend to feel.

You can explore those options on the Stable Gate Weddings page.

And this is where Val’s family history comes full circle.

Stable Gate’s exclusive onsite caterer is Birch Hill Catering, the Feldman family’s fourth-generation catering business.

So when you attend a wedding here, the vineyard Val planted, the farm her family cares for, and the hospitality business she grew up around all meet in the same place.

It’s not a concept created for weddings.

It’s the actual story of the property.

Creating a Place Where People Feel Comfortable Being Themselves

Another part of Val’s The Dishing feature goes beyond wine and farming.

She talks openly about being LGBT and why creating an inclusive space matters personally to her.

For Val, welcoming people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or preference is part of what hospitality should look like. She also shares how meaningful it has been to see more people intentionally support LGBT-owned businesses and seek out places where they feel comfortable.

You’ll see that same message reflected throughout Stable Gate.

The winery welcomes people with different backgrounds and identities, and the wedding venue makes it clear that couples are encouraged to celebrate in a way that feels like them.

That may sound like a small thing until you’re planning one of the most personal days of your life.

For many couples, it isn’t small at all.

Read Val’s Feature, Then Come Meet Stable Gate for Yourself

We’re proud to see Val and the Stable Gate story featured by The Dishing.

If you want to know more about the person behind the winery, read Val Feldman’s full feature in The Dishing. You’ll hear more directly from Val about her family, winemaking, mead, farming, hospitality, inclusivity, and what she hopes to explore next.

Then come experience the farm beyond the article.

Browse Stable Gate Winery to learn more about visiting, explore the history of the farm, take a look at weddings and events, or visit the Contact Us page if you’d like to plan a visit or talk with the team about your own celebration.