German winemaker may have run out of visa options.
Johannes Reinhardt, center, the head winemaker at Anthony Road Wine Co. in Penn Yan, poses with owners John and Ann Martini and the Governors Cup award they won for the winery's 2008 Riesling.Penn Yan, NY -- In the past 10 years, German-born winemaker Johannes Reinhardt has helped Anthony Road Wine Co. in Penn Yan become one of the Finger Lakes region’s most decorated wineries.
Reinhardt now faces the prospect of being forced to leave the country under U.S. immigration laws.
Since 2000, he has been working on temporary visas, while applying for permanent work status through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau. That permanent request was based on the idea that his skills as a winemaker were extraordinary, and could not be matched by someone else.
That request, and a subsequent appeal, have been denied, according to reports circulated by New York state wine industry representatives.
Anthony Road’s owner, John Martini, would not discuss Reinhardt’s case publicly Monday, after the situation surfaced over the weekend in an e-mailed newsletter from Jim Trezise, head of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.
Martini said Reinhardt’s lawyers are afraid more publicity will only harm the winemaker’s attempt to resubmit his application.
A spokeswoman for the federal immigration service said Monday the office does not comment on individual cases.
Last year, Anthony Road’s 2008 Riesling, produced by Reinhardt, won the Governor’s Cup at the New York Wine & Grape Classic in Watkins Glen. That is considered one of the area’s most prestigious competitions and is among many awards Reinhardt’s wines have won since he joined Anthony Road.
Earlier this year, Anthony Road took home one of the seven top prizes in an international Riesling competition held in Alsace, France, near the traditional home of the Riesling grape.
Trezise, whose organization provides support for the state wine industry, was blunt in his take on the matter:
“The German-born wine maker has unique training, experience, and talents that simply can’t be replicated by anyone else, and his impressive string of major national and international awards provides clear evidence,” Trezise wrote in his weekend newsletter, called The Wine Press. “His achievements have elevated the stature of the winery and the entire region.”
Trezise acknowledges that immigration policy since Sept. 11, 2001 has become “highly complex and volatile. But this is a no-brainer: a lawful, honest, hard-working, talented professional who wants stay with us. What’s so scary about that? And where went the country that once welcomed the world?”
Reinhardt, 43, is a native of the Franconia region of Germany whose family has been in the winemaking business for 600 years. After working there, he came to the Finger Lakes in 1999 for an internship with the Dr. Konstantin Frank winery on Keuka Lake. He became head winemaker at Anthony Road the next year.
In a 2009 interview with Wine Spectator magazine, Reinhardt said he decided to leave Germany because he felt limited working within its centuries-old winemaking traditions. He believed he could be a more creative and adventurous winemaker in the United States.