About Us

The Vineyard & Winery

Fresh Tracks Farm is a labor of love that stems from a love of labor—the kind that comes from the satisfaction and pride we get from working the land. Unlike many other kinds of farming, growing grapes is a long-term relationship that is built over many years with a commitment to understanding and nurturing the vines that will produce for generations to come. There are certainly easier places to produce wine than Vermont, but we are compelled by the challenge of caring for grapes here and can imagine no better place to call home.

“It’s extremely satisfying to be a part of the entire process from putting the vines in the soil all the way to having someone actually taste the results of all that labor, bringing our product into their home to share with people they care about.”

- Christina Castegren, Owner & Winemaker

Our People

We are Christina Castegren and Kris Tootle, owners, winemakers, and hosts at Fresh Tracks Farm. In addition to our actual marriage, Fresh Tracks is also the marriage of our backgrounds and passions: Christina’s in Plants & Soil Science and Kris’ in Agriculture. Our respective skills and interests also provide the overall foundation of our business. While Christina is monitoring the fermentation process and keeping the books, Kris is managing our great team of employees and maintaining the infrastructure (come visit our beautiful new Tasting Room which we’ve built from the ground up).

“Our business philosophy essentially comes down to three things: work hard, represent yourself in an honest light, and make a quality product.”

- Kris Tootle, Owner & Grower

Our Farm

Though producing wine is our primary business, we make use of Fresh Track Farm’s many natural assets in a way that supports the land’s overall health—like sustainably harvesting firewood and tapping 1,000 maple trees for syrup, creating our own compost and keeping animals. We raise chickens for eggs, pigs for food and enjoy the company of our beautiful horses. We also find great joy in tending to and eating from our substantial vegetable garden. We believe that approaching our lives and work in this way helps keep the land in balance by replenishing everything we take from it.

Growing Sustainably

Sustainable practices are at the heart of everything we do at Fresh Tracks Farm. We believe that what we do and how we live on and around our land have a direct impact on what we receive from it. That is why we leverage renewable sources such as the geothermal energy used to heat and cool our new Tasting Room and Winery and solar power provided by our 8.1 kW system, which supports a portion of the electricity used to produce our wines.

We draw on a variety of natural farming principles and work the land with knowledge of both science and tradition to foster healthy growth and responsible usage.

But sustainability is also about running an honest business, providing good value and quality products to our customers and a fair living for our employees. We believe that everyone should benefit from being a part of Fresh Tracks Farm.