The North Fork lost a piece of its heart last year when Christian Frederick Baiz III, founder and owner with his wife Rosamond “Ros” Phelps Baiz of the Old Field Vineyard, passed away in February 2025.
Chris, born in Ohio, had a special connection to his land in Southold, which had been in his mother’s family for several generations. Town records referencing the land referred to as “The Old Field” date as far back as 1665.
“In 1918, with the Spanish flu in New York City, Chris’s grandmother [Clara Elizabeth Batterman-Lang] … decided she wanted to move out here,” says Ros.
Batterman-Lang bought the bayside 22-acre Old Field property, along with additional acreage across the Main Road. “They had 100 acres all together,” Ros continues, which was a working vegetable farm with two 19th century farmhouses on it.
When Chris was a kid, the family would come to the Old Field every summer and stay at his grandmother’s home, and then later at the house down on Bay Home Road. “He worshipped this land; he absolutely worshipped it,” says Ros. “It was his blood and soul.”
An avid sailor as a young man, Chris was a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club and raced on Peconic Bay in his star boats Mephisto and Syzygy.
With a degree from Columbia University in mining engineering, he worked for Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in New York City as a vice president and mining engineer in the metals and mining group. His many interests included petroleum engineering, oil drilling, geology, oceanography, biology, banking, economics and aerospace.
In 1974, Baiz planted half an acre of vines on the family’s land, becoming only the second person on the North Fork to plant a vineyard after Alex and Louisa Hargrave pioneered the viticulture industry in Cutchogue in 1973.
In December 1984, Chris and Ros were married, and the newlyweds settled in Bronxville with her and her children from a previous marriage, Ryan and Perry Weiss. The family spent summers in Southold, and it seemed the farm life kept calling to Chris. In 1985, he planted two acres of pinot noir on a property he acquired on Ackerly Pond Road, recalls Perry Weiss Bliss.
There was more to come. Eventually, the Old Field would boast 10 acres of merlot, cabernet franc and pinot noir, all planted by hand. In 1996, the family moved from Bronxville to Southold permanently.
“Chris Baiz had a deep and lasting devotion to growing premium vinifera grapes for wine on the land by the bay in Southold that had been in his family for multiple generations,” says Louisa Hargrave. “He planted pinot noir, the most difficult of all wine grapes to grow, in 1974 while he was still working as a mining engineer and salesperson, traveling around the world. At first his farming was his avocation and not his profession, but he still pursued it with fierce dedication.”
A true farmer at heart, a grape’s forewarned difficulties didn’t give Chris pause. “He made his own pinot noir at one point that was absolutely spectacular,” recalls Ros. “And we were doing it all in what was the milking barn.”
Perry recalls the first time the family sold their wines to the public, loading up a pickup truck with bottles in front of the vineyard in 2001. “They had their liquor license and were wondering what to do next,” Perry says.
“We had bales of hay and umbrellas and tables, and people came in and we made $2,000 in wine sales,” says Ros, leaving the family surprised and pleased.
The rustic tasting room was restored by Ryan, unbeknownst to Chris and Ros. “We went off on a holiday, and [what became the tasting room] was Granny’s cat house; she raised cats there,” Ros recalls. “And we came back and Ryan had restored it, and he said, ‘here’s your new tasting room,’ and it was very exciting … it was extraordinary and people loved it.”
The Old Field Vineyard was truly a family affair, with Ros training with former Lenz winemaker Eric Fry to eventually serve as winemaker and Chris working in the vineyard mowing and spraying, handling the vineyard’s financials and talking to tasting room visitors. In 2007, Perry became the vineyard manager and later the winemaker; son Ryan, who lives on the West Coast, returned regularly to maintain the buildings and, in 2018, restored the property’s 1885 icehouse. After Chris’s passing, Perry’s husband Zachary Bliss stepped in to keep the vineyard operational, the family pulling together to keep Chris’s dream alive.
Ros, above, trained with former Lenz winemaker Eric Fry to eventually serve as winemaker; in 2007, Perry, below, became the vineyard manager and later the winemaker. (Photo Credit: Madison Fender)
“Chris had a depth of knowledge in any subject that interested him and could be counted on to generously share that knowledge,” recalls Hargrave. “After he and his wife Ros moved to Southold permanently and began expanding their vineyard and making wine, he became more involved in Wine Council and matters relating to farming in the town of Southold. I always enjoyed trading anecdotes about the business with Chris. His enthusiasm was contagious.”
Chris served as chairman of Southold Town’s Agricultural Committee and was a past president of the Long Island Wine Council. “He understood the soil, the weather, and the chemistry of winemaking,” says Ros.
He had a particular soft spot for his grandchildren Rozzy and Claire, who he put on the school bus each day. “When they got home from school, he’d be out there to greet them,” says Ros, giving the girls a ride to the house on his lawnmower or his tractor. “They loved it … and they would have long conversations together. It’s such a good memory for them.”
While the family managed to keep the vineyard going in the months after Baiz’s death, in October 2025 the Old Field property was sold to an undisclosed buyer for $13 million; the vineyard closed as of November 30, 2025.
It is unknown whether the property will continue to be run as a vineyard. The passing of Chris and the sale of the land ends one of the remarkable stories of the early days of Long Island’s viticulture industry — a legacy born of the devotion and irresistible pull Chris felt to his family’s land by the bay.
“After 106 remarkable years, our family has made the bittersweet decision to sell our property,” says Perry. “For a quarter of a century, our winery [and] vineyard has been more than just a business — it has been a home, a gathering place and a labor of love.”
