By Amanda Robert
October 19, 2026, 1:55 pm CDT

Doug Doetsch’s personal and professional roots stretch back five generations into the rolling terrain of Callicoon, a small, historic town nestled quietly in the foothills of the upstate New York Catskill Mountains. For decades, both sides of his family operated traditional German-American family farms that served as vital agricultural suppliers for the region, providing fresh milk, eggs, and poultry to the bustling local economy. That economy was heavily anchored by the Borscht Belt, an extensive and legendary network of resorts, bungalow colonies, and hotels that were frequented by generations of Jewish families traveling from New York City for much of the 20th century. Furthermore, for more than half a century, Doetsch’s maternal grandparents operated their own local boarding house, deeply embedding the family into the fabric of regional hospitality and rural community life.

Years later, after pursuing higher education far from home—attending Kalamazoo College before earning his law degree at Columbia Law School—Doetsch returned to visit his ancestral stomping grounds and realized that the region had undergone a profound and melancholy transformation. The grand resorts and hotels that once defined the Catskills era had long since closed their doors, decaying or disappearing entirely. Families who had farmed the land for generations had moved away, selling their properties or leaving them abandoned, while once-fertile agricultural fields lay fallow and unused.

"That way of life, you know, living close to the land, taking care of the land, being a steward of the land, that really was disappearing," Doetsch reflects on the gradual fading of the rural landscape. "And I thought that was a shame."

A Return to the Homestead and Prohibition Roots

By 2012, Doetsch, who serves as a partner and international finance lawyer at the prominent firm Mayer Brown in Chicago, began seriously contemplating how he might breathe new life into his family’s long-dormant homestead. The historic property still held the tangible remains of an old apple orchard, and family lore and historical records reminded him that his great-grandfather had once pressed and crafted his own cider on the land during the restrictive era of Prohibition.

Around the same time, Doetsch, his wife, Susan Manning—a professor emerita in the theater department at Northwestern University—and their two sons embarked on a family trip to France. Their travels through the European countryside offered a wellspring of inspiration, particularly as they observed firsthand how traditional cider-makers served as central, vital anchors for regional tourism, rural economies, and local cultural identity.

"I really felt a tug for that sort of agricultural, simpler life and a way to create hospitality for people that syncs up with how they think now, where they want to go now, what they want to experience now," Doetsch says of the epiphany that set his ambitious project into motion.

Doetsch’s radical career pivot and entrepreneurial vision also drew inspiration closer to home, sparked in part by his wife’s uncle. That relative, a seasoned antitrust lawyer who had retired from the firm McDermott Will & Emery, had successfully transitioned into a thriving commercial cherry farmer. "I always thought he had figured out Chapter 2 of his life better than anybody else I knew," Doetsch notes.

Building Seminary Hill: From Fallow Land to Modern Innovation

To turn his vision into reality, Doetsch began collaborating closely with organic orchardist Michael Phillips to meticulously test, amend, and prepare the depleted soil for brand-new orchards. Over the course of several years, a dedicated community of family members, including local cousins, and close friends rolled up their sleeves each spring to plant rows of apple and pear trees by hand. At the same time, the family embarked on a massive construction and historic preservation effort. They began building a state-of-the-art cidery and simultaneously rehabilitated a nearby community hospital building—a structure of immense local significance where Doetsch’s mother had been born decades earlier, and where Doetsch himself had undergone a childhood tonsillectomy—converting the historic medical facility into a boutique, small-scale inn.

By 2021, those years of arduous labor culminated in the grand opening of Seminary Hill. Today, the enterprise boasts a thriving 12-acre organic orchard that cultivates an impressive 60 distinct varieties of heirloom and modern apples and pears. The architecture of the cidery itself tells a story of regional reclamation: it was constructed utilizing heavy timber salvaged directly from New York’s now-demolished Tappan Zee Bridge. Moreover, the facility achieved a remarkable architectural milestone, becoming the very first building of its kind to receive prestigious Passive House certification for its groundbreaking energy efficiency and minimal environmental footprint.

A Thriving Hub for Hospitality, Dining, and Award-Winning Ciders

Adjacent to the orchards and production facilities, Seminary Hill’s inn—fittingly named the Boarding House—features eight thoughtfully appointed guest apartments. The hospitality venture has achieved high industry acclaim, earning designation as a Michelin Key property since 2024, a distinction that serves as the hotel industry equivalent of a Michelin restaurant star. The property also houses a bustling farm-to-table restaurant and a versatile event space that has quickly become a premier regional destination, hosting weddings, milestone family reunions, and even the local high school prom.

"We’ve been pretty busy," says Doetsch, who acts as the chief executive officer of Seminary Hill. "On holiday weekends in the summer, we can have 900 to 1,000 guests visiting the cidery. It’s great to see it buzzing, full of people laughing and looking out over the view."

Doetsch proudly adds that the cidery property—which commands a sweeping vantage point overlooking both the lush organic orchard and the winding Delaware River—arguably boasts the most stunning panoramic view in the entire region.

"We’ve got a very steady clientele, which is comprised of tourists and weekenders and locals who come up for cider and a good meal," Doetsch says. Among the extensive beverage lineup, his personal favorite is Susan’s Semi-Dry, named affectionately in honor of his wife. He points out that Seminary Hill’s Delaware Dry stands out as another customer favorite, while the cidery’s 2024 Pommeau recently achieved high recognition, taking home the award for top fortified cider at the 2026 Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition.

Explaining the craft behind the bottles, Doetsch notes that the cider-making process shares a remarkably close kinship with traditional winemaking. The majority of their craft ciders are carefully blended concoctions utilizing multiple varieties of apples to achieve a complex flavor profile. Traditional perry is produced using one or more distinct varieties of pears, while other offerings creatively blend apples and pears together. While the vast majority of their production is sold directly at the on-site tasting room and through their online shop, their bottled cider can also be found distributed in specialty wine shops throughout the Delaware and Hudson valleys. Additionally, both draft and bottled varieties are served in select restaurants across those regional valleys as well as in New York City.

Looking Toward the Next Chapter

For Doetsch, Seminary Hill represents far more than a business venture; it is a profound mechanism for reclaiming his family heritage, practicing land stewardship, and establishing a sustainable agricultural enterprise that will anchor his life for years to come.

While he currently manages his demanding legal practice in Chicago by visiting the upstate New York property every couple of months, that routine is soon to change. As he prepares to step down from his partnership at Mayer Brown at the conclusion of the year, Doetsch intends to turn his periodic visits into a permanent presence, immersing himself fully in the land, the community, and the cidery that bridge his family’s past with his future.