May 4, 2013

             It's tourism season in wine country, with perfect weather to start it off, and a "summit" this week.  Albany politics continues on other fronts as well.

             Cheers!          

             Jim Trezise

             This Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo will host a "Tourism Summit" in Albany, similar to the previous summits for yogurt, then wine, beer, spirits and cider last fall.  The timing is perfect: May is here, the sun is shining, and people are eager to get out on the road.

              Coincidentally, this week the Governor announced that the Finger Lakes and Lake George have been rated among the world's top lakeside vacation destinations by Yahoo!  The "lakeside vacations that have it all" included world-famous destinations like Switzerland's Lake Geneva, Italy's Lake Como, and Ireland's Lakes of Killarney.

               The natural beauty of the 11 lakes, more than 100 wineries surrounding them, recreational opportunities, and friendly small towns were among the features that gave the Finger Lakes its rating. http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/lakeside-vacations-170410748.html.

               This is by no means the first time there has been major recognition of the Finger Lakes, which has been named among the world's top wine country destinations, with wineries like Heron Hill cited among the world's top 10 tasting rooms and villages like Hammondsport being named the coolest small town in America.

                Tourism is the lifeblood of the New York wine industry, which in turn is a major generator of tourism to many of New York's rural areas.  Of the 335 existing wineries (and counting every day), my guess is that about 300 would not exist without the direct sales opportunity that tourism provides.  And without the more than 5 million tourist visits attracted by the wineries each year, many Bed & Breakfasts, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and limo/bus companies would not be here.  It's what they taught us in biology as a symbiotic relationship.

                After the Tourism Summit, the Governor will again invite participants to the Executive Mansion for a reception which will include wines and foods from throughout the State, a nice touch to remind people about the important role of agri-tourism.  We have been happy to help round up the goods, and I look forward to participating in the Summit discussions.

               WINE TRAILS have been a major reason that wine country tourist visits have mushroomed from 340,000 in 1985 to over 5,000,000 today, and a big part of wine trails' success has been standardized highway signage (green grape cluster symbols) leading visitors to and through the trails.  It's classic economic development: small investment, huge return.

                Most wine trails are all set, but there are several (Niagara, Long Island, Adirondack Coast, Upper Hudson) which need either entirely new legislation to officially create the trail to allow signage, or to amend legislation in order to expand and improve it.

               For many years, the New York State Department of Transportation was difficult to deal with on this issue, but now is absolutely great.  The Governor supports the program, the Senate has passed legislation, but unfortunately the bill has stalled in an Assembly committee.  So, thanks to coordination by the great Julie Suarez of New York Farm Bureau, I and several wine trail representatives spent Tuesday in Albany trying to shake things loose.

                Timing is key: If the legislation isn't passed by the Assembly in the next two months (when the legislative session for this year ends), it will be another year lost for no reason. It's a lose-lose situation for the trails, wineries, tourists, local communities, and State of New York. 

                In many ways, Albany has become much more functional than Washington, but this is one clear and frustrating exception.

                "AT REST" legislative proposal is another example of how Albany could hurt our industry, despite all we contribute to the economy. 

                 Proposed by a couple huge wine and spirits wholesalers who contribute a ton of cash to political campaigns, it essentially requires that any wine sold in New York State be "at rest" (stocked) in a warehouse in New York State for at least 24 hours in order to be sold to retailers and restaurants.

                 Logical, right?  So it seems, unless you realize it would hurt New York wineries by hurting their (much smaller) distributors as well as wineries that sell at greenmarkets and have a warehouse across the river in New Jersey where the cost is so much less.

                 Fine wine distributors, liquor stores, wineries, and others all oppose this for various legitimate reasons, but none of those groups contribute nearly as much to politicians as the big guys.  So we'll see what wins the day: the merits, or the money.

                 Not surprisingly, the wholesalers proposing this are the same ones who sought to keep consumers from being able to buy wine directly from wineries.  They lost.

                MARKETVIEW LIQUOR, a great wine shop in the Rochester suburbs and a recipient of our "Retailer" award, is celebrating "May is Finger Lakes Wine Month" with a huge selection of New York wines--906 to be exact--along with free shipping with the purchase of six or more bottles of New York wines.  While we still have a long way to go in terms of getting New York wine stores and (especially) restaurants to feature New York wines, there has also been a huge amount of progress, with stores like Marketview really getting behind the wines--and we thank them.  http://www.marketviewliquor.com/catalog/new-york-wines.

 "Wine country is a magical place."