News from New York Wine & Grape Foundation

August 15, 2015

Classic Winners, "New York Wine Country" bookazine, Cornell kudos, East End Harvest, Wine Symposium of the Finger Lakes, and more from New York wine country.

Cheers!

Jim Trezise

Big Winners at 2015 Classic: Ventosa and Paumanok

Ventosa Vineyards 2011 Lemberger, Estate Grown won the Governor's Cup, and Paumanok Vineyards won the Winery of the Year award, at our 2015 New York Wine & Food Classic, held this week at the fabulous Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel.

It's the third year in a row in which a Finger Lakes wine took the top prize (out of 858 entered), and a Long Island winery won best overall showing, conveniently allowing the top awards to be presented at two regional events just 10 days apart.

This year's Classic included record numbers of wines (858), craft spirits (32), and craft ciders (20) evaluated by 21 experts from around the country and Europe. They awarded a total of 68 Double Gold, 80 Gold, 351 Silver, and 274 Bronze medals. We also invited 5 non-voting "guest judges" from the New York Wine & Culinary Center, which features only New York wines, to sit in on the panels and taste the broadest array of New York wines anywhere.

Other finalists for the Governor's Cup included Swedish Hill Pinot Noir Brut Rose (Best Sparkling Wine), Paumanok 2013 Semi-Dry Riesling (Best White Wine), Lime Berry Winery Bunny Bunny Blush (Best Rose/Blush), and Sheldrake Point 2014 Riesling Ice Wine (Best Dessert Wine). Martha Clara Vineyards of Long Island was a close second for Winery of the Year honors.

Top awards in other categories included Best Limited Production Wine (Young Sommer Winery Dry Riesling, Bernard Vineyard); Specialty Wine Champion (Baldwin Vineyards), Best Spirit (Black Button Distilling Citrus Forward Gin), and Best Cider (Kaneb Orchards St. Lawrence Cider--for the second year in a row! The owners even drove 7 hours to accept the award in person from Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul).

The complete list of award winners, judges, and additional information is available through the home page of our web site (www.newyorkwines.org). We congratulate the winners of all medals, and remind everyone that this is a fabulous New York wine shopping list in the Awards & Accolades section of our web site..

There were some other highlights worth mentioning. First, the always incredible Welcome Dinner on Monday night, with Baltimore Chef Jerry Pellegrino (one of our judges), Sous-chef Coke Roth of Washington who brings (and grills) a ton of Northwest salmon, and Dr. Bob Small of LA (Dr. Bob's Ice Cream) putting on an incredible spread at Lakewood Vineyards. Other than the salmon and ice cream, every ingredient was fresh, local, and fabulous.

Which reminds me: Teresa Knapp of our office, whose family (the Stamps) owns Lakewood, is "The Boss" of the Classic and does an incredible job coordinating our staff and a great group of volunteers who make it all possible.

And let's not forget an awesome group of judges from all over the place (also listed on our web site). Several commented that somehow the wines (and now spirits and ciders) just keep getting better every year. One prominent California judge even said that he had never rated so many wines as "Gold" in the many competitions he judges on the left coast. In other words, New York is on a roll!

The event didn't go unnoticed by the press, and in fact got coverage in USA Today due to a great piece by Bob Jamieson of the Gannett-owned Elmira Star-Gazette. I've also had lots of other press inquiries, and coincidentally all of this happened right before the annual Wine Bloggers Conference, which this year is taking place in the Finger Lakes.

Finally, we were honored to have Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul with us at the New York Wine & Culinary Center to present the top awards of the competition. This was part of the Taste NY Culinary Tour and Governor's Cup Awards, and it was a fitting end to a great couple of days. Many thanks to all involved for making it such a huge success.

Insider's Guide to "New York Wine Country"

The front cover features a beautiful scene from a winery over a vineyard at sunset. The back cover has a collection of photos showing New York agricultural products under the Taste NY logo. The 140 pages in between contain articles and advertisements showcasing "New York Wine Country".

It's a supplement to Wine Enthusiast magazine, a coffee-table "bookazine" which we sponsored thanks to a grant from Governor Andrew Cuomo's Craft Beverage Marketing and Promotion Grants, announced at the "Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Cider Summit" last October. With a combination of winery advertising to raise private sector funds, and the State matching funds, we were able to co-create a publication which we believe reflects the progress, present, and promise of the New York wine industry from Long Island to Lake Erie and everywhere in between.

The bookazine was distributed with Wine Enthusiast's September edition and through the many wineries which advertised in it, reaching about 300,000 consumers throughout the State, country, and world. It will soon be joined by a "New York Wine Country" electronic version (interactive inforgraphic) which will allow people to search for wineries, hotels, restaurants, and attractions from their desktop or even on smartphones when they're traveling to or through wine country.

Like everything else we do in our promotion program, the purpose of these projects is to expand the awareness, trial, and sales of New York wines--in other words, expand the market.

Free Run...

Cornell, both in terms of research and extension, has been such a vital part of our industry's dramatic success, and we are so fortunate to have them as our partners.

Dr. Tom Burr, the former Director of the Geneva Experiment Station and still very involved in research, serves on our Board of Directors and recently updated us on significant accomplishments from the Viticulture & Enology Program. These are far too numerous to enumerate, but include many different honors for students and faculty (such as Wayne Wilcox receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award from ASEV).

Perhaps most telling, large wineries in California come looking especially for Cornell graduates because of high quality of education and training they get. In addition, one of those wineries sends a lot of money to the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (that's us) so we can get it matched and have the research done by one of the world's top scientists--at Cornell, of course. It's great to have California money coming to New York.

New York's quality revolution didn't happen by chance. It's the result of hundreds of people working together, including our wonderful colleagues at Cornell.

East End Harvest on Long Island has been a highlight of summer for the past several years, and this year will be no exception. Once again the venue will be McCall Vineyard and Ranch in Cutchogue, with more than 40 local wineries offering their finest, including barrel samples, along with fabulous foods.

In addition, Geoffrey Zakarian, cohost of the Food Network's "The Kitchen" and judge on "Chopped", will serve as the event's first ever celebrity chef. And another chef will be honored for commitment to regional foods. Proceeds go to several good causes: the Long Island Wine Council, HRHCares, Peconic Land Trust, and Long Island Farm Bureau. General admission is $125, VIP tickets $175, available through www.liwines.com.

It's a great event: Don't miss it!

2015 Wine Symposium of the Finger Lakes on August 21-22 is another not-to-be-missed event in downtown Geneva on the north end of Seneca Lake, starting with a Grand Tasting on Friday evening that will feature the top wines from the recent Finger Lakes AVA Riesling Challenge.

Saturday features a series of seminars at the historic Smith Opera House and other downtown venues, with speakers from New York City, Chicago, and Washington, DC discussing what makes the Finger Lakes special, along with special sessions on sparkling wines, Rose, and Chardonnay. And it's all capped off with a "Red White and Blues" street fete featuring the Steve Grills Band along with bubblies and Cabernet Franc.

More information and tickets are available at www.winesymposiumfingerlakes.com.

The Daily Meal blog recently named its "101 Best Wineries in America", which from New York included Boundary Breaks, Channing Daughters, Dr. Frank, Hermann J. Wiemer, Keuka Lake Vineyard, Red Newt, and Shinn Estate.

The word is getting out.

Words on Wine...
"Having wine every night is such a civilized thing." --Julia Child