CONGRATULATIONS to Thirsty Owl Wine Company on Cayuga Lake for winning our Governor’s Cup with its 2006 Dry Riesling; and to Red Barn Winery near Syracuse for winning Winery of the Year accolades at the 2007 New York Wine & Food Classic in Napa, CA. After a day and a half of swirling, sniffing, sipping and spitting, 24 expert judges ultimately rated Thirsty Owl’s Dry Riesling as the best of 790 New York wines entered, with other “Best of Category” wines including Swedish Hill Spumante Blush, Barrington Cellars 2006 Buzzard’s Blush, Pindar Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Franc, and Mazza Chautauqua Cellars 2005 Ice Wine of Vidal Blanc. In the “Specialty Wine” category, which includes non-grape fruit wines, meads, and other products, Red Barn’s 2006 Raspberry Wine took top honors, with its “Pauley’s Port” (made from Concord) also taking a Best of Class award, its Blueberry wine a Gold, along with several other medals for both grape and fruit wines. Other top contenders for Winery of the Year, which is based on the number and levels of medals, included (in order) Swedish Hill, Fox Run, Thirsty Owl, and Chateau LaFayette Reneau. Due to the increasing numbers of “specialty” wines and wineries, starting next year a new category will be created to recognize quality in those products, but the Winery of the Year award will be based on grape wines (since they are still over 95% of our industry’s production and consumption). Not surprisingly, the top winners started getting calls as soon as the results were posted on our web site, with one large Buffalo retailer immediately ordering 15 cases of the Thirsty Owl Dry Riesling. Many thanks to Teresa Knapp for doing a great job organizing the competition, the entire back room staff, our 24 terrific judges, and Peter Marks of Copia for being such a great and generous host. Next year’s Classic will return to New York State, with the exact location to be determined. Congratulation to all the winners. Full results are available at http://www.newyorkwines.org under “What’s New”.
2007 GRAPE CROP looks big and good at this time, though the most crucial period occurs in the next two months during the harvest and crush. New York Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is estimating 180,000 tons of grapes this year, a 16% increase over 2006, with crop size about average in western New York (Chautauqua/Erie) and larger in the Finger Lakes and Long Island regions. With a few localized exceptions (mostly hail), the weather has been virtually ideal all year, and if that continues through harvest the quality should be excellent. Nationally, the grape crop is up 9% to nearly 7 million tons, with our friends in California accounting for 88% of that (6.18 million), Washington 6% (381,000—or more than double New York’s crop), New York 3%, and the other 47 states a total of 3%. Grapes are America’s highest value fruit crop, and the sixth highest overall, and that doesn’t even include the incredible value-added components. A national economic impact study conduced by Napa Valley-based MKF Research LLC shows that the American wine, grape, and grape products industries contribute $162 billion to the U.S. economy each year. That’s just one reason the upcoming Farm Bill should pay more attention to “specialty crops” than has been the case in the past. Fortunately, New York Representatives Kirsten Gillibrand and Randy Kuhl, who are on the Agriculture Committee, have done a great job making sure that happens in the House; now it’s up to the Senate.
NEW WINERIES just keep popping up all over the place, with more hoping to open soon. Freedom Run Winery in the Niagara Escarpment region held its Grand Opening on August 11, combining a wide array of Native American, French-American and European wines with art in the natural context of beautiful orchards. In the Finger Lakes, Keuka Lake Vineyards owned by Mel and Dorothy Goldman has opened above the southwest end of that gorgeous lake, just south of Heron Hill; and Wilhelmus Estate Winery, founded by Amsterdam native Boud Keunen and named in honor of his father who brought the family to this country 50 years ago, will be the first winery on the east side of Canandaigua Lake when it opens this Friday. Meanwhile, Herm and Wilma Young in Williamsville are ready to open Young Sommers Winery for this year’s harvest if, as hoped, the State Liquor Authority approves their license. New wineries in any region are a tremendous boon to the local economy by stimulating investment, farming, construction, equipment purchasing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, tourism, employment, and so much else. Wine is the ultimate value-added product, as shown on our “What’s in a Bottle of Wine?” mini-poster available at http://www.newyorkwines.org under Information Station/Hot Topics.
HERMANN J. WIEMER, a pioneer and quality leader in the New York wine industry renowned for world-class Rieslings, is transitioning to a less active role in his Seneca Lake winery but keeping it in very good hands: Fred Merwarth, the winemaker responsible for two “Governor’s Cup” awards with Dry Rieslings of different vintages. A German native whose family has been in winegrowing for over 300 years, Hermann began his career at Bully Hill Vineyards before creating his own vineyard, grapevine nursery and winery in 1979 on the west side of Seneca Lake. After working with French-American varieties at Bully Hill, Hermann’s own operation is exclusively European (Vinifera) grapes such as Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir. His reputation for quality is so widespread that he has sold vines to California and wine to Germany. While the winery, and day-to-day operations, will be transferred to his very talented and dedicated winemaker, Hermann will remain in a consulting role. We’re glad.
PALMER VINEYARDS on Long Island has always been one of New York’s best wine marketers, and a new “Vintage Moments” radio campaign continues that tradition. Palmer has become the first-ever official winery of both the New York Yankees and New York Mets Radio Networks in an attempt to convert largely beer-oriented sports fans to wine by sponsoring significant moments (“vintage moments”) in each team’s history. The commercials rotate different “tags” with contact information about the winery, credit to the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (thank you), and an invitation to try Palmer’s private label wine produced for Gallagher’s Steak House in Manhattan, a long-time gathering place for sports industry legends. The Yankees games draw about 2 million listeners, and the Mets about 1.5 million. Not surprisingly, the campaign was conceived and the ads written by Bob Palmer, owner of the R.J. Palmer media servies agency in Manhattan. Palmer Vineyards is also the official winery of the New York Islanders hockey team, and the only wine sold at their games in the Nassau Coliseum. For more information, http://www.palmervineyards.com.
“I believe that the mind set that only beer goes with sporting events is wrong, and that wine and sports are natural companions.”
* Robert Palmer
A Votre Santé To Your Health
Jim Trezise
JimTrezise@nywgf.org, email
http://www.newyorkwines.org/, web
http://www.healthyconcordgrapes.com/, we