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86 WINES&VINES May 2015 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS WINE EAST S yracuse, N.Y.—In spite of snow squalls and frigid temperatures, the Eastern Winery Exposition registered more than 1,000 attendees from 16 states, two Canadian prov- inces, Italy and Germany. More than 200 companies packed the exhibit hall at the Oncenter, as EWE convened March 17-19. At the Industry Celebration Dinner held March 18, the East- ern Winery Exposition presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Fiore, his wife Rose and their grandson Anthony of the Fiore Winery in Pylesville, Md. The honor recognized the family's longevity in the eastern wine in- dustry and their efforts to expand through combining winemaking operations with distilling. Mike Fiore arrived in the United States in May 1962, after selling his family's winery in Italy. The Fiores moved to Maryland in the 1970s and bought a 14.5-acre farm near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. Fiore soon planted an experimental vineyard of 600 Cabernet Sauvi- gnon vines, and in 1986 he and Rose opened Fiore Winery. The winery gradually grew from 1,500 to 35,000 gallons, and from a production of two wines— a red and a white—to 20 wines and two distilled products: a grappa and a limoncello. Fiore led the lobbying effort for legislation that allowed distilling at wineries. The distillery legisla- tion passed in 2005, but the law limited production to 200 gallons of distilled spirits per winery. (In 2010, the Maryland Winery Mod- ernization Act raised that amount to 1,900 gallons.) In 2008, when Fiore finally received his distilling license, he produced his first batch of grappa, becoming Maryland's first winery/distillery. The Industry Celebration Din- ner was followed by the ASEV- Eastern Section's live auction, which raised more than $10,000 in scholarship funds for enology and viticulture students east of the Rocky Mountains. A silent auction added another $3,500 to the total. The Eastern Winery Exposition will be returning to the conven- tion center in downtown Lan- caster, Pa., on March 9-11, 2016. —Linda Jones McKee Wine East Covering Eastern North America Eastern Winery Exposition Honors Maryland Family Subscribe to Wines & Vines winesandvines.com/subscribe The founders of Fiore Winery in Pylesville, Md., Mike and Rose Fiore, shown with grandson Anthony Fiore, led efforts to legalize distilling by wineries. EASTERN WINE LABS Serving the Analytical needs of East Coast Wineries WWW.EASTERNWINELABS.COM Ph 609-859-4302 Cell 609-668-2854 chemist@easternwinelabs.com AOAC Member EasternWineLab_Mar09.qxp 1/22/09 9:47 AM Page 1