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86 WINES&VINES December 2015 MARKETING WINE EAST New York Wine's 'Overnight' Success New York Wine & Grape Foundation celebrates 30 years of progress By Linda Jones McKee T he wine industry in New York state is recognized today as a major player in the w o r l d o f w i n e . While the Finger Lakes American Viticultural Area (AVA) often gets much of the at- tention, especially for its Riesling wines, there are four other AVAs in New York: the Hudson River region, Long Island, the Niagara Escarpment and the Lake Erie re- gion. Also known as the Chautau- qua region, the Lake Erie AVA is the largest grapegrowing region east of the Rockies with more than 18,500 acres of vineyard. There are now more than 400 wineries, and the grape and wine indus- try—with its value-added multi- plier effect—generates some $5 billion annually in economic ben- efits for New York state, including 25,000 full-time equivalent jobs, $1.14 billion in wages, $553 mil- lion in winery sales, $52 million in grape sales and $71.6 million in grape juice sales. A major factor in the growth of the New York wine industry has been the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, a private, non- profit trade association that was created by legislation signed into law by then-Gov. Mario M. Cuomo in 1985. This year, consequently, is the foundation's 30th anniver- sary. Funded by a combination of New York state funds and private- sector partners and contributors, the overall goal of the foundation, according to Jim Trezise, the group's president since its incep- tion, has been "to have the New York grape and wine industry rec- ognized as a world leader in qual- i t y, p r o d u c t i v i t y a n d s o c i a l responsibility." And the result of 30 years of hard work on the part of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation and many grapegrow- ers, winery owners, winemakers and researchers is the creation of a state-wide wine industry poised to achieve even greater success in the future. As Phyllis Feder, owner of Clin- ton Vineyards in Clinton Corners, N.Y., and former chair of the board of directors of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, ex- plained, "The New York wine in- dustry went through some dark days, but now has emerged into the bright sunlight. The impetus for the growth of the industry is due to the foundation; they've been an effective presence in (the state capitol of) Albany, and made us visible as an industry. The ef- fectiveness of the foundation is reflected in the overall interest in, and excitement about, the state's wineries. The industry has grown tremendously, in part because of the hard work of the foundation." In contrast with today, the fu- ture did not look at all bright for the grape and wine industry in New York in the spring of 1985, when the bill establishing the New York Wine and Grape Foun- dation was passed. The previous December, one of New York's larg- est wineries, the Taylor Wine Co., then owned by Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, announced that it was canceling all grape contracts for both Taylor and Gold Seal Vine- yards (also owned by Seagram's), and that grapes would be pur- chased on the open market the following year. Prices for all grape varieties in New York fell to $105 per ton. These events came at the end of a decade of winery closings, vineyard abandonments, declin- ing tourism and major corporate transitions among the large winer- ies in the state. In addition, cheap subsidized wines from abroad, a surge in imported wines, changing consumer tastes in wine and the reluctance of many New York grapegrowers and wineries to change what grapes they grew or wines they made also contributed to the negative climate. The challenges facing the grape and wine industry, however, had not gone unnoticed in the early 1980s. In the May 26, 2015, edition of The Wine Press, the foundation's weekly newsletter, Trezise stated, "Gov. Mario Cuomo had read a front-page article in The New York Times (in October of 1983) about our industry going down the tubes. He called then- commissioner of agriculture and markets Joe Gerace and said he wanted a solution on his desk by noon on Monday. Commissioner Gerace called me and said he needed a solution in Chautauqua by noon on Sunday." Gov. Cuomo wanted to come up with legisla- tive assistance for the struggling wine and grape industry, and that plan would ultimately lead to the creation of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. At that time of Gerace's request, Trezise was president of the New York Wine Council, a small organi- zation of grapegrowers and winery owners with a tiny office in Penn Yan, N.Y. In less than 48 hours, he wrote a white paper for an inte- grated solution that included: 1. New York wine in grocery stores (as well as liquor stores) as a way to immedi- ately expand the demand for grapes; Lake Erie AVA LAKE ERIE WINE COUNTRY