New York Wine News & Notes (February 8, 2010)

By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief

It's been a while since we've compiled a "News & Notes" post, but as the busy season approaches in New York's wine regions, we'll probably be doing them more and more.

Jazz Returns to the Vines on Long Island
The extremely popular Long Island Winterfest Jazz On
The Vine is coming back this week and this year it's even bigger and runs
longer than last year's successful program. This, the 3rd annual Long Island Winterfest, runs
from February 13 to March 21 across the East End and features
renowned jazz musicians performing free-admission concerts at winery
tasting rooms and other venues every weekend afternoon over those six
weeks.
Wine country can be quiet and dreary this time of year — both
for visitors and for the wineries themselves — so this is a great
reason to visit. Enjoy some music. Taste some great local wines. And
get in from out of the cold winter weather.

For a full concert schedule and access to all festival promotions, visit www.liwinterfest.com.

Long Island Region to Protect Wine Place-Names
Last week, the Long Island wine region has joined the Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place & Origins, a now 15-region group whose goal is to promote labeling that reflects the importance of wine place names and origins. Other signatories of the Declaration include: Champagne, Chianti Classico, Jerez, Napa Valley, Oregon, Paso Robles, Rioja, Porto, Sonoma County, Victoria, Tokaj, Walla Walla Valley, Washington state, and Western Australia.

Just being invited to join the group speaks highly of Long Island's place in the greater wine world, but according to the press release, members believe that "geographic names are fundamental tools for consumers to identify the special wines associated with specific winegrowing regions." Does that mean that the names like "Port" and "Champagne" that adorn some Long Island wine labels will come off? Let's hope so.

Peconic Bay Winery to Fight Breast Cancer with New Rose
Peconic Bay Winery, in collaboration with the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. (NBCF), is contributing to the fight against breast cancer. On March 1, 2009, Peconic Bay will release a special bottling of its second label “Nautique Esprit de Rosé” decorated with a hand-tied pink ribbon, and packed into pink boxes of twelve bottles each. A portion of the proceeds, about a dollar a bottle, will be donated to NBCF.
The rose is still being finished, but is made up of mostly estate-grown cabernet sauvignon from with some North Fork cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. I also hear that winemaker Greg Gove will probably add a bit of estate chardonnay and riesling to round it out.

Bedell Hires New Vice President of Marketing
Bedell Cellars has hired Molly Deegan as its new Vice President of Marketing and Private Client Relations.

Before joining the Bedell team, Deegan served as the executive events marketing director for AOL since 2003 and has also worked in client relations and media events for House & Garden Magazine, O (the Oprah Magazine), and Robert Mondavi Winery.

At Bedell, her primary role will be to manage the wine club.