By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief

All those empty wine bottles at your house? They could mean free and discounted wine.

If you're like me — and I know many of you are — you've got a lot of empty wine bottles to deal with, many of them local. At my house, we're diligent about recycling (and I hope you are too) but Jamesport Vineyards has launched a program that might change where we do your recycling.

Bring your empty Long Island wine bottles to Jamesport and depending on how many you lug with you, you can get free tastings and discounts on purchases.

It breaks down like this:

• 4 bottles = a free tasting
• 8 bottles = a free tasting and 5% off your purchase
• 12 bottles = a free glass of wine and 10% off
• 24 bottles = a free flight of wine and 15% off
• 36 or more bottles = a free flight of wine and 20% off

Discounts are per person, but if all of the empty bottles are from Jamesport, the deal is good for two people.

According to retail manager Jake Perdie the motivation for the program is "First and foremost is for Jamesport Vineyards to
continue its sustainability practices. We are interested in being as 'green' as possible while running our business."

Does this make Jamesport more "green"? Probably not much. In essences this moves my recycling from my house to the winery, but this is a good program and one that I think other wineries could adopt — especially if it brings more people to the winery and gets more people drinking local wines.

All they are doing is collecting the bottles in a bin and taking them to the recycling center once a week, so it's not a huge investment or commitment.

Because the project is so new the have "only had a few locals making deposits" according to Perdie, but he expect that the
word will spread.