Rochester, N.Y. – Wineries in New York are drawing nearly three times as many visitors as a decade ago, making the wine industry the fastest- growing sector in agriculture and tourism – two of the state’s biggest economic engines.
Of the 212 wineries that have sprouted from Long Island across to Lake Erie – there were only 19 in 1975 – each had an average of 54 percent more visitors in 2003 than it did three years earlier, according to the latest survey by the New York Agricultural Statistics Service.
The typical winery more than doubled its tasting-room sales, with each visitor spending 49 percent more on average than in 2000, the agency said.
The throng of tourists will likely swell to more than 3 million this year, up from an estimated 2.5 million in recent years, New York Wine & Grape Foundation president Jim Trezise said.
“We have had an equal number of winery start-ups in the first five years of this decade as we had in the whole decade previously, so we’ve doubled the growth rate,” Trezise said. It’s been especially energetic in the Finger Lakes – 10,000 acres of vineyards encircling four of the 11 fjordlike lakes in west-central New York.
One of America’s oldest grape-growing regions now has 92 wineries, a sixfold increase in 30 years. The tourist influx is spawning dozens of bed-and-breakfasts and upscale restaurants and a burgeoning array of antique and gift stores, farm and craft markets and festivals.
A report by MFK Research issued Sept. 19 estimated that the wine-and-grape industry in New York contributed $3.3 billion – directly and indirectly – to New York’s economy in 2004.
A long-awaited state law allowing the direct shipment of wines into and out of New York went into effect Aug. 11. Many New York vintners think the potential for sales growth nationally exceeds the risk that the local market may turn more toward wines from other states.
New York churns out about 200 million bottles of wine each year, generating more than $1 billion in sales, and is the nation’s third-largest wine producer behind California and Washington. The state industry employs an estimated 18,000 people.
The survey recorded an estimated 4.14 million “person visits” to New York wineries in 2003, up from 1.44 million in 1993 and 384,000 in 1985. The actual number of tourists is less since most of those people visited more than one winery, Trezise said.
The details
NEW YORK WINERIES
New York is home to more than 200 wineries.
For lists of wineries around the state, go to iloveny.com and click on “Breweries/Wineries” under “Attractions,” or call 800-225-5697. For a clickable map of wineries by region, go to newyorkwines.org or call the New York Wine and Grape Foundation at 315-536-7442. The newyorkwines.org website also lists award-winning New York wines under “NY Gold.”
WINERIES BY REGION
Finger Lakes, fingerlakes.org/wine.htm, 800-548-4386.
Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail, chautauquawinetrail.org, 1-888-965-4800.
Hudson River Valley Winery Map, TravelHudsonValley.org, 800-232-4782.
Long Island wineries, licvb.com (search for “wineries”), 877-386-6654.
Thousand Islands Wine Trail, comefarmwithus.com/wine.htm, 866-556-0721.
