Long Island wine country lost one of its pioneers last week when Ray Blum, passed away after a long bout with illness. My thoughts go out to Ray’s family and many friends.

Ray was involved in the local wine industry almost from the beginning. He founded Peconic Bay Vineyards (now Peconic Bay Winery), planted several vineyards on North Fork — including some that are now a part of Bedell Cellars and Paumanok Vineyards — and most recently owned and ran Ackerly Pond Vineyards, which bottled its own wines and provided fruit for other wineries.

In such a small, localized wine industry, everybody knows everybody else and I know Ray will be missed. The day after Ray passed, Charles Massoud of Paumanok Vineyards said “He was a tireless worker and it is difficult to think of the North Fork wine scene without thinking of his immense contribution to our industry.” It’s hard to say it any better.

Stony Brook University’s Center for Food Wine, and Culture recently introduced an interesting new winter wine education program.

It’s called Inside Wine: From Vineyard to Glass and takes place on Thursday evenings from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. on January 25 and February 1, 8 and 15. The cost is $185 per person for all four sessions.

The four-part series features local winemakers and chefs, including Ursula Massoud of Paumanok Vineyards, Gary Madden of Lieb Family Cellars, Eric Fry of The Lenz Winery, and Americo Mintegui of The Seafood Barge, are the instructors and will examine viticultural practices, terroir, Old World vs. New World winemaking, blending and food pairing through a series of guided tastings and discussions.

Read below for more details on the individual sessions.

Long Island Wine Appreciation Month is going on at Asta Wine Café and Art Gallery. Asta is a cafe in Huntington Village with a Long Island-focused — a rarity west of the East End. Rumor has it that Asta is considering scrapping the LI-only concept and moving to an international list because their customers just aren’t getting into it. Maybe they are wine snobs who are ignorant to the joys of local wine?

Looking at their wine list, they don’t have the best selection of top-flight local wines, but it’s still great to see so many Long Island wines on a list. The bests include Paumanok Vineyards 2005 Sauvignon Blanc, Peconic Bay Winery 2005 Riesling, Schneider Vineyards 2004 Cab Franc and Comtesse Therese 2003 Hungarian Oak Merlot. Visit www.asta1.com for more information.

With the help and generosity of many in the Long Island wine industry, A Menu for Hope, raised over $60,000 for the United Nations World Food Program. I’d like to personally thank those that donated, including Bedell Cellars, Castello di Borghese, Channing Daughters Winery, Harvest Inn B&B, Macari Vineyards, Martha Clara Vineyards, Paumanok Vineyards, Peconic Bay Winery, Raphael, Red Barn B&B, Roanoke Vineyards, Shinn Estate Vineyards, the Southampton Cultural Center, Vintage Tours, Waters Crest Winery, and Wolffer Estate Vineyards.

Lenn Thompson is a contributing writer for Dan’s Papers. Email him at lenn@lenndevours.com with questions or comments.