Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 - Over The Barrel... with Lenn Thompson

Long Island Winterfest winds down this weekend after a month of events that have been, according to Bob Palmer of Palmer Vineyards, "An unqualified success."

Winterfest, a three-year old annual event meant to attract people to North Fork wine country in the off season, has struck a chord because of this year's theme of "Jazz on the Vine." 2008's festival has had a huge positive influence on the region. According to Palmer, "Not only did it bring increased business to the winery but it brought out people who had not been out here before and will, I hope, return again."

Winter weekends can be slow at North Fork tasting rooms, but the jazz has been a great draw. Hal Ginsburg from Clovis Point Wines has hosted two concerts. "The music was great and the crowds were great so it was definitely a success," he said. "And we did significantly more business than on a typical weekend in the winter."

There are ten more concerts this weekend. (For a complete list, visit liwinterfest.com/liwinterfest/calendar.html)

Spring is a season of rebirth, a time to start over, and two local wineries will be starting spring with new winemakers. John Levenberg, who joined Bedell Cellars a couple years ago after stints at some top California producers, has left Bedell. Bedell has not commented on the matter much beyond confirming the move. They will, however, continue with assistant winemaker Kelly Urbanik, founding winemaker Kip Bedell and Pascal Marty, Consulting Oenologist making the wines.

Earlier this week the Long Island Merlot Alliance (LIMA) announced the appointment of Len Dest as Executive Director. Dest has been tasked with expanding research, marketing and promotion-all to establish and enhance Long Island's reputation as America's premier region for merlot. Dest joins LIMA from Duckwood Advisors, LLC a professional management and marketing consulting company based in the Greater NY area.

LIMA has been relatively quiet since its formation in late 2005, but that's not because the organization hasn't been doing lots of work behind the scenes. Last summer, they sponsored an intern, Christopher Grassotti, a student in the Masters degree program in viticulture and enology at Ecole Nationale Supérieur Agronomique in Montpellier, France. Grassotti worked with LIMA members and Alice Wise at Cornell University with the hopes of defining the dominant and strongly identifiable aroma profiles of Long Island merlot and identifying the differences found in other quality wine regions.

The group's first co-produced wine, the 2004 Merliance, has sold out of most outlets, but LIMA expects to release the 2005 vintage this spring. Visit www.longislandmerlot.com for more information about the group and its goals.