In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, it just seems right to start out this week’s Press Deck with a note of heartfelt gratitude to you all.
From everyone here at the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, we want to thank you for creating a wonderful community that shares, collaborates and supports each other. It’s truly an honor serving the people that grow the grapes, make the wine, run the businesses and, certainly, those that love to enjoy New York wine! You all have three things in common: passion, integrity and commitment. We share in your dedication to those principles.
You already know that growing grapes and making wine comes with considerable risk in New York State. We are committed to making that journey a little easier by providing valuable
resources, savings, and programs to our winery and grower members.
We are also looking to connect our Business Associate and Consumer Members
with our winery and grower members –
and with more benefits in 2019. We will be unveiling new events, discounts, VIP Winemaker Dinners, In-Store Tasting Events, Regional Round table meetings and more.
When we kicked off this year with a
strategic planning process, we heard you. Our members wanted the New York Wine & Grape Foundation to provide them with leadership, access to markets, brand visibility, and value.
This year we’ve taken the lead on educating our members on various Legal, Excise Tax and HR issues. Most recently, we’ve partnered with a law firm to provide education and guidance to those being affected by the sweeping
ADA website compliance lawsuits being filed against wineries as well.
We’ve created and attended events in cities like New York, Shanghai, Paris and London to shine a spotlight on New York wines. Both our ‘keystone’ producers, who have a rich history in the state, as well as ‘up and coming’ new faces of New York, have helped us to put our best foot forward. We’re proud to see more wineries participating in our
NY Drinks NY and our
Export Programs and we’re psyched to see so many wine writers, bloggers and podcasts featuring New York wines. (Check out our
Facebook page to stay up to date!)
We’re proud to have instituted discounts and larger fee subsidies for our members this year on the
NY Drinks NY program, the
New York Wine Classic, the wine competitions program and wine lab services – literally saving thousands of dollars for participating members.We can’t wait to see what next year brings. One thing we know is that we won’t stop working for you.
As our longtime friend and member put it:
“With the New York Wine & Grape Foundation I see an ally that reflects our industry in all the best ways. And by that I don't only mean representing us locally. Rather, I mean that the Foundation shares the same passion, hard work, and energy in
their
work that all of us put into pushing our own wines forward."
Kelby James Russell, Winemaker, Red Newt Cellars.
We thank Kelby for the note of confidence – and we look forward to delivering on that and to keep pushing ourselves forward!
If you’re not a member, or if you’re ready to renew, please
click here.
If you have any questions at all, I would love to speak with you! Please feel free to contact
me via email or give me a call at 518-229-3765.
Cheers!