By APRIL DIODATO
OBSERVER Staff Writer
The sweltering heat did not deter festival goers from New York state and beyond from partaking in the second annual America's Grape Country Wine Festival, held at the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday.
Heard of Buffalo played Alanis Morrisette's "Hand in My Pocket" on the Arthur R. Maytum Family Theater stage as patrons sampled wine and mingled, many using pamphlets as makeshift fans to keep cool.
"I think is the first lull we've had all day," said Carol Marx of Willow Creek Winery, Sheridan.
Marx had been busy with customers for several hours. It is Willow Creek's second year participating in the festival and Marx said that business, so far, seemed to match that of the inaugural event. "We're serving a lot of our Chocolate Temptations."
Merritt Estate Winery is the sole promoter for the AGC Wine Festival and is a sponsor of it as well. In 2008, Bill Merritt began the festival in order to put Chautauqua County's grape-growing industry on the map. The inaugural festival had just under 2,000 in attendance.
"We're expecting that number to spike drastically this year as pre-sale tickets are up from last year and we have done more creative advertising than we did in 2008," said Edwin Rodriguez Jr., Merritt Estate Winery's director of marketing and promotions. "Our usage of social media tools such as Facebook helps us let people know about Merritt Estate Winery and AGC Wine Festival news and special discounts. That has been very well received by our fans and I would recommend to new festival attendees that they join our group and add the winery as a friend to participate in those specials."
This year, the festival is bigger in every respect - more wineries, more crafters and more food vendors are participating. Every booth is filled and Floral Hall is packed wall-to-wall.
"Last year we had a few vendors decide to cancel at the last minute, so we had a few empty booths and it wasn't very eye-pleasing," Rodriguez said.
"All of our numbers are up across the board, so we're excited for the returning festival patrons and new festival patrons to experience the best of the best in the NYS wine industry," Rodriguez said. "Chautauqua County is the largest grape growing region east of the Rocky Mountains and is the largest Concord grape growing region in the world. It is only fitting for a wine festival of this magnitude to be held in an area with such a rich, grape-growing history."
The festival was not limited to wine, crackers and cheese. Educational seminars are being given on New York state wines and Riesling, presented by Ron Reals of Opici Wine Group at 1 and 3 p.m. each day. Food vendors are providing Spanish food, pizza, kettle corn, ice cream and hot dogs and hamburgers. There is a wide assortment of vendors, with handbags from Tower Gifts, several jewelry stands, Burning Ashphalt sauces, glass art, Edleez Tobacco and Dunkin Donuts providing coffee to the weary. Local farmers are also an integral part of the festival. The state requires agricultural vendors in order for the festival to be a designated farmer's market, which allows wine to be sold by the bottle.
"I can definitely see growth. I would actually attribute that to the marketing and to the success of the event last year," said Jon D. Yerico of Yerico Farms, a produce farm in Sheridan that has been family-run for four generations. "The different things that they've incorporated with this area's agriculture makes a big difference. There are a lot of people here! It's been a success thus far... We will do this every year that they have it."
An advocate of buying local, Yerico hopes that events featuring the region's best will help to bolster the community-oriented spirit that is quickly becoming forgotten, as many customers simply seek to buy what's cheapest.
"If you keep it in your community and keep your community strong, everybody wins," Yerico said. "Some of the best grape growing area in the world is here... It's not really well-marketed, well-known. Events like this remind people how valuable the agriculture is in this area. I've seen people here from Ohio, Pittsburgh, Canada, other parts of Buffalo, all here today - it's an outreach."
One of the farthest-flung wineries, Pazdar Winery of Scotchtown, in New York's Hudson Valley, traveled eight hours to the festival. Co-owner David Pazdar said that some of the people they met at the Finger Lakes Wine Festival also came to the America's Grape Country Wine Festival. It was their first year at the festival in Dunkirk and reported decent business so far, but agreed with other wineries who had seen more sampling than purchases.
"What happens at a lot of these festivals that we find is that people will taste and then they'll come back after the tastings and will say, 'I want a bottle of this, I want a bottle of that,'" Pazdar said.
Katie Pawliske of Buffalo and Matt Kuroski of Hamburg both tasted and took home wine.
"We tried a bunch of them -" Pawliske began.
"We've been to almost every one here," Kuroski said.
"Liberty (Vineyards) was my favorite," Pawliske continued. "That's where we bought wine from."
Pawliske and Kuroski were enjoying the festival despite the ever-rising temperature, nodding vigorously in agreement over the oppressive warmth. Many festival attendees lingered near the giant fans at the entrance to Floral Hall in order to beat the heat.
"Last year, it rained both days, so that had a big effect... But this year, it's been raining so bad, with the monsoon that hit Silver Creek and the northern part of the county, we've had so many people out, with it finally being a nice weekend," a hectic Rodriguez said.
On Saturday afternoon, festival planners were unable to determine how many were in attendance on Saturday, but hundreds of pre-sale tickets were sold and ticket sellers at the door were also kept busy.
One very active booth was the Breathalyzer Check, sponsored by Evans Bank and Insurance Agency. The booth was helpfully situated on the walk back to the parking lot. Groups got together to compare blood alcohol content levels at the end of the day, which generally were below the legal limit of 0.08. A few ladies looked on as their friend blew a 0.018.
"Girl, you are low!" laughed one of her companions.
"Come on!" Bill Merritt, breathalyzer administor, said.
Merritt had been manning the breathalyzer for about 30 minutes and the highest number he'd seen was 0.068. He explained that the test, which is also a feature at the Finger Lakes Wine Festival, was strictly for educational purposes.
"Most of these people have never and probably never, ever will have this done for a DWI. We just want people to be aware," he said as he administered another test. As for the festival, Merritt seemed pleased.
"It's going great. And of course, there's nothing like having a nice day."
America's Grape Country Wine Festival continues on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is part of America's Grape Country Week, Aug. 15 to 23. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.americasgrapecountry.com. For more information on the festival, visit www.agcwinefestival.com.
