New NYC Brewers Guild taking over festival

NEW YORK -- The New York Craft Beer Week will have something different when the fifth annual event kicks off next month.

Founder Josh Schaffner has passed the baton to the newly-formed New York City Brewers Guild (NYCBG) which will announce the festival's schedule on May 22 when it holds a debut event at the Brooklyn Brewery in the Williamsburg section.

Tickets for the May 22 event are $75, which covers a souvenir tasting glass and unlimited samples of each brewery’s offerings. Food will be provided by Guild members Eataly Birreria and 508 GastroBrewery. An additional $50 will result in a discounted year-long Individual Guild Membership to the NYCBG. Regular membership after the festival will be $75. You can get tickets online.

Other members of the NYCBG are the Bronx Brewery, Chelsea Brewing Co., Harlem Brewing Co., Heartland Brewing Co., KelSo Beer Co., Shmaltz Brewing Co. and the Sixpoint Brewery.

Finger Lakes tourism free app available

The face of the new app.

New things keep popping up in Finger Lakes wine country -- restaurants, B&Bs, grape products, even wineries themselves.

Now, a new bit of technology will help would-be visitors get more out of the region.

A new Finger Lakes Wine Country app is an interactive, location-aware travel guide, with hundreds of listings for accommodations, restaurants, wineries, and things to do.

The app is from the Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association It allows the public to read, write and share reviews for hundreds of hotels, restaurants, wineries, and events. They also can call accommodation providers, wineries, and restaurants with a single iPhone tap.

There are more aspects to the app as well. Read about them, and download the freebie, online.

'Tour de Tanks' revs up this weekend

Five restaurants will be part of this weekend's "Tour de Tanks" event on the Lake Ontario Wine Trail.

The event, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, will include tasting flights, winemakers' tours and food samplings. "Passports" are $15 each or two for $25, which provides access to all five wineries.

Each participating winery will have a different approach to previewing its new wines. The participants:

• Casa Larga Vineyards, 2287 Turk Hill Road, Fairport 
•  JD Wine Cellars at Long Acre Farm, 1342 Eddy Road, Macedon 
• Young Sommer Winery, 4287 Jersey Road, Williamson 
• Thorpe Vineyard, 8150 Chimney Heights Boulevard, Wolcott 
• Ontario Barns Vineyard, 513 Whitney Road, Ontario

Cornell preserving East Coast wine history

A historic poster in the collection.

• From the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

ITHACA -- From historical records to bottle labels, an archive at Cornell University is quietly collecting and preserving materials related to the East Coast wine industry.

Established in 1998 as part of the university’s rare book and manuscript collections, the Eastern Wine and Grape Archive contains documents, records, marketing collateral and ephemera from wineries and vineyards dating back to the 19th Century.

Presently, Cornell is the only American university with an ongoing program to document wine production and consumption in the United States.

Finger Lakes materials in the archive include 19th Century documents from Pleasant Valley Wine Co. in Hammondsport, Steuben County. The winery, which remains open and operational, was founded in 1860 and first invested in equipment to produce sparkling wine during the Civil War.

The materials do not circulate and must be viewed in the library’s reading room.

For more information about the archive, go here.

LI preps for spring restaurant week

Restaurant weeks are becoming commonplace all around the state, ranging from lineup that are confined to a block or even stretch over several counties.

How about one that is more than 100 miles long?

It's the annual Long Island Spring Restaurant Week, which returns for an eight-day run April 22-29. From Sunday to Sunday, participating restaurants will offer a three-course prix fixe dinner for $24.95 per person all night, except Saturday when it will be offered only until 7 p.m.

Since 2006, Long Island Restaurant Week was an annual November promotion until the first spring week was added last year.

The campaigns span the region's 118 miles from Garden City in Nassau County to Montauk in Suffolk County. There are nearly 250 participants each fall and more than 160 in the spring.

The first Long Island Restaurant Week in 2006 derived from the then five-year-old Hamptons Restaurant Week and its precursor, New York Restaurant Week. The campaign is presented by Long Island Restaurant & Hospitality Group.

You can search for participating restaurants online.

New regional restaurant week planned

The first Finger Lakes Wine Country Restaurant Week is in development for a June debut.

As more wineries add dining services, the idea seems to be one to build on each year to complement standalone restaurants that dot the region.

As the organizers say, "The idea is both simple and ground breaking. With the rich, agricultural lands of the Finger Lakes as the backdrop. local chefs Lakes are challenged to create three-course prix fixe menus using only 100% Finger Lakes ingredients. We think our Restaurant Week is the only promotion of its kind in the country that requires 100% local food and wine sourcing."

The prices will be $39 per person,  plus tax, gratuity and beverages. Each restaurant will offer three-course Finger Lakes wine flights as well, at $15 per person.

Seven venues are planning to participate in the June 18-24 promotion. They and their chefs:

• Crystal Lake Cafe at Americana Vineyards
Lindsay Freeman

• Red Newt Bistro at Red Newt Cellars Winery
Brud Holland

• Stone Cat Cafe
Scott Signori

• Suzanne Restaurant
Suzanne Stack

• Tony R's Steak & Seafood
Jeff Swartz

• Veraisons at The Inn at Glenora Wine Cellars
Orlando Rodriquez

• Vineyard Restaurant at Knapp Vineyards
John McNabb

You can check the individual restaurants' websites or go here for more details.

New era to debut at Silver Thread Vineyard

New owners Paul and Shannon Brock.

LODI -- The tasting room at Silver Thread Vineyard will open for the season this Friday with something quite new.

This will mark the debut of Paul Brock wines, created by the new owner-winemaker. He and wife and co-owner Shannon will be offering Dry Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Dry Rosé, Good Earth White and three single-vineyard Rieslings, all featuring the new Silver Thread label.

A pair of reds finished and bottled by Paul Brock from the 20120 vintage also will be available for tasting -- Blackbird and Pinot Noir.

The opening-day tasting sessions (11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday) will include complimentary food pairings from Muranda Cheese of Waterloo, Normal Bread of Geneva and Six Circles Farm's garlic spread from Lodi.

This is the first season for the winery under the Brocks' ownership. They purchased the 27-acre layout last August from Richard Figiel. Before that, Paul was the winemaker for Lamoreaux Landing and Shannon was wine director at the New York Wine & Culinary Center in Canadaigua.

To mark Earth Day, which this year will fall on April 22, Silver Thread is offering free shipping through April 30 for 12-bottle cases of its sustainably-grown wines.

Silver Thread is located on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake at 1401 Caywood Road in this Seneca County community. Phone: (607) 582-6116.

CURIOUS? GO HERE.

Out-of-staters top Finger Lakes wine test

ROCHESTER, NY -- Out-of-state wines took the top awards in the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, held at the Rochester Plaza Hotel.

• John Rose Award for Best Riesling:  Chateau Fontaine 2011 Dry White Riesling ($16) from Lake Leelanau, MI.

• Crystal Grape Award for Best Ice Wine: 2008 A Capella Riesling Ice Wine ($92.50) from Black Star Farms, Suttons Bay, MI.

• Best Chardonnay: Merryvale Vineyards 2010 Chardonnay from St. Helena, CA.

• Best Cabernet Sauvignon:  Canoe Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($28) from Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville, WA.

New York State wines won more than 450 medals, including 10 double gold and 29 gold. The competition drew about 3,200 entries from 22 countries and all 50 states, which were evaluated by 60 judges from 15 different countries and many states. All proceeds go to Camp Good Days and Special Times, whose headquarters is in Mendon.

The New York double-gold winners:

LONG ISLAND
• Sparkling Pointe: 2006 Blanc de Blancs ($42) and 2002 Brut Seduction ($60).

HUDSON VALLEY
• Robibero Family Winery: 2010 Dry Riesling ($16.99).

FINGER LAKES
• Lakewood Vineyards: 2009 Lemberger ($15.99).
• Casa Larga Vineyards: 2008 Fiori della Stelle Vidal Ice Wine ($45).
• Fulkerson: 2011 Matinee ($13.99).
• Goose Watch:  2010 Traminette ($13).
• Treleaven: 2010 Dry Riesling ($14.99).
• Schulze: 2010 Late Harvest Vidal Blanc ($24.95).
• Seneca Shore: Cabernet Franc ($16.99).

You can see the full results of all medals awarded by going here.