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Field Notes

News and Updates from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation

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As the 2025 Growing Season Gets Underway, We Revisit 2024

Robin Shreeves and Kathleen Willcox May 27, 2025

The 2025 growing season is here, and 2024’s season may look like specks of dust in the rearview mirror. But there are still things to discover about how New York’s wineries and vineyards fared in 2024.  Last October, as the busy season in the vineyards wrapped up, signs pointed to an “epic” harvest season. Wine growers from all of New York State’s major growing regions, who had been adding up the challenging harvest seasons preceding

How You Can Boost Wine Sales With Well-Placed Words

Kathleen Willcox May 23, 2025

A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but a picture of Riesling with evocative copy that explains its provenance, the people who crafted it and the flavor it delivers in the glass is money in the bank for winemakers. The bad news is, that copy needs to be created by the winery and disseminated on social media and its website. The good news is, wineries can farm that work out—and control when and how it

There’s Something for Everyone in the Niagara Escarpment AVA

Kathleen Willcox and Robin Shreeves May 20, 2025

There’s no reason why the wines coming out of New York’s Niagara Escarpment AVA shouldn’t enjoy the same fine reputation that its Canadian contemporaries along the Niagara Escarpment do. New York has the same growing conditions, they just happen to be on the U.S. side of the border between the two countries. But, with just nine wineries currently operating in the American Viticultural Area, the wine region has remained a little under the radar. But

B.E.V. NY’s Founders Take a Look at Its Origins and This Year’s Conference

Robin Shreeves and Kathleen Willcox May 9, 2025

Earlier this year, grape growers, winemakers, students, researchers, and business leaders from New York and surrounding states attended B.E.V. NY. This year, the conference was held March 4-5 in Canandaigua, NY, in the Finger Lakes, where the wine industry gathered at Hotel Canandaigua for the most significant New York grape and wine industry educational event.  Founded in 2014 by Anna Katharine Mansfield, Hans Walter-Peterson, and Chris Gerling from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Program, the conference

Millbrook Vineyards & Winery Celebrates Ruby Anniversary

Kathleen Willcox and Robin Shreeves May 6, 2025

Image courtesy of Millbrook Vineyards & Winery. It’s fitting that Millbrook Vineyards & Winery is set to unveil their first-ever bottle of sparkling wine this year: after 40 years of making wine in the Empire State, it is time for a huge celebration!  Recognizing milestones is as ancient as human culture itself, and an essential way to celebrate achievements and energize individuals or communities for the future.  Today, we are virtually toasting the team at

The Story Behind Some of New York’s Most Unusual Plantings

Kathleen Willcox and Robin Shreeves April 29, 2025

The recent 2024 New York Vineyard Report has inspired a lot of excitement among the circle of individuals who get giddy pouring over data on grapes. It may not be a large group—but it is a passionate one! It has also raised some interesting questions about the present and future of grape growing—and wine consumption—in New York.  One of those questions: who’s planting Turan, Feteasca Neagra and Gamay Noir grapes. And why? New York has