HARVESTING

COMMUNITY
Harvest House aims to strengthen
the ties between New York City
and the Finger Lakes
BY SA L LY K R A L PHOTOS BY KAY T MATHER S

THINK THERES SORT OF A STIGMA AGAINST NEW YORK WINES,

with a lot of people thinking that only sweet Rieslings can be grown here and that its
not the climate for red wines, says Laura Staley, manager and wine buyer for Manhattan restaurant Trestle on Tenth. Maegan Kovatch, wine buyer at SquareWine &
Spirits in Long Island City, also recognizes some prejudice against New York wines,
but adds that the people who are closed-minded to it are those that dont know
what theyre talking about. Staley and Kovatch are two of several New York Citybased individuals who were invited this past fall to take part in Harvest House,
a program aimed to educate and expose New York City trade and media to the
high quality wine being produced in practically their own backyard.

Brooks Fraser, bartender and cellar

assistant at Gramercy Tavern

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"this program is hugely

valuable to us and will open
me up to talking about the
region with my guests and
other New Yorkers.

Harvest House is the brainchild of First Press, a public relations and consulting company based in Manhattan. After receiving a grant from the Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority
in 2011, the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (NYWGF)
sought proposals from New York City public relations rms for
programs that would benet New York State wine regionsparticularly the Finger Lakes. We submitted a proposal that had two
main goals: to bring New York City people to the Finger Lakes and
to bring the Finger Lakes to people in New York City, explains
Kayt Mathers, account supervisor for First Press. The NYWGF
chose First Presss program, which involved arranging tasting tours
in the Finger Lakes and hosting walk-around tasting events in the
city where Finger Lakes wineries could showcase their wines and
chat directly with New York City wine buyers. But this was only
the rst phase of First Presss program, which aimed to grow in
scope each year.
After the rst year of our program, we presented the results
to the Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority, says Michael
Gitter, First Press cofounder and partner. After we showed them
what we were able to accomplish with the money they gave us, they
were totally blown away and it made them even more excited about
the program. So when the NYWGF applied for the second phase
of the grant, Genesee gave them even more money than they asked
for, which never happens with grants. Its really been the generosity
of the Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority together with
the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, who
have said hey, lets make this a priority. Thats what allowed us to
start Harvest House in the fall of 2012.
Harvest House takes First Presss trade tours to the Finger Lakes a step further, inviting New York City individuals
involved in the food and beverage industry (restaurant managers, bartenders, chefs, retailers, journalists) to stay for a week
in a house in the Finger Lakes and participate everyday in the
winemaking processfrom early morning grape harvesting to
barreling to bottling to tastingat a range of dierent Finger
Lakes wineries, including Anthony Road, Lakewood, Dr. Konstantin Frank and Sheldrake Point, to name just a few. We
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Left, Craig Cavallo,

contributor at Serious
Eats. Right, Chris
Dunaway, bartender and
sommelier at Corkbuzz

From top: Laura Staley, manager and wine buyer at Trestle on

Tenth; Maegan Kovatch, wine buyer at Square Wines; From
left to right: Three Brothers Wineries & Estates vineyard manager John Wilkins, winemaker Justin Paolicelli, and brewery
tasting room manager Jon Mansfield
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Chef Brud Holland

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The goal of a program like

Harvest House is always for
more exposure to the region.

picked the rst group of Harvest House campers from

our trade contacts, but a lot of the folks involved in
Harvest House this past fall actually found out about
it through word-of-mouth, Mathers says. They heard
such great things from the rst years participants so
they reached out to me directly to get involved.
Indeed, the campers at Harvest House are an eager bunch, excited to learn and have a hands-on experiencenever mind rising at daybreak to pick grapes by
hand in the brisk October air. Theres no one part of
the process that I didnt enjoy, says camper Craig Cavallo, a contributor for New York City food blog Serious
Eats. I loved every part of it because its all necessary in
creating the wine. Camper Chris Dunaway, sommelier
at Manhattan wine bar Cork Buzz, agrees, adding that
experiencing the winemaking hands-on is key. On paper, it doesnt have the same eect as seeing the steps
and process yourself, he says. Chris Stamp, winemaker
and owner of Lakewood Vineyards, has been involved in
Harvest House for both years, enjoying the opportunity
to form bonds with industry professionals from the city.
If the people they brought in werent into it, it wouldnt
be benecial. But everyone who has participated has
been so excited and enthusiastic. Its a great program for
both the wineries and for the campers.
Each evening during Harvest House, different
winemakers from the region are invited to the campers
house on Seneca Lake to have dinner. These dinners give
campers the opportunity to speak further with the regions winemakers and also exposes them to the wide array of culinary products the region has to oer. When
we were rst putting this program together and visiting wineries, our trip to the bistro at Red Newt Cellars
for lunch really stood out because Brud Holland, who
was the chef there at the time, prepared a meal for us in
which no item was made more than 50 miles away, Gitter says. We knew Brud would be a great resource for
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us. For both years of Harvest House, Chef Holland has stocked the
house with a range of local products, from Seneca Lake salt to Lively
Run goat cheese to Autumns Harvest Farms beef and chicken to
Finger Lakes Distilling spirits and liqueurs. I think it really gave
the campers an idea of the depth of the food and beverage scene in
the Finger Lakes and the number of producers who are committed
to developing and delivering quality products to the marketplace in
our local economy, Holland explains. The wine industrys growth
over the last couple of decades has really changed the culture of this
area in a good way.
What First Press has strived for since the inception of their cohesive program is to bridge the gap between New York City and the
Finger Lakes, to form a community between the two that benets
the entire state. I think the exposure this program gives to people
like us is denitely benecial because the more I know about the
region, the more comfortable I feel encouraging my customers to
try Finger Lakes products, SquareWines Kovatch says. Staley of

Trestle on Tenth concurs: From an education standpoint, this program is hugely valuable to us and will open me up to talking about
the region with my guests and other New Yorkers. Kovatch adds,
Now we can spread the word about how awesome and beautiful it
is up here. And as long as we can get money continually pumping
into New York tourism, its good for everybody.
But at the end of the day, Mathers and Gitter arent interested
in making a hard sell to their campers. The goal of a program like
Harvest House is always for more exposure to the region. Whether
thats translated into sales isnt something we focus on with these
events: Were not here to make a sales pitch, Mathers says. Gitter
agrees: Were really opposed to that sales angle. Our goal is for
them to have a greater education on the regionto create a sort of
mini Finger Lakes ambassador in each person.
Sally Kral is Managing Editor of Edible Finger Lakes and a freelance writer based in Ithaca.

Fox Run Vineyards

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