New wine law to ease state regulations

Long Island winemakers are welcoming a new wine law Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed Friday that relaxes several regulations on the industry.

The measure, known as the Fine Winery Bill, will make it easier for farm wineries to open branch stores, decrease the amount of costly record-keeping, provide custom services for grape growers and allow wineries to participate in more charitable events per year.

Long Island wineries and vineyards are most likely to benefit from the reduction in paperwork, which will save winemakers money in salaries, and from the ability to use custom crush services -- for vineyards without their own equipment -- said Larry Perrine, chief executive of Channing Daughters Winery in Bridgehampton. "Different components of it are more important to Long Island wineries than others," he said.

Under the new law winery owners no longer must submit quarterly reports on items they ship out of state. Several winery owners said this is the most helpful aspect of the new bill because preparing the report required them to hire staff to do unnecessary work.

"The direct shipper report was a whole bunch of data entry," said Kareem Massoud, a winemaker for Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue. "And it wasn't clear what it was going towards. It was sent to Albany, and nobody was reading it."

The ability to use custom crush services will encourage smaller vineyards to use wineries to process their grapes into wine -- a higher-value product. This would also bring in more revenue for wineries, said Ron Goerler Jr., president of the Long Island Wine Council. He added he has been approached by small grape growers about using his facilities.

Wineries are an integral part of the Long Island economy and tourism industry. The Island produces more than 500,000 cases of wine -- or 1.2 million gallons -- per year, according to the Long Island Wine Council. The industry also attracts more than 1.3 million visitors annually and generates up to $150 million in revenue. There are 51 wineries on Long Island, most on the East End, Goerler said.

But, winemakers all agreed that more improvements on regulations are needed for the wine industry.

Perrine said there is other unnecessary paperwork that can be eliminated, such as wholesale reports. More specific to Long Island, Massoud questioned the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's payroll tax on farmers -- wineries included -- on the East End, where few trains run.

Bills to combat those issues were introduced in the State Legislature this year but were not taken up by both houses.

Many of the amendments in the Fine Winery Bill follow recommendations made by the New York State Wine Grape Task Force in a 2008 report for the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Markets. The task forced was chaired by Massoud and had three other members from Long Island, including Perrine.