Some criticize LI winery's 9/11 vino

The manager of a Long Island winery says he can't figure out why the company's sale of a 9/11-themed wine to raise money for the Ground Zero memorial has come under criticism.

But a key member of the New York City Council says the commercialization of 9/11 has to stop somewhere.

"What's next? Shampoo? It's a very slippery slope," City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), the chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said Tuesday.

Gary Madden, general manager of the Lieb Family Cellars of Mattituck, said he was surprised by the criticism of the firm's efforts on behalf of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center Foundation.

"We've been raising money for the museum since 2004," Madden said in an interview Tuesday. "We announced it [the wine naming] on July 20 at an event at Ground Zero. Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg was there. It was done with the approval and review of everyone.

"There were 300 people present, and no one said anything," Madden said.

The company, he said, donates all profits from the 9/11 commemorative merlot and 9/11 commemorative chardonnay to the memorial, and donates wine for the memorial foundation to use at its receptions and fundraising events.

Vallone said he did not doubt that the winery's intentions were good and he was not being critical of the memorial foundation. "Whatever charity authorized this has the right to express an opinion, and I have a right to mine," he said.

Neither the foundation nor Bloomberg's office returned calls Tuesday.