I’m so appreciative to those who ask me about the show and say, “how did you come up with the idea?” To me, it’s a compliment and I’m always happy to talk about it.
This is a show about New York wines…the weather that makes them, the regions they come from and the food that goes best with them.
It started as a grand plan to write some episodes about pairing wine with food and weather, 3 of my favorite things. I wrote out the concept of the show and even wrote 15 episodes featuring wine all around the US in the hopes the Food Network or the Travel Channel would pick it up. I even met with an agent in New York about it, but he didn’t quite get what I was trying to do. After exhausting whatever few contacts I had and cold-emailing agents to no avail, I put the idea on the shelf.
In 2012, Governor Cuomo and New York State started to really push the state’s craft beverage industry, making it easier for folks to obtain licenses and awarding grants through the Taste NY Initiative to promote what New York has to offer. All the while, wine quality in New York was getting stronger and stronger. The state had gone from your granddad’s sweet jug wines to making some world class Rieslings. Farmers have been growing grapes for a long time but after the New York Farm Winery Act of 1976, they were able to establish wineries and sell their wines directly to the public. The farmers know what they are doing and with the harsh weather that New York can bring, they have some creative ways, both man made and natural, of mitigating that weather to the benefit of us wine drinkers.
I thought, “Well shoot, I can do this show in New York!” The state is so diverse in its geography and regions, I am a born and raised New Yorker, so why not?
I’ll be visiting wineries and vineyards all around this beautiful state from the 1000 Islands to Lake Erie, and from the Finger Lakes to Long Island and anyplace else in between. There are many products that are among the best of their kind on the planet produced here, and any chance I get to showcase them, I will.
Come with me to the oldest winery in the US, taste a chocolate that a world-renowned chocolatier has on his top ten list, do some world class fishing, try a sea salt that is shipped far and wide, and cook with a butter that is one hot commodity.
Wine About the Weather. Then Drink It!
