Wine, beer, liquor growth industries in Hudson Valley
Mid-Hudson News
October 10, 2014
October 10, 2014
HYDE PARK – The art of craft brewing, wine making and spirit
distillation is trending and becoming a growing industry in the Hudson Valley.
To promote those local forms of agri-business, the Hudson Valley Economic
Development Corporation and Hudson Valley Food and Beverage Alliance held an
event at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park where local wine
makers, distillers and brewers could showcase their products.
Local craftsmen set up stalls in the Marriott Pavilion of
the culinary school and provided tastings of products. Many of the owners of
the local companies like Clinton Vineyards, Dutch’s Spirits and Slovenia Vodka
were there to interact with the attendees and to educate them on their
processes.
State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said this is a
rebirth of these crafts that will create promise for the region.
“It’s great to see a rebirth of this industry and it’s
growing exponentially,” Ball said. “Every one of the sectors, whether it is
wine, brewers, cideries, distilleries, the growth is in the 50 to 100 percent
ranges all the time. So, we don’t really know what the top of the market is
here, or the extent of the market but, as the local food movement has caught
on, the local interest in all these products has grown, I think we’re really at
the beginning of great things.”
The growth of these industries locally is creating a diverse
spectrum of different, but related, products. Although the increase in new
businesses is creating competition for veterans like Clinton Vineyards owner,
Phyllis Feder, she says it’s really beneficial to the industry all around.
“With the growth of so many distilleries and breweries, people have many more
choices of places to go to. So everybody is not going to like beer, or like
wine, they’ll go to where they want, they’ll have choices. That brings a lot of
people to the area. It’s great for business, it’s great for tourism, it’s great
for the restaurants. It’s good all around.”
An added bonus is the small operations in the Hudson Valley.
Peter Kelley, owner of Slovenia Vodka, said that this makes the area unique and
the products of high quality.
“What separates our products from others, I think, is the
quality that goes into it,” Kelly said.
“These are really craft distilleries, craft cideries, craft breweries;
these are not mass produced products. It’s the same as the quality of our
produce and farms here. It’s all about quality, it’s not about production per
say, it’s about quality.”
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