Entrepreneurs capitalize on success of Finger Lakes wineries

The success of the Finger Lakes' wine trails has created opportunities for other entrepreneurs to cash in on the booming wine business.

But it's not only the traditional wine-related businesses — limousines, restaurants and lodging — that have taken advantage of the growing appeal of the wine trails.

Vance Metal Fabricators of Geneva, founded in the 19th century as a boiler manufacturer, generates about 10 percent of its business today from selling stainless steel wine tanks — the result of a casual conversation more than a decade ago.

"We were never in the wine tank business," said Chris Jennings, the company's vice president of sales and marketing.

Jennings, an investor in Anthony Road Wine Co. on Seneca Lake, listened in the mid-1990s as winery owner John Martini and the company's winemaker talked about the expense of buying tanks from Missouri and California.

"We built our first four for Anthony Road," Jennings said.

After consulting other winemakers in the region about their requirements, Vance Metal developed a heavier gauge stainless that the company uses to make what Jennings calls a more robust tank.

"This year, we will do between 120 and 130 tanks," Jennings said. "Fifty or so are going to Michigan. A lot of wineries up in Traverse City like what we are doing."

Tourism generated by the wine trails is also responsible in part for construction of the 104-room, $14 million Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel that is scheduled to open this month.

"It's a big piece of it," said David Hart, president of Hart Hotels Inc. "In the Finger Lakes in general and in Watkins Glen more specifically, the corporate trade is not the key market segment. The key market segment is tourism."

Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, said the boom in transportation services "would not exist without the growth in wine country tourism, which was created to a great extent by the wine trails."

In addition to spurring the creation of new businesses, the wine trails have helped existing businesses thrive, said Mike Linehan, president of the Yates County Chamber of Commerce.

"Wineries have become an employment powerhouse," he said. "There's a rollover economic benefit of having businesses that are prospering. If you're doing well, you can purchase a new car or get a new appliance. It bodes well for other businesses in the region."

Small-scale entrepreneurs are also angling for a piece of the wine trade, which pleases John McGregor, owner of McGregor Vineyards and president of the Keuka Lake Wine Trail.

"I'm excited about the number of cheese makers that are coming up around here, and what a perfect fit that is for the wine," McGregor said. "There are also local breweries and micro-distilleries."

While it's hard to measure the impact of the wine trails with precision, nobody disputes their importance to the regional economy.

"They are a big draw with a lot of attention," said Duncan Hilchey, extension associate in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University. "Vineyards benefit, restaurants are benefiting, farmers who sell to those restaurants are benefiting. All residents benefit from these multiple linkages."