New York Wine, Beer & Spirits Summit

I attended the second annual Summit yesterday at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park.  There were many speakers; here's some of what I took away:

- the wine, beer and spirits business is "exploding" in NY
- NY has a "one stop shop" website for the alcohol business
-the industry is worth $22 billion in New York
-NY has the second most number of distilleries in the country
-NY's "Taste of NY" campaign has many events, contact state to participate
-in the past 32 months the number of new distilleries has grown 270%

There was more technical stuff about licensing, raising capital etc.  I met Ralph Lorenzo of Tuthill Town Spirits -- he launched one of NY's first distilleries since prohibition a mere 10 years ago.  And I learned of an accounting/consulting firm that specializes in NY's liquor business.

Here's a  Poughkeepsie Journal article covering the Summit.