The New York Times-20080127-When the Fair-Weather Sippers Disappear- Wineries Try Jazz

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080127

When the Fair-Weather Sippers Disappear, Wineries Try Jazz

Full Text (780  words)[Author Affiliation] E-mail: [email protected]

LAST year more than a million visitors flocked to the wineries on the East End of Long Island, watching the bud break on the vines in May, the clusters of grapes swelling along the wire trellises in summer and the harvest come fall. They crowded into tasting rooms, sipping cabernet franc, chardonnay and merlot.

Though most of the wineries are open year round, come winter -- pruning season in the vineyards -- traffic slows to a trickle.

For winery owners like Ann Marie Borghese of Castello di Borghese in Cutchogue, the bills keep piling up.

In the summer it's easy to come, Ms. Borghese said. You need to have something to entice the people out into the winter cold of the East End.

Along with offering winemaker walks and tours of the fermentation room, Ms. Borghese pairs culture with fine wine. Her converted 1949 potato barn includes an art and photography gallery and tasting room, where fine food and olive oil tastings, operas and concerts are staged.

During the winter doldrums, she and her counterparts are adding the smooth sounds of jazz.

Castello di Borghese is one of 21 wineries heralding a stepped-up effort by the Long Island Wine Council, the East End Arts Council, Suffolk County and the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau to turn the Long Island Culture and Wine Winterfest, now in its fourth year, into a jazz festival.

More than 50 acts are booked over a five-week period; at Borghese they include Ahmad Ali, singer and guitarist, on Feb. 16, Paul Ferguson, guitarist and keyboardist, on March 1 and Mark Yodice, solo guitarist, on March 8.

The festival kicks off with the trombonist Papo Vazquez and his Pirates Troubadours band on Friday, Feb. 8, at Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead. That concert is $25 per person; the others in the series are free.

In past years, the Long Island Wine Council assembled a passport-style booklet with special tasting and discount offers to promote the fact that the wineries are out here year round, according to Steve Bate, the executive director. Two years ago the regional trade association teamed up with the East End Arts Council, adding museums and various performances to the schedule.

Jazz was chosen this year to give it much more focus, Mr. Bate said. Most wine lovers like jazz and most jazz lovers like wine.

The jazz theme piggybacks on the success of the Wine Press Concert Series, held outdoors in the summer, according to Patricia Snyder, executive director of the arts council.

Several participating musicians hail from the Island.

Jay Schneiderman, the Suffolk County legislator from Montauk and a professional drummer, will be playing with his world music ensemble, Jayakari, on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m. at Martha Clara.

It's all improv, Mr. Schneiderman, 45, said of the group, which is making its debut as a quartet. We make it up as we go. Mr. Schneiderman, who plays in summer at the Gig Shack in Montauk, studied drums in Mali and Cuba and has taught music at the Ross School in East Hampton.

Another Island musician on the schedule is Shenole Latimer, a saxophonist from Mastic, who will play with his quartet on Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. at Osprey's Dominion in Peconic and March 8 at Martha Clara.

Mr. Latimer, 34, who also composes and learned to play in public school bands, was riding the train to Manhattan in August when a man seated next to him asked to listen to the mix of his music on his CD player. That led to a contract with Tierra Records, an independent European label.

Basically he signed me on the train, Mr. Latimer recalled.

The musicians in the festival are being paid with a contribution of $25,000 from Suffolk County.

There is a great filtering-down effect and a ripple throughout our economy once we bring these folks in through the jazz program, said Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive.

At Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue, visitors will listen to jazz in a multilevel, loftlike tasting room with a fireplace.

Performers include the Rare Groove Band on Feb. 17, the Beledo Quartet on Feb. 23 and the Matt Marshak Quartet on March 2.

We are trying more and more each year to bring traffic out year round, said Trent Preszler, Bedell's chief operating officer. Any time you create an atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy themselves here with their friends and drink a glass of wine while listening to great music, it's a really fun thing.

[Illustration]WINTER FARE: Jay Schneiderman, a county legislator, will appear with his band, Jayakari, in Riverhead. (PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON M. GRANT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)