York Uncorked, Year 3

So how do the folks who plan and execute the annual Tour de Tanks/Uncork York Wine Trail event top what happened this March?

Easy. Alison Smith, public relations coordinator for the York County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said earlier this week that they’ll look at the feedback and consider ways to improve this now established prelude to spring.

“I think we always want more options,” Smith said. “We’re thinking about changing the wine and dine a little bit, [to] more BYOB. We’ve seen people want to be able to sample what they’ve purchased [at the wineries]. So we’re looking at that trend.”

Among the other considerations is tweaking the food component that’s part of the winery tour and tastings. As unique as the wineries and their owners and winemakers are, so is the food that sits aside the tasting area. Some have their finger foods catered; others prepare it themselves.

“That is something I will tell you we are working on, kind of revamping,” Smith said. “I think that’s one of the personality things that come through . . . [but] it’s not just about what you like, and I think that’s what we have to try to convey. We’re just kind of reassessing the way we do some of the thing sin the program, and I would say the food is an important part of the program.

“Since we are a bureau, the wineries do have a relationship with us, but they also all kind of work together and they decide as a group what they want to do. And so it’s kind of more about getting them all in the same place and deciding as a collective what’s best for everyone, not just the individual. It is something we’re looking into for next year. … to try and figure out the best way to do it for the audience.”

Otherwise, the ingredients are all in place for this event to continue to expand. More interest. A widening demographic, Smith said. And additional wineries getting set to open, potentially adding to the 11 now that are part of the wine trail.

“We have heard of a few new ones popping up,” Smith said. “Nothing definite on any of them joining our trail at the moment. But I think because you have such great committed vintners that they’ve shown other people who, five, 10 years ago, might have been intimidated. I think the Tour de Tanks event has a lot to do with that … bringing lots of different kinds of people to wine.”

It all began in 2006 as a Saturday-only event, but it made sense for several reasons – you try and compress stops at four or five wineries into one day, for one – to add Sundays the following year. Planners continued that schedule this year, once again through the month of March.

“Sundays also generated additional overnight visits for us, which kind of gets at the heart of what we do here at the bureau,” Smith said. “This year, we actually had an increase of almost 2500 visits overall. That was really good for us. And we had more of an extended draw. We saw visitors from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York state, and the ever-popular DC metro area. I think it’s convenient for them. They head north, and we’re about an hour and a half to two hours, and they feel like they’re in a different country.”

No exaggerating there. And what they find when they arrive is a succession of what could be termed open houses. “Something I think is really unique about our trail is that they are family-owned wineries,” Smith said. “What’s really interesting is that you get to see the personalities of the winemaker come through in the wine; the sophistication of a European- influenced blend comes through with Allegro, with Carl Helrich and just his wealth of knowledge on not only his own vineyard and not just the scientific composition of the soil in the area but just the way he talks about everything, not just wine. With Charles Aldinger and his friends [Buck Mortorff and his brother Junior, whjo are Aldinger’s partners] from Four Springs, they’re very kind of jovial joking guys, and that comes through in their wine, which is very well-balanced, very clean, crisp flavor, but you always kind of get that fruit in the background, that variety of fruit in the background.

“And Dick Naylor [of Naylor Wine Cellars in Stewartstown, Pa.], he likes to talk about that he was told many, many moons ago that grapes grow where peaches grow, and in York County, especially southern York County, there are areas that all you see in the summer are peach trees,” she added. “So if that says anything about the quality of the wine in the area, we really kind of have something unique.”

That’s paid off in bigger numbers, in visitors to the wineries and the restaurants for the wine-and-dine aspect, and the overnights. For instance, increasing from four to 10 days in 2007, the bureau saw an increase of 3,054 visits, and since 2006 has seen a hike of 5,475 visits at all wineries. All these numbers come from the bureau. Smith said that during the first year, 2006, one winery saw an increase in wine sales of 469 percent from the previous March without the event.

It’s very likely the event will remain in March. Smith said that month makes sense, well after the holidays and presumably after most of the winter weather, but before the chores in the winery and vineyard get too numerous.

“We might bring on another event in the year,” Smith wrote in an e-mail, “but Tour de Tanks will stay in March.”