By Joe Olenick<br><a href="mailto:olenickj@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Joe</a>
Niagara County’s wineries will be uncorking some local vintages next week and they will have a new poster to hopefully help sell a few bottles.
The poster will be unveiled at the first “Wines of Niagara” event, which will showcase some of the wineries featured on the popular Niagara Wine Trail.
Last year, Lockport photographer Daniel Branch, owner of Daniel’s Photography, created a Niagara County tourism-themed poster as part of the 20th anniversary of the opening of his studio. When it opened in 1988, Branch created a “Doors of Lockport” poster made up of shots of different doors in the Lockport area. The poster was inspired by a “Doors of Buffalo” poster, which itself was modeled after a similar poster about the pubs of Ireland.
To help create the wineries poster, Branch asked Niagara County wineries for labels of a few of their wines. That eventually led to the Wines of Niagara event coming together.
“It just kind of snowballed from there,” Branch said.
Branch said he spoke to Lockport Mayor Michael Tucker, who supported the event and suggested the Canal Street area to hold it in. Cornerstone Federal Credit Union will be sponsoring Wines of Niagara, as well as paying for advertising, Branch said.
The event is free and open to the public. Wines of Niagara will also have a permit to allow the wineries to sell wine by the bottle, Branch said.
Branch said about eight to 10 wineries will be at the event, as well as a few other vendors. Live music will be provided by the jazz group, the Ralph Fava Duo.
There will be a raffle during the Wines of Niagara, with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Walk. Branch said Jack and Rebecca Florio of Micro Graphics were running the raffle, which includes baskets from the participating wineries. There is hope that Wines of Niagara could catch on as a yearly event.
“Maybe this can turn into an annual event,” Branch said. “It’ll hopefully be a nice warm night — people can come down and enjoy some wine.”
Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.
