Local agricultural and tourism leaders are hoping to revive the languishing Thousand Islands-Seaway Wine Trail.
Jay Matteson, agricultural coordinator for Jefferson County Economic Development, said that the wine trail has become just about dormant in recent years, but he hopes to uncork it once again.
“It’s just not as active as we would hope it would be,” he said. “We’d like to see if we can help save it.”
When it was first introduced in 2007, the idea was for wineries to work together to promote the trail to attract visitors and organize events with each other.
And now Matteson plans to get together with Corey C. Fram, director of the Thousands Islands International Tourism Council, and Cornell Cooperative Extension officials to see what can be done to get it going again.
A couple of weeks ago, Matteson was asked about the status of the trail at a Jefferson County Agricultural Development Council meeting that he oversees.
Since then, he’s talked to a couple winery owners who told him that the trail is like an empty bottle of wine.
The wine trail was created in 2007 by an act of the state legislature, and it took another act to add to the original list. That legislation was passed and signed in 2021 to add two more wineries to the trail.
The Thousand Islands Winery in Alexandria Bay, the first winery that opened in the north country 20 years ago, was a driving force on the trail when it began.
But the A-Bay winery lost interest in the venture several years ago, when there was talk about adding breweries and distilleries to the trail, said Nicholas Shanley, general manager of Thousand Islands Winery.
It seemed like the focus changed year to year for whatever was new and wineries were no longer as prominently promoted as they had been in the past, he said.
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