T.I. Winery wins award for being innovative

Thousand Islands Winery is seeing the fruits of its labor.

The winery, Alexandria Bay, won the new Innovations in Agri-Business Award as part of the Creative Core Business Competition. The award was presented as part of the annual meeting of the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York on Tuesday in Syracuse.

"A lot of companies proposed innovative ideas," said Mitchell A. Patterson Jr., economic development coordinator for the association.

The board of directors of New York Agricultural Development Corp. selected the finalists and winner.

"They wanted to highlight a company that not only had an idea but also put it into effect," Mr. Patterson said.

This follows on the heels of the winery winning the New York Wine and Grape Foundation's Winery of the Year Award on April 2.

The agribusiness award went to the winery because it uses cold-hardy grape varieties and owner Stephen J. Conaway has found energy-saving ways of fermenting and chilling wine.

"I have never seen any other winery with the same setup," he said.

Thousand Islands Winery pioneered techniques for growing and pruning cold-hardy varieties in Northern New York. The varieties withstand temperatures below minus 30 degrees.

The winery also is using the weather to naturally chill the wine. During the winemaking process, wine has to be cooled to 26 degrees or lower for at least two weeks. This happens in January and February at the winery.

Instead of using fuel or electricity to cool wine in a traditional refrigeration system, Mr. Conaway built a special room. One set of double doors is opened to allow cold air in to cool the wine, which is in a milk bulk tank serving as a cold stabilization and wine blending tank.

Mr. Conaway also converted a water propane heater to heat tanks of wine during the fermentation process. Traditionally, large specialized heaters warm the wine to the necessary 65 to 75 degrees.

"I used an existing heater, so I spent only $150 in parts," Mr. Conaway said. "It uses very little energy and it's very efficient."

The Innovations in Agri-Business Award comes with a $15,000 prize. Mr. Conaway said the winery will use at least a portion of the award to pave a road to the cold stabilization room.

The innovations competition, sponsored by NBT Bank, was a new subcategory for the Creative Core Business Competition. Thousand Islands Winery was one of 24 applicants from the region that includes Cayuga, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca, St. Lawrence and Tompkins counties.

Widetronix Inc., Ithaca, won the $100,000 Creative Core Emerging Business Competition. The company is developing very small, long-life batteries.

Mr. Conaway said more north country businesses should pursue the competition.

"I'm confident that there are businesses in Jefferson County that could compete for the overall award," he said. "We're doing things up here a little differently because of the conditions and other people may be able to learn from that."

ON THE NET

New York's Creative Core: www.creativecoreny.com