NYS toasts booming wine industry

ALBANY, NY (AP) - New York's wine industry is celebrating a good year, with an early harvest, superb quality, and numerous medals.
    
The New York Wine and Grape Foundation says 17 new licenses were issued in 2012, bringing the number of wineries to 328 with nine more still pending.
    
In international wine competitions, New York wines received 88 "Best" designations, 565 gold medals, and 80 "double gold" medals which require unanimous decisions by the judges.
    
Forty-eight New York wines were rated 90 or above by the three major wine consumer magazines - Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, and Wine & Spirits.
    
From being a largely regional industry in the Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Long Island, the wine industry has become virtually statewide, with producers in 55 of New York's 62 counties.