Finger Lakes Wine Alliance picks new head

Tracey DelloStritto

A former Herman J. Weimer Vineyard executive has been selected to head the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance.

Tracey DelloStritto, who had been communications and marketing manager for the Yates County winery, this week was named executive director of the trade organization. The Wine Alliance, founded in 2004, has 29 members and 15 affiliated businesses and vendors, guided by a board of directors representing all four wine trails as well as non-trail wineries in the Finger Lakes. It is headquartered at 500 Technology Park Drive, Geneva.

DelloStritto's hiring was announced by Erica Paolicelli, chair of the Wine Alliance board of directors and a partner in Three Brothers Wineries and Estates in Fayette.

DelloStritto said the Finger Lakes wine region is “on the cusp of greatness,” winning many national and international awards and recognition. “I know many of the wineries and owners," she said, " and this gives me an opportunity to promote Finger Lakes wines to a broader audience. ... Wine Alliance members make such phenomenal wine, and together we will see that the mission of the alliance, to increase the visibility and reputation of those wines, and the region as a whole, is achieved."

The Finger Lakes Wine Alliance offers its members such services as coordinating submissions to wine trade publications for reviews, presenting seminars on best practices in social media outreach, and hosting online events such as virtual wine tastings. The next major event on the calendar is "Riesling Month," with events scheduled in September throughout the state to promote that varietal that has become the region's signature wine.

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