ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo has finally signed an expanded Niagara Wine Trail into law, a measure that could be a significant benefit to Orleans County.

The Niagara Wine Trail ran along Route 104 mostly in Niagara County. It reached into Orleans to include the Leonard Oakes Estate Winery near the western end of Ridgeway. But it couldn’t keep moving east, without a change in the state law.

Several groups, including the wine industry, have tried for years to extend the wine trail. The State Senate was the first to go for it, but the Assembly didn’t agree until this year.

The Assembly and Senate both voted in favor of the measure. It seemed a done deal back in June. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature seemed a no-brainer.

This trail is expected to be a tourism boost for Western New York. It will stretch from Niagara Falls through Orleans and into Monroe County. It also will run south from the Falls area into Erie County.

I’ve been watching this for nearly four months now, wondering why it was taking the governor so long, especially with all of his talk about creating jobs, promoting New York and agriculture, and the need for more state attention for Western New York. We lost the summer, a chance to rev up our tourism engine while this sat on his desk.

The governor finally summoned the strength to sign this last week.

The legislation expands and renames the Niagara Wine Trail system. The new configuration, which takes effect immediately, extends the trail across all of Orleans County and into western Monroe County, encompassing more wineries.

We in Orleans can piggyback on this trail and create other trails. A “Cobblestone Trail” on 104 makes a lot of sense. We might consider trails for farm markets, Medina sandstone and perhaps other historic sites.

We can tap into the tourism promotion dollars in Monroe County, Rochester, Buffalo and Erie County. This could be big for Orleans.

The trail will run on Route 104 between the Ferry Avenue/Route 62 intersection in Niagara Falls and Route 390 in Monroe County. That will be known as “Niagara Wine Trail Ridge.”

The complement to the Ridge route is the “Niagara Wine Trail Lake,” which follows Route 269 north from its intersection with Route 104 at the Niagara-Orleans County Line to Route 18. It then runs west to Route 425, then south to Route 62 and along that route until its intersection with I-290 in Amherst.

Seventeen wineries are on the trail now and more are under development. The money to pay for additional signage on an expanded trail system has already been earmarked through a 2011 Regional Economic Development Council Award. The expansion imposes no new costs to taxpayers.

The governor also signed legislation for three other wine trails, giving the state 16 such trails.

The state expanded the “Shawangunk East Wine Trail” in Ulster County. New York established the “Adirondack Coast Wine Trail” that runs from the Town of Peru into the Town of Plattsburgh. The “Chautauqua Wine Trail” will be renamed the “Lake Erie Wine Country Trail.” The route will remain unchanged.

The state also approved new legislation allowing New York wineries to sell wine from roadside farm markets if the product was made within 20 miles of the roadside farm market.

Other new apple, RubyFrost, has another 3 weeks to mature

Photos by Tom Rivers – These SnapDragon apples from Kirby Farms have red color, good size and a juicy crispness.

ALBION – They represent high hopes for New York apple growers and they will soon be put to the taste test. SnapDragon and RubyFrost, two new varieties developed by Cornell researchers, are ready to make their public debuts.

The two new apples will be released at about 40 farm markets throughout the state.

“There’s a lot of people asking, ‘Where can we get it?’” said Roger Lamont of Albion, chairman of the New York Apple Growers LLC. That group formed in a partnership with Cornell to sign up growers and manage the supply.

The apples won’t be readily available in grocery stores until 2015 when recent plantings have a full crop. But they will be at many local farm markets in the next two years.

“Farm markets are good because of the direct contact with growers,” Lamont said.

There is a bigger supply of RubyFrost apples this year, and some will be held in storage until January, when Lamont said they will be released in a limited supply through grocery stores.

“We want to get the consumers’ reaction,” Lamont said.

Lamont drove a truck load of SnapDragons across the state on Friday so farm markets in eastern New York would have the apples. He wants to start developing an eager customer base for the apples.

The new varieties represent a major change in how new apples are managed and marketed. Cornell and other apple breeding programs used to develop new varieties which were then typically slowly released and often in a haphazard manner.

If a variety became popular, growers would plant trees en masse, leading to an oversupply and falling prices.

Tim Kirby checks on his SnapDragon apples in an orchard along Route 31 in Albion. Kirby is selling the apples at Kirby’s Farm Market in Brockport.

Lamont said the new system ensures there is a big supply, but not too many where prices will fall below profitable levels. New York Apple Growers LLC is also directing funding to Cornell’s apple breeding program, to fund research for more new varieties in the future.

The program is open to all New York apple growers, but not to growers outside NY. Some other apple-growing “clubs” have formed in recent years and not all growers had an opportunity to grow and sell new varieties. That put some growers at a disadvantage.

Tim Kirby of Albion said he is grateful the new varieties are open to all of the growers in New York, and that the apples will be managed so there isn’t an oversupply.

“People want something new and different,” he said. “This is real positive for the industry.”

Kirby planted SnapDragon and RubyFrost apples in 2011. SnapDragon has proven “grower-friendly,” requiring less work than another popular variety, the Honeycrisp.

The SnapDragons all seem to ripen at about the same time, meaning they can get picked at once, rather than multiple times.

RubyFrost is a late-season variety. It’s a red apple that tastes sweet and tart.

The Kirby farm picked SnapDragons last week and was one of the first in the state to sell them at a farm market. Kirby’s Farm Market is located on Route 104 in Brockport.

Kirby said they should prove popular with customers because of the apples’ red color, the crispiness and the size. They are a little smaller than Honeycrisp, which some consumers perceive as too big.

Kirby was in an orchard off Route 31 near Riches Corners Road on Friday. He had already picked many of the SnapDragons and had them in crates.

“They color well,” he said about their red skins. “Look at them. They’re beautiful.”

SnapDragon gets its juicy crispness from its Honeycrisp parent, and it has a spicy-sweet flavor.

RubyFrost takes longer to ripen on the tree. That apple will be picked in about three weeks.  It’s a cross between Braeburn with Autumn Crisp.