NY Wine and Culinary Center will highlight Leonard Oakes wine, cider

File photo by Tom Rivers – Jonathan Oakes is interviewed during the ice wine harvest in January 2015. There needs to be a deep freeze to harvest frozen grapes for ice wine. Oakes will be featured April 9 at an event in Canandaigua.

CANANDAIGUA – The New York Wine and Culinary Center will host Leonard Oakes Estate Winery on April 9 during a winemaker dinner.

The center in Canandaigua has featured Leonard Oakes at many events before, but this is the first time the winery on Ridge Road in Medina has an event exclusively for their products, said Jordyn Gould, the PR and marketing coordinator for the Wine and Culinary Center.

“They’ve been a good partner and this is an opportunity for a larger event to be focused on them,” Gould said.

The event will showcase wine and Steampunk Hard Apple Cider from Leonard Oakes and includes a seven-course meal of local foods. (For more information on tickets, click here.)

While guests enjoy food, winemaker Jonathan Oakes will share stories and insider information on his beverages. Oakes helped develop the winery a decade ago, first planting vineyards in Lyndonville.

Oakes and his cousin Jerod Thurber attend many of the New York Wine and Culinary Center events and the two have engaging personalities, Gould said.

“They know how to work a crowd,” she said.

Leonard Oakes Estate Winery also has quality products, she said. Leonard Oakes has become an award-winning producer of handcrafted artisanal wines and ciders.