Whitecliff Vineyard's Gourmet Burger Celebration

Offers a Delicious Opportunity to Eat Local!

New York, July 25, 2007: Enjoy the pleasures of eating local in a Hudson Valley summer at Whitecliff Vineyard's Red Wine & Grass-Fed Beef Gourmet Burger Celebration. It will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 25th and 26th, from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 12-3 Sunday. The Celebration will give people a true taste of Hudson Valley agriculture, as it offers up the delicious synergy of wine, burgers from local grass-fed beef, sweet corn, and ice cream- four products of the bounty of our own Ulster County. Even the buns, cheese and pickles will be local!

All across America people are tuning in to the satisfaction of eating local. From cover stories in Time Magazine, to TV's celebrity chefs, we are learning the many benefits: food from local farms doesn't travel as far and is more nutritious, practices used by family farms are better for the environment than those of industrial factory farms, and local growers keep land in farming and feed our local economies. Grass-fed beef, in particular, offers a real win-win addition to the Hudson Valley's food chain. It's healthier than grain-fed beef because it is lower in fat and cholesterol and higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, and factory feedlots are notoriously damaging both to animals and to the environment. Two of Gardiner's producers of grass-fed beef-Brykill Farm and Kiernan Farm-will be featured at Whitecliff's Gourmet Burger Celebration.

Whitecliff has one of the largest vineyards in the region. While there are many producers of fruit wines in the Hudson Valley, Whitecliff is known for complex dry wines-a style that is particularly good with a meal. Yancey Migliore, co-owner with husband Michael, says "We like to show off our wines at events like this one because we make them with food in mind. And nothing beats the great food and wine pairings you get when you follow the dictates of the seasons and pair local wine with fresh, seasonal foods. This event is all about local: we'll be going one better than the 100-mile diet, with most of what we prepare coming from within 25 miles of the winery!"

The Migliores make their award-winning wines both from their own grapes, and with grapes from other New York growers, and are very involved in the farming that makes fine wine possible. Michael is currently president of the Hudson Valley Grape Growers Association, working to promote the research and information sharing that will help more growers to develop vineyards, and boost quality in the Hudson Valley's wine industry.The tented event will take place rain-or-shine at Whitecliff Vineyard, 331 McKinstry Road, Gardiner, NY. Tickets will be $25 a person, and are available by calling Whitecliff at 845-255-4613.