Wine News

The New York Wine & Grape Foundation is partnering with the New York State Police to increase consumer awareness of New York State's new law establishing .08 Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) as the threshold for Legally Intoxicated and .05 as Legally Impaired. The partnership was announced last week by Gov. George Pataki who in a news release said, "Informational literature is being served along with the wine in most of New York's 120 winery tasting rooms this fall."

The literature notes that a 170-pound man will hit the 0.08 percent BAC level after consuming 25 ounces of wine over two hours and the 0.05 threshold with less than 20 ounces. A 135-pound woman will hit the DWI threshold with less than 20 ounces over two hours and the impaired limit with less than 15 ounces. "A typical wine tasting pour consists of 1-2 oz. of wine," the brochure states. "If you sample several wines at each winery and visit several wineries in succession, your ability to drive a motor vehicle may become impaired. Pataki's advice is to take along someone to do the driving who prefers non-alcoholic cider and doughnuts to wine and cheese.