Empire State Cellars (ESC), a New York-based wine tasting room located at Tanger Outlet Center in Riverhead, Long Island, is to make New York luxury wines available for exhibition and sale at New York State Wine Outlet (NYSWO) in Shanghai, China.

Opening in July 2012, the NYSWO will provide services like wine exhibition, wine education classes, promotional events, coordinated professional trade shows, wine sales and matchmaking events for distributors and buyers.

The NYSWO’s program is hosted in Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone by the State University of New York, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, New York Wine and Grape Foundation, NYS Department of Economic Development and the China International Exhibition & Trading Center of Wine & Beverage with combined efforts from NYS Small Business Development Center.

In October 2012, ESC general manager James Silver will visit China to represent the selection of luxury New York wines to distributors in Shanghai.

ESC’s wine tasting room currently sells around 500 different New York wines, beers and spirits.

For NYSWO, the wine tasting room has exported around 30 products from different New York producers including Finger Lakes-based Anthony Road Wine and Shaw Vineyards; North Fork-based Bedell Cellars, Jamesport Vineyards, Medolla Vineyards, Paumanok Vineyards, Peconic Bay Winery and Shinn Estate Vineyards; Hudson-Chatham Winery from Hudson Valley and Channing Daughters from The Hamptons, Long Island.

Silver said they know about the tastes of China’s emerging middle class, and the new consumer demands authenticity and quality.

"That’s why ESC is delivering some of the greatest names in New York winemaking – well made, hand-crafted products from smaller family-owned and operated wineries," Silver said.

ESC acts a satellite tasting room for Peconic Bay Winery (PBW). Both PBW and ESC are owned by Lav-Cor Agricultural, a New York-based retailer.