Have you heard? The Connecticut Wine Festival is brand new at the Durham Fair on Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28 from noon to 8 p.m.; Sunday, Sept. 29, noon to 6 p.m.

Participating wineries at this first-ever event at the fair: Bishop’s Orchards Winery, Gouveia Vineyards, Hopkins Vineyard, Jonathan Edwards Winery, Jones Winery, Priam Vineyards, and Sunset Meadow Vineyards. Cabot cheese sampling too, all under a big white tent set up on the north portion of the Durham town green. For an additional fee of $12 on Friday and $15 on Saturday and Sunday fairgoers (of legal age, of course) can sample 28 different wines produced in the state from CT-grown fruit – and be able to purchase bottles of wine to take home (to be picked up when leaving the fairgrounds).

This will makes two state-sponsored Connecticut Wine Festivals – the founding event is held at the Goshen fairgrounds each summer.

Renée Allen, director of the Wine Institute of New England, will conduct wine seminars about tasting techniques and varietal information on Saturday and Sunday.

In related news, The Big E Wine and Cheese Barn is a brand-new 1,800 square foot permanent building opened for this year's The Big E at Eastern States Exposition (ESE) fairgrounds. Inside is a showcase of entries and winners from the Northeast Gold Wine competition – which attracted 247 varieties of wine from 47 wineries throughout New England and New York. A selection of entries and winners from New England will be sampled and sold.

Connecticut wineries and vineyards that won gold medals at this competition include: Cassidy Hill Vineyard Coventry Tricentennial White (best Connecticut wine/best grown); Rosedale Vineyards Serendipity; White Silo Winery Sparkling Red Raspberry; Bishop’s Orchards Faulkner’s Spiced Apple and Amazing Grace.

There is also a display of the award-winning cheeses (and samples) from the sixth annual Big E Gold Medal Cheese Competition, which includes commercial and artisanal cheeses from a variety of sources including dairy cattle, goats and sheep.

To see all the winners (or learn about how to participate in the 2014 competition), visit this link to ESE. For more information about Connecticut wineries and vineyards, see this Department of Ag link.

Did You Know? The Connecticut Vineyard and Winery Association Wine Trail blue signs, brochure and web site can lead visitors on a journey to sample the accomplishments of 25 wineries around the state. Bishop's Orchards & Winery in Guilford hosts the annual Shoreline Wine Festival each August. The Mohegan Sun Wine Fest in January 2014 will offer tastings, celebrity chefs, seminars and more.

For insight on how production of specialty crops can contribute to the profitability and sustainability of Connecticut agriculture and preserving farm land, visit the findings at the University of Connecticut Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Department to peruse “An Economic Analysis of Grape Production for Wine Making in Connecticut” by Boris Bravo-Ureta.

The modern wine and spirits industry in the Nutmeg state generates a total of $5.2 billion in state business and consumer taxes, according to an economic analysis released in 2013 by Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) and prepared by New York-based John Dunham & Associates. The total economic impact of the industry in the state is listed as $12.25 billion, supporting 10,820 direct jobs, which includes more than 1,250 workers at wholesaler firms.