Lamoreaux hires Cornell grad as co-winemaker

Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars has hired Ithaca native Ben Riccardi to be co-winemaker with Colin Grant, a longtime employee at the Lodi, Seneca County, winery.Riccardi replaces Paul Brock, who recently accepted a full-time position teaching enology and viticulture at Finger Lakes Community College in Hopewell, Ontario County.Riccardi, a 2008 graduate of Cornell University’s enology and viticulture program, began working at the winery on Aug. 2, says Lamoreaux Landing co-owner and manager Josh Wig. He brings to the position experience making wine in Australia, Chile, Long Island and the Finger Lakes, “and I’m very excited to have him onboard,” Wig says.While studying at Cornell, Riccardi wrote his thesis on Noiret, a cold-hardy red hybrid grape the university developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, Ontario County, and officially released in 2006.