An artist's reception, a chocolate and jewelry event and a Syrah tasting and party are planned over the next month at Damiani Wine Cellars.

The reception, featuring painter Emily Gibbons, will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday. It is free and open to the public, Damiami wines will be available for tastings and purchase, and a tapas-style spread will be offered. Gibbons' "Local Impressions" exhibit will be up in the tasting room through Feb. 23.

An event from 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 11 will feature chocolates by Christian Thirion of Preliminaires Chocolats paired with Damiani's latest red wine releases and the silver jewelry of artist Lauren O'Brien. The first 100 women to visit the winery that day will be given a red rose.

Only a few seats remain for Damiani Wine Cellars' Finger Lakes Syrah tasting Feb. 18, which will celebrate the release of the winery's 2010 Saw Mill Creek Vineyards Syrah ($28.99). Other area wineries' 2010 Syrahs also will be tasted during the event, which will last from 3 to 5 p.m. Tickets cost $25 plus a $2.37 fee.

After the tasting, an after-hours party with music, from 5 until about 9 p.m., will be free and open to everyone.

The 2010 Reserve Syrah from Damiani Vineyards, of which only 78 cases were made, will be for sale only Feb. 18. Afterward, it will be withdrawn from sale until it's ready, in the summer or fall.

This is only the third vintage for Damiani's Syrahs. Its first release, only 17 cases, sold out within a month.

"It's a relatively new grape to this region," Glen Allen, one of Damiani's owners, said. A cool-climate red wine, it comes from the Rhone Valley of northern France and is not grown by many others here yet, he said. "I think it's going to be grown more. ... It's extremely expressive here in the Finger Lakes."

He said most people are familiar only with Syrah from California. "The Syrah from California is much more jammy and fruit-forward," he said, while that grown in the Finger Lakes is peppery "with a crisp backbone" and food-friendly.

Damiani Wine Cellars is at 4704 Route 414, Burdett, Schuyler County. For more information, call (607) 546-5557 or go to http://damianiwinecellars.com/.