In high summer, the big wineries may have 10,000 visitors on a busy weekend; in mid-winter, they may get 10.

Worse, some of the biggest wineries have become giant wine factories, but not for Napa wines.

A local brandy Big Prize is a famous product of one of the biggest wineries in the town.

We're selling all we can make," he said, "and I don't mean just the big wineries.

Also, there are other small companies that produce wine for bigger wineries.

With 51,000 cases produced from the '93 vintage, Pindar is by far Long Island's biggest winery.

Even the state's biggest wineries, like Kendall-Jackson, were hard-pressed just to meet domestic demand.

Millions of gallons were pumped out by big commercial wineries, making them two of the world's best-known wines.

"The figure sounds like a big industrial winery," Mr. Lintott said.

In fact, some exceptional wines come out of the bigger wineries.