| Author |
Message |
ecola
Member
|
# Posted: Jun 19, 2008 20:10
My wife and I are heading to the Finger Lakes wine region this summer and I was wondering if anyone has been there and can recommend wineries, restaurants, or where to stay?
|
Zippy
Member
|
# Posted: Jun 20, 2008 09:31
One of the nicest places to stay is The Belhurst Castle on Seneca Lake.
http://www.belhurst.com/
The restaurant sits in the actual Belhurst home, so the dining rooms are the Library, Dining Room, Foyer etc. They added a hotel onto a historic home. There are a lot of bed & breakfast that are great and very affordable.
Wineries:
Bully Hill is a must see. All the old winemaking equipment is on display.
Dr. Konstantin Frank gets great reviews. Winery is kind of plain but still fun. (great Rieslings)
Glenora Wine Cellers & Heron Hill are also good.
Red Newt Cellars has good wine, a great bistro for lunch, and a good logo that makes for great souveniers.
Zip
|
jlburd
Member
|
# Posted: Jun 24, 2008 10:35
We've been going to Seneca Lake since 1991 & the whole eastern side of the lake has really advanced in that time for food & wine. Couple of Zippy's recommendations (Frank & Heron Hill) are on Keuka & are great. My experience with Glenora is that it's more of an attraction than good winery.
North of Watkins Glen on east side are some beautiful tasting rooms. Standing Stone & Lamoreaux Landing are excellent with very nice whites. Chateaux Lafayette Reneau has a good tasting and is best place for gifts (particularly wine related). Shalestone is semi-underground & specializes in reds, which is not the region's strength. Damiani is a second generation producer who has moved from making for others to his own label-very laid back tasting. There's a good sparkling house right in the middle of all these, which sells from a variety of wineries. Our personal favorite is Atwater. Very nice chardonnay, gewurztraminer, riesling, and a surprisingly good sparkler. Tasting room is outstanding late in afternoon when cool breezes are coming in-very friendly. Most of these are small and many were started by folks who made $$$ at something else & went here to follow muse to make wine. More often than not the owner pours the tasting.
Wagner's is one of the higher volume wineries on the east side & is OK for wine tasting but has a really good brewery & beer sampling. Highly recommended for a change of pace.
Newer restaurants are popping up. Recommend Suzanne in Lodi, Dano's Heuriger (Austrian-style tapas-better than that sounds) is owned by a CMU grad & her chef husband, Stonecat Cafe (great but small), and the Red Newt. A word on the Newt-the wines on the tasting are so-so, but the wines on the dinner list are good, although pricey.
Skyland Farms is a great spot for lunch & ice cream.
Sorry for the length-can you tell this is an annual favorite? We head back up second week in August so you have me geared up again...
|
ecola
Member
|
# Posted: Jun 25, 2008 18:22
Thanks for all the info. We are going first week of August, I'll let you know how everything was. Thanks again.
-Eric
|
jlburd
Member
|
# Posted: Jun 26, 2008 10:23
Coincidentally, our trip this year is Aug 7-11. Enjoy
|
ecola
Member
|
# Posted: Aug 21, 2008 19:59
Overall very impressed with the Finger Lakes region. Liked the smaller places better as you got more personal attention. Favorite place was Atwater, stayed there for a half an hour with the guy pouring and tasted through current releases and past vintages he opened up for us. The larger places tastings seemed too scripted as the pourer had everything to say memorized. I asked one lady how long their chardonnay spent in oak and she told me "many years." It is pretty cool to have the owner of the winery pouring for you and giving you tons of info and being able to ask any question you have. At one place the owner was pouring and his delivery of bottles came in, so he asked us to hold on, when he was done unloading he picked up right where he left off. It was awesome to see the real passion these growers have. One thing that surprised me was that it seemed like every winery had 25 wines they made. Great trip, will go back.
-Eric
|
jlburd
Member
|
# Posted: Aug 25, 2008 12:16
Eric
Your comments on Atwater were interesting. The past couple of years we have just stopped there at the end of the day to buy (our friends' property adjoins Atwater). This year I saw they had a Meritage from '05 while I was buying some others. Asked for a taste and the guy poured liberally, and then threw in a couple my daughter was interested in, never once asking for a dime. The Meritage was OK by the way, the first red I found to be passable up that way.
We spent time this year on the west side of Cayuga, which is only about 10 minutes over the hill from the stretch between Hector and Lodi on Seneca. Generally speaking these are older wineries and the reduced sun makes it difficult to get as much character as east side wineries get. The tasting rooms were fun but the wines were just OK. Recommend Hosmer's Pinot Gris, maybe the Chardonnay. Lucas is in a great setting, nice people, some really great wine gifts but just OK wine. Swedish Hill boasts Governor's Cup winning Vidal Blanc but too sweet for me.
We've decided to make a $1 million by moving here with $10 million and opening a winery! I really don't know how well these folks do but I encourage wine lovers to support them.
|
Mark
Member
|
# Posted: Sep 24, 2008 10:42
FYI a couple Finger Lakes wines were added at pawineandspirits.com this morning:
Dr. Frank Dry Riesling Finger Lakes 2007, $18.99, PLCB Code #18163
Dr. Frank Rkatsiteli Finger Lakes 2006, $24.99, PLCB Code #17950
Mark
|
Zippy
Member
|
# Posted: Oct 7, 2008 16:30 - Edited by: Zippy
Just got back from a fall trip to the Finger Lakes. The leaves on the trees were spectacular!
Visited a couple of new places worth noting:
Chateau LaFayette Reneau (Lodi) www.clrwine.com right next to Atwater. Very welcoming and had a great Reisling.
McGregor Vineyard(Dundee) www.mcgregorwinery.com they had several unusual wines, Cayuga White, Sunflower White (cayuga, Seyval, and Diamond) and Thistle Blush (Rosette and Ives) all had sweetness, balanced by fresh acidity. They offered a Black Russian Red that was one of the most unusual wines I have had, Saperavi and Sereksiya Carni, which are two Eastern European grapes.
Sheldrake Point Vineyard (Ovid) www.sheldrakepoint.com had an excellent Gewurztraminer as well as an icewine from Cabernet Franc that is concentrated and full of fig and prune flavors. (I think they cheat and put their grapes in the freezer!)
Also enjoyed the Hermann J. Wiemer (Dundee) www.wiemer.com a lrge producer of quality Reisling, did enjoy his Dry Rose as well.
Zip
|
