Guess who I'm hanging out with?

You'll never guess, so I'll just tell you.

Paulthenurse, his wife, the_bird and his wife, and I are staying in the Finger Lakes region of New York this weekend, and visiting wineries. I'm having a great time, have been enjoying the great company and also the great wines here.

Here are a couple of pictures:

homebrewers are great people, you'll have a good time I'm sure.

That is a cool area. My dad is heading back there next week and staying for the Great Race near Auburn.

Where did you go? I hit a few of places in the area last year. Did you go to Wagner's? They brew and make wine!

Great to see some hbt celebs in my neck of the woods! Where are you staying and what wineries/breweries have you visited?

Looks like everyone's having a good time!

Grew up there.... and it is one of my favorite places on the planet.


If you can fit it in - King Ferry Winery (maker of Treleaven wines) on the east side of Cayuga is well worth the trip. My good friend Chris runs the tasting room, and will spin an entire menu to go with each wine. Tell him that Weston sent you, and be sure to ask about his Emita days. Their Dry Rieslings and their Gewurztraminer's are incredible. Long Point, just up the road from there does some fantastic reds as well.

Sounds like a great time. I'm holding things down around here so don't worry

Good time to come visit the area's wineries. Another couple of weeks and things go from busy to crazy! Be sure to catch at least one waterfall to make your trip complete.

I knew Paul and bird were up to something funny this weekend! Sounds like a fun time!

Airborneguy said:

Where did you go? I hit a few of places in the area last year. Did you go to Wagner's? They brew and make wine!

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We did go to Wagner's today.

Mparsons327 said:

Great to see some hbt celebs in my neck of the woods! Where are you staying and what wineries/breweries have you visited?

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Oh, I've been to 8 wineries/breweries today (and one distillery) and a couple yesterday. We're staying at a B&B in Penn Yan. It's really nice, and I'm having a wonderful time.

westo2 said:

Grew up there.... and it is one of my favorite places on the planet.


If you can fit it in - King Ferry Winery (maker of Treleaven wines) on the east side of Cayuga is well worth the trip. My good friend Chris runs the tasting room, and will spin an entire menu to go with each wine. Tell him that Weston sent you, and be sure to ask about his Emita days. Their Dry Rieslings and their Gewurztraminer's are incredible. Long Point, just up the road from there does some fantastic reds as well.

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That's going to have to be "next time", since we just ran out of time to go everywhere. We stayed around Keauga (spelled wrong, I bet) and Seneca Lakes this weekend.

I found some wonderful dry rieslings (paulthenurse had told me to expect them) and some very nice cab franc. I had some shipped home, since I"m driving home through Canada and am limited on what I can take with me over the borders.

I think I should be home by Monday night.

The_bird and his family are super nice people (as I knew they would be) and of course Paulthenurse and his wife are wonderful as well. I had an amazing time hanging with my "imaginary friends'!

I'm home now- and made the drive in only 16 hours or so.

Paul and the Bird said they'll post more pictures when then get settled.

I had such a nice time! The wineries were fun, but I really enjoyed meeting PaultheNurse and the_bird more than anything else.

Great area. There's a lot of great wines, a couple good breweries (and a few mediocre ones), and a really wonderful restaurant called Dano's on the west side of Seneca.

Yooper said:

You'll never guess, so I'll just tell you.



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Those are some big hop cones in the background! lol

So, no full-body cavity search on your way over the border?

Such a great time, as I knew it would be. I'll try and get my pics organized tonight. Dinner at Ports Cafe was phenomenal, as was dinner at Red Newt Bistro. We all stayed in a little B&B up in Penn Yan, Los Gatos, which is also highly recommended. Just a great, great time (although I'm pretty well wiped out now).

Oh, and it's "Keuka."

the_bird said:

So, no full-body cavity search on your way over the border?



Oh, and it's "Keuka."

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Ha- no problems at the border at all. I apparently look like a nice middle class grandmother, and not an international wine smuggler. (Oh, and Bob was so excited about those wines I managed to, ah, acquire! I got definite kudos on that. The few extra beers were a bonus- he already had a Hop Head Red and proclaimed it perfect.)

Ok, "Keuka" it is. But I will forever quote your daughter and call it "Cucumber".

You know, I got home and realized we never cracked open any of the beers I brought, other than my homebrew. Think we were all pretty cooked by the time we got back from Newt.

Here we are, pre-Paulie but with the_Bean in tow (notice her Dr. Frank's hat; she's learning). On the way into Heron Hill's tasting room, which is arguably the most gorgeous in the whole area.



The still at Finger Lakes Distilling is absolutely gorgeous, and both their gin and their potstill whiskey are phenomenal.



We still need to take this year's "Stash Picture." When all was said and done, the damage was close to three cases for us, in part because of that case sale at the one place ($5/bottle for a quality Riesling, but one that's not so great that I cry when my wife brings it up to her friend's house and I don't get any).

[oops.]

Yes finger lakes still is really impressive! If any of you are in the area again shoot me a message and I will come help you find your way around. My fiancé and I are on the wine trail at least once a month.

Oh, we've found our way around! My wife and I are out there quite a bit, as are Paulie and his wife. Tried to hit all of our favorite spots around Keuka and Seneca. Stil a couple that are on the agenda for next time, and we've never really explored around Cayuga Lake at all (anything worthwhile?).

Ports Cafe. Best. Dinner. Ever.

the_bird said:

Stil a couple that are on the agenda for next time, and we've never really explored around Cayuga Lake at all (anything worthwhile?).

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Bellweather Cidery!!!!!

Sheldrake Point can sometimes have some pretty good stuff. Nothing else I've had on Cayuga has wowed me.

We have a group of us that has been going up every year in the spring for a number of years and have hit most of the wineries. Most we are not too fond of, partly for the party atmosphere.

Our favorites who consistently have very good wines are (West to East)

Dr. Franks
MacGregor
Ravines

Anthony Road
Herman Wiemer (which I see you stopped at)
Prejean

Shalestone (he does reds only- and they are good!)
Atwater
Red Newt
Chateau LaFayette Reneau

Our last experience at Wagner (brewery) was not good. It was like feeding pigs at a trough (lots of college aged kids). They lined you up and then quickly went down the line and slopped some beer from a pitcher in your glass. You were pressured to quick finish your beer. They wanted to come back with the next beer before you had half finished your previous taste. Plus half the beers tasted like the beer lines were dirty. The winery is not bad, but I think I'll pass on the brewery in the future

I actually bought a case of semi-dry Reisling at Prejean. Solid; not the best I've ever had, but very good and I couldn't beat the price (they sold me a case for $60).

Shalestone, I really wanted to hit, but we just ran out of time. We had dinner with the winemaker at the last 'Nine Wines Blind' event at Red Newt, and I loved his stuff. I was really surprised at some of the Hazlitt stuff, too; their winemaker was there, showing off their non-plonk stuff.

Billsboro is good; they had the best Riesling at dinner on Saturday (Paul's wife and I both got a "dry Riesling" flight, with Billsboro, Red Newt, and Anthony Road). Anthony Road tends to be very good. Lamereaux Landing also usually has some very nice wines, although this year's Rieslings tasted a little flat. Heron Hill's basic stuff is OK, not great, but it's worth a stop just for the tasting room and they have some very nice dessert wines.

There's still a lot of crap, but you learn which places to avoid (BULLY HILL! *cough* *cough*).

Ever been to the small brewpub in Watkins Glen? Rooster something I think. Interesting menu, loved it.

the_bird said:

Ports Cafe. Best. Dinner. Ever.

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Yes. This.

I can not believe how awesome my dinner was. I could have made a dinner out of your appetizer- those mussels were beyond wonderful. But oh, my rare steak with that PPBWKTHM (remember, the waitress abbreviated "bleu cheese walnut butter" to something totally incomprehensible?) was to die for.

There were some definite surprises for me. Cab Franc is just about my favorite style, and the ones I tried were unexpectedly good as I was expecting good whites but not reds. We're going to have a bottle of Lakewood's 2008 cab franc tonight with dinner.

Bob had very hot weather while I was gone, and he's got an eggplant ready from the garden! So tonight, with our cab franc, he's doing grilled steak and grilled eggplant with olive oil and basil.

I gained 10 pounds, so you know the food/wine/beer was great!

Lamereaux Landing.



Spirits aging at Finger Lakes Distilling.

The Cab Francs in the area are the best reds, and usually very, very nice. Loved that one we had with dinner, can't recall the winery, though (had never been there - a little further west). The cab savs tends to be a little hit-or-miss, and the Pinot Noirs are spotty. Some decent Merlot, some that's not so good. Liking some of the Lembergers being produced. I seem to recall a few Syrahs in years past, but maybe I'm insane; I haven't seen one in a long while.

We've only been to Billsboro once and need to go back. Our best friends from grad school live in Geneva and their daughter plays soccer with the daughter of the owners. They have helped out in the tasting room when they were in a pinch for help

Fox Run isn't bad. Not the best I've ever had, but they're good enough to be part of the Red Newt/Anthony Road/Fox Run "Tierce" collaberation. As I recall, they've got both decent stuff and plonk; I should give them another shot.

Lots of "mehs"; Hickory Hollow, Penguin Bay. Paulie and his wife LOVE Lakewood, I think they're OK but they still make most of their wine (it seems) with the medicore native grapes and I didn't LOVE their "good" stuff. Rock Stream pissed me off like no other winery except Bully Hill - they were blaring music so loud I couldn't talk to the server (three feet away from me), the wine was middling, and they were using buttered popcorn as their "palate cleanser."

Zugibe is really nice, although we tend not to make it that far north.

Never had the wines at Wagner. We did the beer tour, very early in the day a while back (we usually start at that spot on the lake and work our way back down to Watkins Glen and up the west coast). Beers were all solid, nothing exceptional but they all were exactly what they were supposed to be. No one else was there when we toured, so we got to look around a bit, weren't being rushed at all. We went there for lunch on Saturday (no tour or tastings, although Paulie and Yoop seemed to like the IPA). The wines, it looked like it was all cheap stuff, but I should give them a chance sometime.

the_bird said:

Paulie and his wife LOVE Lakewood, I think they're OK but they still make most of their wine (it seems) with the medicore native grapes and I didn't LOVE their "good" stuff.

Never had the wines at Wagner. We did the beer tour, very early in the day a while back (we usually start at that spot on the lake and work our way back down to Watkins Glen and up the west coast). Beers were all solid, nothing exceptional but they all were exactly what they were supposed to be. No one else was there when we toured, so we got to look around a bit, weren't being rushed at all. We went there for lunch on Saturday (no tour or tastings, although Paulie and Yoop seemed to like the IPA). The wines, it looked like it was all cheap stuff, but I should give them a chance sometime.

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The best cab franc was from Lakewood, and I think that's why Paulie and Alice loved it so much, as did I. The best merlot was somewhere else- maybe Weimer?- and I thought you bought a bottle (or maybe Paul?). I'm a little fuzzy- they are all starting to blend together. That was the only decent red, besides the cab francs. I didn't have one good cab sav.

The IPA at Wagner was "better than ok". That means it was the best beer of the weekend, besides your homebrew. It wasn't even a solid "good" but it wasn't half bad. The IPA, not the homebrew!

There was one meadery we went to, and I forget the name. Everything I tried was phenolic, but I think their sweet stuff was ok from the other reviews. I wasn't a fan of anything at all, even though I tried to like it.

The best beer of the weekend, bar none?

Utopia clone v.1

Second-best was whatever sour it was that Paulie poured on Friday night.

I liked the beer I brought along, but it'd nothing compared to those two. Paulie's IPAs could suck ass for all I know, but his monster beers are pretty effin' sweet.

the_bird said:

The best beer of the weekend, bar none?

Utopia clone v.1

Second-best was whatever sour it was that Paulie poured on Friday night.

I liked the beer I brought along, but it'd nothing compared to those two. Paulie's IPAs could suck ass for all I know, but his monster beers are pretty effin' sweet.

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Yes, I'd agree. I LOVED the U1 and that lambic. Your homebrew was very good, and it really hit the spot.

What was the name of the place with the mediocre wines, the bad beer, and the two kids as servers in the most wonderful setting? I'd say that would be a place to avoid in the future.

Yooper said:

Yes, I'd agree. I LOVED the U1 and that lambic. Your homebrew was very good, and it really hit the spot.

What was the name of the place with the mediocre wines, the bad beer, and the two kids as servers in the most wonderful setting? I'd say that would be a place to avoid in the future.

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Sounds like miles?

Yeah, Miles Wine Cellars. Shan's exact quote was "If they were old enough to drink legally, I'll eat your hat."

the_bird said:

Yeah, Miles Wine Cellars. Shan's exact quote was "If they were old enough to drink legally, I'll eat your hat."

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And the one that seemed to be about 15 looked Paulie in the eye and told him, "I'm not a beer expert. I'm a wine expert!"

The setting was fantastic.

The beer was astringent and not to style, while the wine was mediocre at best. $3 for two tiny (1 oz?) samples of bad beer. I just laughed, because you can pay $5 for a great pint in some places and that beer was just straight out bad.

Annoying that they don't even MAKE it - it's contract brewed by some place in Rochester. Buddy of mine here at work was saying that some of the old Genny plants are doing a lot of contract brewing now, up around there. I'd wager it's not even their recipe; someone at Genny probably faxed them a price sheet with various beer styles and they selected "Pale Ale."

the_bird said:

Annoying that they don't even MAKE it - it's contract brewed by some place in Rochester. Buddy of mine here at work was saying that some of the old Genny plants are doing a lot of contract brewing now, up around there. I'd wager it's not even their recipe; someone at Genny probably faxed them a price sheet with various beer styles and they selected "Pale Ale."

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They're called Custom Brewcrafters Co located in Rochester. And yeah, you pretty much pick your style off of a list. They probably do about 80 -90% of the house work for bars and pubs here in WNY. IMO they are not very good. I've had many of their styles and they almost all have the same malt profile and yeast strain. I've gotten to the point where I'm asking if CBC brews the house beer, and if they do I avoid it. Maybe I'm just a snob but I think i make better stuff with my cooler and buckets. And AFAIK, they are the "creative" minds behind Dundee's, another Rochester creation that has yet to wow me.

I'm almost certain that's the name they mentioned (almost like they were proud - hey, we have this great company do all of our brewing for us!). I can tell you, 98% of the homebrew I've sampled (from all kinds of brewers, good and bad) is better. It's not doing Miles any good, either; talking to the owners of the B&B, Miles' reputation isn't particularly good in no small part because of the crappy beer.

sure you come out to my neck of the woods and I don't know about it... Glad ya had a good time

springer said:

sure you come out to my neck of the woods and I don't know about it... Glad ya had a good time

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I didn't know that was your area!

I hope there is a "next time" but with Bob coming along. It was so wonderful- romantic B&B, romantic dinners, starlit skies, and just the five of us.