Monday in the Finger Lakes

We are staying near Bath, NY, about 20 minutes from the bottom of Keuka Lake, the smallest of the three lakes known for their wineries and wine trails.  Even with five days of winery hopping, we won't be able to visit all of the wineries in the Finger Lakes, probably not even half of them so we had to make decisions about which wineries to visit, and which ones to skip.  We like to visit smaller wineries,  wineries that we have not visited before, and wineries that have a good selection of drier wines.  Almost all Finger Lakes wineries produce dry and semi dry white wines made from Riesling, Gerwertztraminer, Traminette, and Chardonnay and most also produce sweeter and semi-sweet wines made from Cayuga and Concord grapes.  Many produce white blends, creating many different flavor profiles and sweetness levels.  Most also produce vinifera red wines from Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Pinot Noir, although these reds produced in the Finger Lakes are usually lighter in color and flavor than those produced or grown from grapes in warmer climates with longer growing seasons.

The Finger Lakes are best known for Riesling.  Even Wine Spectator included a major review of the Finger Lakes and rated many Rieslings (mid-to-high 80's, with a few in the low 90's.  They reviewed a few reds, but only a few and none received better than an 89 rating.

We planned our Monday, skipping the larger, more commercial wineries like Pleasant Valley (used to be Taylor, still produces Great Western sparkling wines) and Bully Hill.  We worked our way up the Western side of Keuka, beginning with Keuka Lake winery and visiting 3 other wineries on Keuka including Stevers Hill, Hunt Country, and Yates. We then crossed over to the Western shore of Seneca and visited Anthony Road, Seneca Shores, Red Tail Ridge, Fox Run, Billsboro, White Springs and ending with Bellhurst (a major hotel, restaurant, winery and gift shop) at near Geneva that was open until 8 PM. 

We tasted an average of 6 wines per winery, with a few extras at those that were willing to go beyond their publicized limit of 5 or 6 samples, so probably tasted 65 or more wines on Monday.  Most had good to excellent Rieslings, and we found a few other very good and interesting wines.

One of our favorites on Monday, and a winery we had not visited before, was Billsboro.  We found several good enough for our Wines of the Finger Lakes class including a lightly oaked Chardonnay, a Cabernet-Syrah blend, and a semi-dry Riesling.  At White Springs we found a Gerwertztraminer and Fume Blanc that we might use, and at Red Tail Ridge we found and purchases their "sans oak" Chardonnay which had lots of flavor without any oak influence, which can sometimes overpower white wines.

We'll head out again on Tuesday and continue to sample wines and build a collection to choose from for class next Thursday.

Lisa and Dean