Wine Around the Lakes
I arrived in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York on September 19 and would spend 32 days—my longest stay to date—in one campground: Flint Creek. I chose this location for its proximity to a friend who lives in Penn Yan on Keuka Lake, which is in the center of the group of lakes known as the Finger Lakes. They’re named so because the long, narrow lakes that all run north-south resemble fingers (Freddy Krueger’s, maybe!). The largest, Seneca Lake, is one of the deepest lakes in the United States at 618 feet.
The Finger Lakes Region of New York State.
Christine and I were neighbors in New Jersey for many years and our daughters grew up being close friends. She always loved this area of New York and vacationed here often so when she retired as a French language teacher she moved here and bought a Victorian house that she has turned into a Bed & Breakfast.
Christine in front of “The Aubergine” (eggplant in French), her Bed & Breakfast in Penn Yan, New York.
The Finger Lakes is a noted wine producing region and Christine is a certified wine expert and works part-time at a local winery so, with her expertise, we visited a number of wineries for wine tastings and tours. The geography and climate here are similar to Germany so they make a lot of German-style wines like Rieslings and Gewürztraminers. It took me the entire month to be able to pronounce that!
I like to drink wine but I know nothing about them…or, I didn’t until I spent time under Christine’s tutelage. She taught me the fine art of wine tasting and how to discern flavors and qualities. This is where I learned why I never liked Chardonnay. California Chardonnays are partially aged in oak barrels, which gives them the taste many people love. Not me! I tasted some New York “unoaked” Chardonnays that I really liked so now I know what to look for. For those who don’t like Rosé because it’s sweet, they make some dry Rosés that are really wonderful.
Some of our bounty from our winery tours and tastings.
Christine booked us two complete winery tours that were very interesting. The first was a tour of Fox Run Vineyards where we walked the vineyards and toured the fermenting and bottling processes. It ended with a food pairing in their private dining room.
View of Seneca Lake from Fox Run Vineyards.
Grapes ready for harvest.
Harvested grapes ready for crushing.
Dumping grapes into the press that will separate the stems and leaves from the fruit.
“Punching” the fruit keeps it rotated for even fermenting. No, they don’t use their feet.
Food pairing presented by Fox Run’s chef.
This was a contest that Christine read about in the local paper. The wine writer (who is originally from the Jersey Shore) offered two tickets to whoever wrote to him with the best reason why they deserved them. She wrote that we were both from the Jersey Shore and that she was now a local business owner and active in the wine industry. She won!
At the end of the event, co-owner Ruth Osborn approached us about having won the contest because we were from the Jersey Shore. She asked, “Where?” When we told her we were from Beachwood, she told us she used to live in the town next to us. What a small world!
Then the world shrank some more when she said she grew up in Middletown, New Jersey, which is where I grew up and it turns out she graduated high school with my younger sister, Barbara. You can’t make this stuff up!
Ruth Osborn, co-owner Fox Run Vineyards.
Fox Run Vineyard’s spectacular custom iron work gates depicting “running foxes” was created by local artist Sam Castner of Ironvine Studios.
The second tour was of Wagner Vineyards and was more of an educational experience of the science of wine making. Here we learned about the crucial timing of the harvest; leaving the fruit on the vine as long as possible for the most sugar but picking before a frost kills them. New York State has a short growing season, which became evident with a frost that night.
We picked grapes and crushed them to test the sugar content then tested more samples at different stages of fermentation. Word to the wise…partially fermented wine tastes like gym socks due to the level of yeast before the fermenting process is complete.
Sunset over Seneca Lake from Wagner Vineyards.
Grape harvester getting ready to work through the night in an attempt to beat the first frost.
The group gets instructions on how to pick a good cross-sample of grapes for our class.
We hand-picked grapes to crush for sugar testing.
Testing sugar content using a refractometer.
Testing juice that had fermented a few days. Fermenting turns the sugar into alcohol so the sugar content reduces the longer it ferments.
Partially-fermented wine tastes like dirty gym socks!
If you’re interested in visiting vineyards, I suggest you research their harvest time as that is the best time to see the entire process. Early in the season, there isn’t any fruit on the vines or in the processing plants.
Christine also held a wine tasting party at the B&B for friends where I learned some more about the subtle differences in white wines. And one evening she held a dinner party with neighbors who were hosting an international group of people from the wine industry. The “harvest dinner” was made up entirely of foods grown in her garden and the guests were from Poland, Serbia, Iran and Canada.
International dinner party with guests from Poland, Serbia, Iran and Canada.
I took a lot of road trips while staying here and one day I attended the Grape Festival in Naples, NY, a huge street fair with local merchants, crafters and wineries.
The wine tasting tent at the annual Grape Festival in Naples, New York.
There were some days that I didn’t drink wine…I ate cheese, instead! I visited Muranda Cheese Company, a dairy in Waterloo, New York. For $5.00, I tasted a dozen artisan cheeses and bought several of them, including three blocks of their incredible cows milk blue cheese. Its all gone now so I think I’ll order some more online.
Cheese tasting at Muranda Cheese Company makes for an inexpensive afternoon snack.
Upcoming post:
Lighthouses of Lake Ontario.
