Skip to main content

Finger Lakes Wine Region

We just returned from a "Road Scholar" (formerly known as Elderhostel) program in the Finger Lakes region of New York.  Incuded in the program were visits to 3 Finger Lakes wineries.  In addition, we visited 2 wineries after the Road Scholar program.  Of the 5 wineries, we enjoyed 3 but cannot recommend the other 2.  The 2 wineries that did not meet expectations were staffed by servers who had no knowledge of basic winemaking.

The Finger Lakes region has over 100 wineries, making it one of the largest wine regions in the eastern United States.  The region is centered around Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes which create microclimates without extreme cold in the winter but with warm breezy summer days.  The area specializes in white wines such as Reisling and Gewurtztraminer as well as sparkling wines made with Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.  The most successful red wines are made from Cabernet Franc.

The three wineries that we recommend include one from each lake mentioned above.

Dr. Frank Konstantin and Sons

In the early 60's, Dr Frank pioneered the growing of Vinifera grapes in this cold weather region.  The winery sits above Keuka Lake with a beautiful view of the lake from the tasting room.  The staff did a great job with our group of 36 people.  The presentation was informative and the sample sizes were the most generous of the wineries we visited.


Lakewood Vineyards

This winery sits at the southern end of Seneca Lake, just outside Watkins Glen, NY.    The winery opened in 1989 and the wines were excellent.  Here is a link to a video about the winery http://senecalakewine.com/communities/wineries/lakewood-vineyards.html

Sheldrake Point Winery 

We visited this winery after the conclusion of our Road Scholar program and it was clearly the best experience of our wine tour.  The winery sits overlooking Cayuga Lake in Ovid, NY.  The tasting room is surrounded by lovely flower gardens and the interior featured beautiful flower arrangements in both tasting areas.  Our server was knowledgeable and the wines were the best that we tasted.  Many of the wines were rated 90 points and above by respected wine magazines.  This is a small production winery so you will not likely find the wines in your local wine shop outside of the Finger Lakes region.  We agreed that all the wines were excellent but we especially liked the Gewurtztraminer.  This was an intensely floral wine with surprisingly low residual sugar.

Dead Soldiers

Sheldrake Gewurtztraminer

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Parcelica Grande 2018

 It has been a little over 3 months since I last posted on this blog.  I have taken that time to enjoy old favorites as well as wines bought directly from wineries.   I needed a break from trying a lot of unfamiliar wines so that I might have something new to write about.   However, now I am planning a live video post for the OlliLife newsletter at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University about value wines from lesser known wine regions and this will require Wine Jane and I to do a lot of research.  Well, someone has to do it! There are few places that have as much affordable quality wine as Spain.  The best known wines from Spain come from areas like Rioja in the northern part of Spain.  However, even greater values can be found further south in the areas bordering the Mediterranean Sea.  One such area is Yecla, about 50 miles inland from the sea.  In the past seven years, I have posted about four wines from Yeccla.  All have been blends of the traditional Spanish  g

Dragon Vine, a novel by Steven Laine

It has been a year since I have posted to the South Carolina Wine Blog.  However, I was provided with an advance copy of the latest novel by Steven Laine entitled Dragon Vine   for my review.  Mr. Laine writes novels with a wine focused theme and I reviewed Mr. Laine's previous novel Root Cause  in 2019, which I greatly enjoyed. The synopsis of Dragon Vine is as follows: When his father dies in a wildfire, Carmine Cooper takes over the family winery in the middle of harvest, putting his dreams of becoming an architect on hold. He soon finds himself fighting with a vengeful neighbor, blackmailed by a local gang, harassed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, and the target of an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) investigation. Carmine’s only hope to solve his problems and finish his first solo vintage successfully rests in identifying an unknown grape variety his father grew and made into wine for a quarter century with links to an a

Furman University OlliLife March 2021

Today, March 18, 2021, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University will interact with its members by Zoom in a live version of the OlliLife newsletter.  For the past few years, we have posted a short wine blog in the newsletter and during the past year we have participated in the live zoom versions.  Today, Wine Jane and I will discuss some world regions with excellent values in wine.  Todays presentation will also be available for viewing next week on the Olli @Furman YouTube channel. The three recommended wines mentioned on todays "OlliLife Live" are: Parcelica Grande 2018  Yecla Spain 70% Monastrell,  15% Granacha,  15% Merlot $11.99 Total Wine Phebus Torrontes 2020 Mendozza Argentina  $10.99  Total Wine Famiglia Castellani Chianti Classico Reserva 2015 Chianti Classico, Tuscany, Italy Red Blend $13.99 Costco