Finger Lakes Wine Country

I haven't posted in awhile but we have moved our base of operations so to speak. We moved to go to Grad school in Seneca Falls, NY. It happens to be centrally located in the finger lakes appelation in NY. We've done some wine tours and have had a blast. We live on Cayuga lake and did that wine trail and we aren't far from Seneca lake which is a trail we have only done partially.

The Cayuga Lake wine trail is amazing. The grapes they grow up here thanks to Cornell in Ithaca (only about 45 min away). The Seneca Lake wine trail is pretty amazing too. Both wine trails are packed with great wineries and vineyards. The people are super friendly and if you go on an off day they will talk your ear off like have a wonderful glass with a great old friend. I do have some favorites up here which we will have to show my parents when they come up to visit. We've done it a couple times and have learned to only sip, drink lots of water, and always go on a full stomach or stop for lunch. Most places are a $2 for 6 tastings which can mean 2 ounces per glass to taste. Obviously after a few wineries you can get pretty buzzed. I'll try to make a survival guide later on. As it is we are up here for school and the wineries will be a necessity to stress relief ; ) but school may put a wrench in my blogging.

In general what we have discovered is the the finger lakes region sales some pretty amazing whites. Some have gone head to head with Riesling in Germany for new world wines and have won. They have a great growing area to make complex whites that are sure to please anyone. These grapes just seem to mold to what ever the wine makers want them to do. You can get almost any of the basic whites up here but they are known for their Rieslings and Chardonnays. And like I said before the local grapes are awesome. The Cayuga white grape is an amazing aperitif wine that is sure to delight all who partake.

One down fall up here is that we have found very few bold and well developed reds. We have come across a couple bottles we love and the sweet reds are a close second to all the whites. However, coming from a couple who loves grenache and tempranillos we are a little sad. Also because of the area our wine shops are majorly laking in the world of variety. We shall see what we can do to remedy our problem but until then the whites will just have to comfort me like a wonderful old girl friend.