Planning a visit to the Finger Lakes

Hello gang!!

This group has always been so helpful with planning anything. I turn to you once again for help planning a trip to the Finger Lakes with a focus on good wine of course.

I did a board search and found a nice trip report from April but that was about it.

Any advice on wineries, inexpensive lodging, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Maria

Hi Maria -

how long is your trip planned for and where do you want to visit? Three of the lakes have substantial wineries on them that can be done in loops (Keuka), or segments (Seneca, Cayuga-both are planted on both sides, especially in the southern portions and I would not attempt to do loop wine tastings of these lakes). Depending on preference, you could stay at small B&B’s, hotels in small cities (in Ithaca if you like a more cosmopolitan feel, Geneva, Canandaigua, Watkins Glen).
I would hope you visit one or more of the beautiful gorge parks (Watkins Glen, Taughannock Falls, Treman Park, Buttermilk Falls – all state parks) around the area and which make the place so special.

Let us know what you have in mind…

Beautiful area. Renting a west facing cottage on a lakefront in the autumn has been on my to-do list for a number of years. Maybe this year…

Hi Markus,
5 nights is about all the time we have and will be in August. I do understand I will probably have to choose one lake/one side of a lake. I’m not about seeing as many as I can in a day; I don’t do that in California, not about to start now.

I’ve researched Watkins Glen before and would love to visit the park there.

Maria

First thing I would do is pick up a copy of Evan Dawson’s “Summer in a Glass.” Will definitely give you some local history as well as ideas of places you might want to see. We stayed in Geneva at the top of Seneca Lake. Definitely enough places around there to fill a few days.

While there are exceptional wines from all over the Finger Lakes, the greatest concentration of wineries that have been around a while are between Cayuga and Seneca on the East side of Seneca. From my days at Cornell, there were exceptional places there - Chateau Lafayette Reneau, Lamoreaux Landing, Wagner, Standing Stone, Leidenfrost, Hazlitt (also a lot of fun), and some new ones as well. If you’re staying in/around Ithaca, it’s the best bet. Otherwise, Keuka Lake and the wineries around are great as well if you’re staying out that way. Have a great time!

There’s lots to do and more wineries it seems everyday.

My favorites:

Heart & Hands Winery (Cayuga Lake)
Bloomer Creek (Seneca)
Lamoreaux Landing (Seneca)
Silver Thread (Seneca)
Hermann J. Wiemer (Seneca)
Billsboro (Seneca)
Keuka Lake Vineyards (Keuka)

I’d check the cities of Geneva, Seneca Falls and Watkins Glen for lodging. There’s lots of neat places to eat too, of course. I think it depends how long you plan on staying as far as where I’d recommend staying/visiting.

Heart & Hands is making some excellent Pinot Noir. It is one of the few Finger Lakes producer making Pinot.

Lots of people here who know the area better way than me, but when we were there, the exceptional wineries we were able to hit included:
Bloomer Creek
Herman Wiemer
Shaw
Ravines
Anthony Road
That’s a relatively arbitrary list, but those ones stuck with me.
And I think Konstantin Frank is worth it for the history–and much of their wine is very good.
Oh, and try and buy some great gin at Finger Lakes Distilling. Gin | FINGER LAKES DISTILLING
Regarding lodging, if you really want to go inexpensive, we stayed at Waneta Lake, which is small lake between Keuka and Seneca. The scenery was not breathtaking, but it was cheap and clean and convenient. I even caught some fish.

Red Tail Ridge makes a pretty nice rosé that we had a few years ago. On Seneca, but I haven’t been there.

And also produce excellent Rieslings, Pinot Noir and a superb Blaufrankisch.

Geneva is at the northern tip of Seneca Lake, and a great place to base. From Geneva you can hit both sides of Seneca Lake where the bulk of the top producers are, and scoot over to Keuka Lake where the Eastern shore has another great group of vintners -

You are not going to find a ton of great restaurants in the Finger Lakes, that industry is still growing, but you will find some great mom and pop restaurants for breakfast and lunch.

A couple nice Italian restaurants in Geneva: THE COBBLESTONE RESTAURANT, NONNA’S TRATTORIA

Two other nice restaurants in Geneva with nice beer lists and fun appetizers: PARKER’S GRILL & TAP HOUSE, RED DOVE TAVERN

And a couple places for an authentic slice of NY Pizza in Geneva: CAM’S NY PIZZERIA, UNCLE JOE’S PIZZERIA

Closer to Watkins Glen is Suzanne. It is on the east side of Seneca Lake in Lodi. Great food and service. Had the tasting menu matched with local wines and everything was delicious. Brought back a dozen wines with all but two being whites. Hope you enjoy ur visit.

Cheers,
Curt

Here’s my short list of what I consider the absolute best producers:

Ravines (They weren’t offering the Argetsinger Vineyard Riesling for tasting when I was there, but do yourself a favor and buy a couple of bottles.)
Hermann Wiemer
Anthony Road (pay extra to taste the sweet wines)
Lamoreaux Landing
Heart and Hands

+1 on Evan’s book.

Haven’t been to Dano’s Heuriger (yet) but he was up for a James Beard award. Viennese winery restaurant. Dano's Heuriger on Seneca

Love what the chef is doing at the Aurora Inn. http://www.aurora-inn.com

Moro’s table is terrific. Ed Moro was the Executive Chef at a very tony and expensive spa in Skaneateles (my home) and opened his own joint. Equal quality at 1/3 the price.

John beat me to it about Dano’s: interesting small portions, and gorgeous lake view in a contemporary architecture setting. Moro’s is in Auburn, kind of on the fringe of where you’ll be staying. Don’t forget about Stone Cat Cafe and the bistro at Red Newt Wine Cellers, both in Hector and very close to each other.

Bloomer Creek, Ravines, and Red Tail Ridge have consistently made our favorite wines for the last couple of years. I would also mention a new-ish small operation called Boundary Breaks that we visited last fall. Nice people, very promising wines.

Dano’s is a fun experience for food - definitely recommend. In addition to the other suggestions, Mercato in Ithaca makes some tasty dishes and Hazelnut Kitchen in Trumansburg is homey and usually good.

Watkins Glen State Park is great; even more so if you can catch it on a day when the crowds are thin.

I wholeheartedly agree - two vintages under their belt and they are really nailing it with a Riesling only portfolio. Their 2012s are just wonderful -

+1 on Evan’s book. A joy to read.

With the geography the way it is, if you stay on one side of a lake toward the middle (in a north-south sense), then you can easily get to the near side of the next lake. For example, if you stay on the west side of Cayuga, you can easily get to the east side of Seneca, but the other side of either is a long trip. Staying at the tip of a lake, e.g. in Ithaca or Geneva or Watkins Glen or Seneca Falls is probably best in terms getting to the most places.

Seems like Seneca Lake is the best place to stay because you are very close to several wineries and good restaurants.

I also recommend getting Evan’s book.

The great thing about this area is that in five days you can visit every major winery and get a comprehensive overview of the entire region and it is very inexpensive on a relative basis.

Wineries:

Bloomer Creek - I like everything the make but the Pinots and Gewurtz are stand outs), close to the Natural wine Genre). I could talk to Kim all day.

http://www.bloomercreek.com


Heart & Hands - Fantastic Pinots

Ravines (Argetsinger is in my opinion the best wine made in NY state)

Forge - New project with a French winemaker involved that I think might be ruffling the feathers of some of the locals but worth checking out.

http://forgecellars.wordpress.com

Boundary Breaks - Have not tasted these wines. It is a mystery project with a beautiful website

Silver Thread - Great Pinots and tasting the different single vineyard Rieslings is fascinating.

Restaurants:

Dano’s Heuriger

Suzanne’s Restaurant

Red Newt Bistro

Stone Cat Cafe

Great recommendations Robert - I visited Forge recently and just loved their wines. Their '12 Pinot Noir was the stud of my last trip - people are a bit taken back by their oak-aged Riesling, I heard from more than one winemaker there that they wondered how the wine would hold up or where it would go - I found it really fascinating.

Silver Thread is another must stop - they are just releasing their 2013 single vineyard Rieslings and they could be the best wines Paul has made yet -

SHAW - I think another one to consider - Steve Shaw is making some pretty kinky wines, his current releases of Riesling are from the 2008 vintage, wines left on their lees for literally half a decade (or so it seems), but such a revelation to taste.