My wife and I are looking to visit the Finger Lakes region this fall but know nothing about it. Figure to go late September/early October from Monday thru Thursday. Any help/info would be appreciated. Is it too early to book lodgings and where? We do plan on driving.
Cheers,
Curt
Great time of the year to go. Been there a couple of time the first week of Oct and have been able to pick as its usually the middle of harvest. We always stayed at a B&B on keuka lake that may not still be there. If B&B’s are your thing then I would consider booking now since many of them have only a few rooms and they can fill up.
Going during the week is great in that the wineries are not that crowded. Trip length is long enough that you can explore around all lakes. Herman Wiemer is a must stop. Bully hill is fun and you can get a decent lunch there but the wine is not worth tasting. Dr. Frank use to have some good wines and I especially liked the sparklers and Rkasitelli, not sure if it’s still as good.
There are a number of wineries that have opened up since I was there last so not really sure which are making the best wines today.
Wineries I like that are on everybody’s radar:
Ravines
Wiemer
Dr. Frank (should be noted that Heron Hill is next door. Wines at Heron Hill are mediocre but the winery and view are spectacular)
Heart & Hands
Favorites of mine that are not on everybody’s list:
Bloomer Creek (soon to be on everyone’s list IMO)
Damiani
Shaw
Red Tail Ridge
Hosmer
I have visited Wiemer, Frank, Heron Hill, Damiani, Ravines, and Hosmer. Frank and Heron Hill are the prettiest, Ravines is quite nice, and with Wiemer, Damiani and (especially) Hosmer it’s about the wines.
I assume that you’re aware the weather is quite iffy that time of year. If you’re really flexible and you’re willing to take what’s available, you might want to consider booking at the last minute once you see a weather report. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think there is a real rush of visitors that time of year compared to summer. If you don’t mind going to a 60’s time warp motel, Clark’s in Geneva is clean and very reasonable.
One more thing. This is apple country and it will be the height of apple season. I strongly recommend stopping at a pick your own apple orchard on the way home. If you’re going through Syracuse to take 81 south, Beak & Skiff off the Lavayette exit is highly recommended. I’m not as familiar with the options in the FL, but I’m sure there are good ones.
Finally, in case you haven’t checked them out, there are already a few FL travel threads. Do a search on “Finger Lakes” and you’ll find them.
M @ r k
Curt,
Where are you driving from?
M@rk has already given you lots of good advice, including searching for previous threads on this. I can’t add much. It’s a beautiful place. It is also quite a large region. How long will you stay there?
Thanks for all the info. We will being going on 10 September and leaving from the Baltimore area. I guess you could call this sort of a scouting trip as we will be returning on the 13th, although we are on no time clock with the option to “roam” if we want. This will happen ofter a July trip to Bar Harbor and Camden, Maine, so we may be “tripped out”.
Cheers,
Curt
I’m going to go another way, everyone can talk about wine. You should definitely visit Cooperstown. Even if you aren’t into the Baseball Hall of Fame, they have a wonderful Folk Art Museum there and there are lots of nice quite streets with antique stores etc. It is beautiful that time of year.
One place we enjoyed staying was Belhurst Castle. Beautiful place on the historic register, has a winery (so so) nice restaurant, and right on Seneca Lake. Very pretty and romantic.
Have stayed at Morgan Samuels Inn(Canandaigua), Halsey House(Trumansburg), and The Fox and the Grapes(Lodi) and liked them all. At this time I still fancy Anthony Road and Red Tail Ridge for wineries and I would try Billsboro and Ravines as well. Take a look at events at the NY Wine and Culinary Center(Canandaigua) for your time period and see if there is something of interest to you.
Make sure you read Evan Dawson’s book - Summer in the Glass. Very interesting. Focuses on several of the winemakers in the Finger Lakes. Evan posts here and is a great source of info on the area.