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Finger Lakes Although there are lakes, college towns, state parks, historic sites and much more, the principal attraction for most travelers is the wineries. Canandaigua Wine Co. is the biggest, Widmer’s the most picturesque and Bully Hill Vineyards the most controversial of the larger Finger Lakes wineries. Others are more interesting for visitors with an interest in winemaking and an appreciation for finer wines, especially those who seek personalized, informal tours that follow the dictates not of the leader but of the led. For orientation purposes, start at one of the larger wineries, whose guided tours offer a comprehensive if perfunctory overview of the winemaking process followed by a quick short course on the proper way to taste wines and a commercialized pitch to purchase your favorites on the way out. Then head for the smaller wineries, where the tours are intimate, the conversations spirited, the tastings more varied and the guide may be the winemaker or the owner. The tastings are usually free, although some wineries charge $1 or more. Since they tend to be clustered at the southern ends of three lakes, you can visit the wineries along one lake each day. Locally available brochures group them under the Cayuga and Seneca Lake wine trails and the Keuka Lake Winery Route. The Finger Lakes specialty has been white vinifera wines, especially rieslings – which are considered among the best in America. Lately, red wines are coming of age. Here is a guide to some of the best or most interesting. This is where the “new” Finger Lakes wine tradition was launched in 1962. Dr. Frank was the first to plant European vinifera grapes successfully in the Finger Lakes and toiled daily in his Keuka Lake vineyards and winery until shortly before his death in 1985 at age 86. His son Willy and grandson Fred continue the tradition. The Frank wines have been served at the White House and have consistently outscored French wines in blind tastings. The low-key tasting room along an unpaved side road is the place to go for world-class pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon. “We could spend a quarter of a million dollars and make this a very attractive tourist place,” says Willy. “We prefer instead to make the best wine that can be made from our grapes.” They produce 10,000 to 14,000 cases a year, exporting internationally to countries as far away as Japan. Willy also has opened Chateau Frank in the cellar of the Frank home for the making of methode-champenoise sparkling wines, including a flagship brut in the French style. (607) 868-4884 or (800) 320-0735.
www.drfrankwines.com. Daily, 9 to 5, Sunday noon to 5. Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard, 3962 Route 14, Dundee. Hermann Wiemer, whose family has grown grapes and made wine for more than three centuries along the Mosel River in Germany, ranks as today's icon among Finger Lakes vintners. Wiemer, then the winemaker for the legendary Walter Taylor, acquired an abandoned soybean farm on a slope on the west side of Seneca Lake in 1973 and began planting viniferas as well as the traditional hybrid grapes. Fired by Taylor six years later as disloyal to the hybrid cause, Wiemer set up his own winery and never looked back. His soaring barn winery, renovated to state-of-the-art condition, is low-key and very serious, as befits a producer of award-winning chardonnays and rieslings that command top dollar Wiemer established a nursery that has become one of the country's most important sources for top-quality grapevines, a sideline that in its way dwarfs his vineyard and winery. He produces 12,000 cases of wine annually, samples of which can be sipped in a rather forbidding tasting room where the solo visitor senses that the staff has other priorities. Prices range from $7.50 for a dry rosé to $20 for the limited-edition pinot noir. In its annual pick of the world’s finest wines, Wine Spectator gave Wiemer’s semi-dry riesling ($10) the top rating. There are self-guided tours. Private tours may be arranged by appointment. (607) 243-7971 or (800) 371-7971. www.wiemer.com.
Open Monday-Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday 11 to 5. Closed weekends,
April-November. Glenora Wine Cellars, 5435 Route 14, Dundee. Among medium-size Finger Lakes wineries, this is a pace-setter with a commanding view from the west side of Seneca Lake. Glenora has been winning awards since it opened in 1977 as the first winery along Seneca. Its Johannesburg riesling was rated the best in America two years in a row, and its reserve chardonnay was served at President George (41) Bush's inauguration. Glenora long ago abandoned variety in order to concentrate on premium white viniferas and French-American varietals, plus premium sparkling wines. Wine Spectator magazine ranks it among the world’s 70 top producers of fine wines. Glenora's merger with the smaller Finger Lakes Wine Cellars of Branchport doubled output to 60,000 cases a year. A large, two-story addition has expanded the production facility as well as the upstairs tasting area and added an impressive new showroom. The expansion continued in 1999 with a new building housing a restaurant, inn and conference center with a stupendous view (see below). Its principals since have founded Logan Ridge Estates Winery across Seneca Lake and purchased Knapp Vineyards along Cayuga Lake. After viewing a video presentation, Glenora visitors get complimentary samples of up to five wines. Questioners who linger may get to try a few others, as is the case at most smaller wineries. Glenora offers a line of table wines ($7.99), but we always pick up a few of the dry rieslings ($9.99), which are some of the best anywhere. Also great are the brut and blanc de blanc and the merlot. Ever-enterprising, Glenora sponsors food and wine festivals and occasional Sunday afternoon concerts on its lawn. (607) 243-5511 or (800) 243-5513. www.glenora.com.
Open daily, 10 to 8 in July and August, 10 to 6 in May, June, September
and October; 10 to 5 (Sunday noon to 5), rest of year. Wagner Vineyards, 9322 Route 414, Lodi. This is another favorite among the larger estate wineries, thanks both to its fortuitous location on the eastern slope overlooking Seneca Lake and to the myriad endeavors of owner Bill Wagner, a dairy farmer-turned grape grower-turned winemaker. He started in 1979 with eight wines and now offers more than 30 wines and champagnes, as well as six beers from the new Wagner Valley Brewing Co.’s microbrewery adjacent. One of his early endeavors is the large Ginny Lee Café (see below), but he's proudest that the winery has been ranked among the world's top 70 by Wine Spectator. Bill Wagner differs from some in that he grows all his grapes ("my philosophy is that good wine is made out in the vineyards, which makes winemakers shudder, but I like that fulltime control over the grapes," says its owner). He also differs in the amount of research ("more than the rest of the wineries put together") and the proportion of red wines (at one point nearly 50-50). He and his staff host hundreds of visitors on busy weekends in the octagonal building he designed himself, as well as Friday night musical bashes on the deck of the microbrewery in summer. After guided tours of the winery, visitors taste wines and then browse through a large and busy shop. The limited-release chardonnays and pinot noirs have been much honored; ditto for a couple of dessert ice wines. We came home with a good gewürztraminer for $12.99. (607) 582-6450. www.wagnervineyards.com. Open
daily, 10 to 5. Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars, 9224 Route 414, Lodi. In its construction stage, passersby thought this striking structure atop a hill commanding a panoramic view of Seneca Lake was to be a cathedral. It turned out to be a temple – a temple for some of the best wines in the Finger Lakes region. Owner Mark J. Wagner’s “neo-Greek Revival barn” houses perhaps the region’s most exciting young, high-end winery. California architect Bruce Corson, a friend whose father was president of Cornell University, designed a four-level masterpiece of open spaces, oak floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and cream-colored walls hung with changing artworks. The elegant showroom provides a perfect backdrop for the tasting of premium viniferas, including a 1998 gewürztraminer and a 1997 merlot that won gold medals in prestigious wine competitions. Mark, a distant cousin of Bill Wagner of the adjacent Wagner Vineyards, had been growing classic vinifera grapes on his 130 lakeside acres for other wineries before opening his own winery in 1992. His early rieslings won a total of 30 medals in the first four years. The 1990 blanc de noir was Wine Spectator’s highest rated sparkling wine in New York. We savored the barrel-fermented chardonnay ($11.99) and cabernet franc ($12.99). At a recent visit, Lamoreaux had been judged the best winery at the annual Mid-Atlantic Wine Festival. Mark explains that some of his wines may not be at their best as stand-alone tasting wines, "but I drink wines with food so those are the kind I'm producing here." He plans to remain small and aim for the ultra-premium market. (607) 582-6011. www.lamoreauxwine.com.
Monday-Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday noon to 5. Standing Stone Vineyards, 9934 Route 414, Hector. Who’d expect a year-old winery open only on weekends to win the Governor’s Cup (best of show) at the annual New York Wine and Food Classic? With a red wine, no less? The best-in-state award for its ruby red cabernet franc put Standing Stone quickly on the connoisseur’s map. Owners Tom Macinski, a chemical engineer with IBM, and his wife Marti, a litigation lawyer, commute on weekends from Binghamton to their home and vineyard along the eastern shore of Seneca Lake. Even before their winery opened in 1994, their first gewürztraminer had won a gold medal at the New York State Fair and their riesling and dry vidal also had won awards. The part-time winemakers won awards for every wine they produced in their first two harvests, and have been reaping more honors ever since for products that are quickly sold out.. The winery is in a restored barn and the tasting room is in an old chicken coop enhanced by a covered outdoor deck. The Macinskis have increased their output from 800 cases to 7,000, still operating basically weekends but hiring a winemaker. Their stylish chardonnay, riesling, merlot and pinot noir offerings are priced from $10.50 to $17.99. French charcutier Christian Chiron and his wife Elizabeth operate the Smokehouse Wine & Cheese Bar on two decks overlooking a little pond and the lake below. The menu features local products. Look for such lunch treats as a smoked salmon platter, grilled turkey caesar salad, hickory-smoked rotisserie chicken, a roasted chicken salad sandwich on rosemary focaccia and perhaps mango sorbet or chocolate gelato for dessert. (607)
582-6051 or (800) 803-7135. www.standingstonewines.com.
Open Thursday-Monday 11:30 to 5, Saturday to 6. Knapp Vineyards Winery, 2770 County Road 128, Romulus. A vaguely California air pervades this winery, which began as a family operation on 100 acres of a former chicken farm above Cayuga Lake. There's a large, airy tasting room with a California-like veranda, but the prize addition is the restaurant fashioned from a storeroom at the rear of the winery (see below). Founding owners Doug and Suzie Knapp sold in 2000 to the owners of the expanding Glenora Wine Cellars enterprise. Knapp is one of the few wineries producing “methode-champenoise” champagne. It also is one of the growing numbers doing red viniferas, including pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon. The late-harvest riesling is a gold-medal winner. Recently released was a velvety ruby port, fortified with brandy from the Knapp still. The new grappa won a gold medal and, aging slowly in oak, a cognac-style brandy was released. (607) 869-9271 or (800) 869-9271. www.knappwine.com. Monday-Saturday 10 to 5:30, Sunday 11:30 to 5:30, March-December; weekends only in January and February.
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