The Finger Lakes Wine Region

My first introduction to the Finger Lakes wine region was at my cousin, Ryan's, wedding at Belhurst (pictured below). They served wine from the Anthony Road Wine Company (Ryan is friends with the owner). I remember the Tony's White they served at the wedding being the best I had ever had and can't wait to try it again to see if it is as good as I remember.

Belhurst at Seneca Lake: Winery, Hotel, Spa, Event Center, Castle
Finger Lakes Wine Region

When Jessi and I visited James Arthur Vineyard last summer, the lady we talked to there reccomended that if we wanted to visit a huge wine region, skip Napa and visit the Finger Lakes. She said Napa was expensive, too commercial, and the people were less likely to spend time talking to you about the wines.... this coming from the daughter of James Arthur and wife of the head winemaker at James Arthur Vineyard. If they wouldn't talk to her, they probably wouldn't talk to us.

The Finger Lakes, she said, was more like the wineriers and vineyards in Nebraska. They were a close-knit group, friendly, and less commercial. Then and there, Jessi and I decided that sometime, we needed to find a bus tour of the Finger Lakes wine region and leave enough time afterwards on our vacation to New York to explore on our own.

I don't know a whole lot about the Finger Lakes wine industry, but exploring it is on my bucket list. With family in the area, it shouldn't be too hard to do... Plus, I'm hoping I can drag some of them along to enjoy the trip with us.

Here's a link that Anthony Road posted on their facebook page that tells about some of the New York wineries/vineyards and some of their wines: Drinking New York

Cheers!

Another Pour Decision

As Lent approached, the question of what I would give up continued to bounce around in my mind, daily.... helped along by others asking what I was giving up. I don't remember giving anything up last year so this year I decided to do something extra difficult to make up for my lapse.

So, I was sitting in the Lair one day, trying to decide if it was too early to have a glass of wine when it hit me: I found what I was giving up for Lent.... Wine.

FML

The first few days were fine, but as the weeks pass, it is getting more difficult. For example, I am sitting here craving a glass of the sweet red moscato I have in the fridge like you wouldn't believe. I can hear it calling and mocking me from half way across the apartment... its voice is amplified by the unopened bottles in my wine rack.

I am trying to stay strong. I think the only thing that is getting me through is the thought of Jessi and I hitting our first stop on the 2012 wine tour at the end of March. We have a stop planned for our way up to Wayne for March Madness and I am not allowing myself any slips until then.

It is my reward.

Broken Rule

I broke one of my rules for this one.... the one about not buying wine without a cork in the bottle. I'm sorry. It was just soooo damn cute!!!! It's like a pudding cup of wine!

God Bless 'Mur'ka!

NEWS!!!!

Exciting news today in the world of the Nebraska Wine Tour: I'm chalking it up to them knowing my address from sending in my passport from last year but I got a shiny new 2012 Wine Tour passport in the mail today!!!!

It wasn't really much of a surprise since Jessi had texted me earlier and told me that she had gotten one in the mail and that I should check my box when I got home. I ripped open the envelope to discover not one, but TWO passports just waiting to be stamped. Looks like they are encouraging me to recruit more friends to join Jessi and I on this year's adventure...

Challenge Accepted!!!!

Wine Review #3: Beringer's Red Moscato

With my adventures on the Nebraska Wine Tour, this blog, and my random wine-themed stories, my friends, coworkers, and random acquaintances know how much of a wineaux I am. This tends to have its advantages (although, it might look to outsiders that I have a serious problem).

For example, my friend, Cathy, and I recently got around to exchanging our Christmas presents (our goal was to do it by Valentine's Day, mission accomplished!) and I could not help but be excited by what she got me: 2 bottles of wine! The first was my favorite moscato, Rex-Goliath which is super cheap and has a rooster on the label (she had Puffy run recon so she got the right kind) and the second was one I had never heard of before, Beringer's Red Moscato. I was really excited to try it and I was proud of Cathy for stepping out of her comfort zone (she knows nothing about wine and is rather apprehensive about the subject) to get something new for me.

Beringer's Red Moscato is sweet and light like most moscatos but there is a definite difference. The only way I can describe it is the "red difference." Dry to Sweet, red and white wine have a different taste. Chalk it up to tannins or just the color but blindfolded, I bet most people could point out the red vs. the white.

Either way, I LOVED it!!! It was also a huge hit with my mom and friend, Matt... I made Puffy and Joey try it. They were not fans... so my mission to turn them into wine drinkers continues.

It has become my new favorite wine and the hunt continues for where to get it since Cathy refuses to tell me where she found it.

Pour Choices, Bad Decisions

Drinking copious amounts of alcohol usually leads to Pour Choices and Bad Decisions for most people. I am a wineaux who would love to present a refined and sophisticated air… but I know this first hand.

1) A general Pour Choice comes in the form of a design flaw by wine glass manufacturers. While I personally love the idea, I think it is a horrible thing to sell. What I am speaking of, is, of course, those HUGE wine glasses that you can fit a half a bottle of wine or more in.

While I know that you are not supposed to fill them to the brim, that they are made that big so the wine has room to breathe and you can swirl the wine to allow the different flavors and notes rise to your pallet, etc., but who honestly follows those unwritten rules when the second or third bottle gets uncorked?

2) My first true Pour Choice that involves wine came from a night of drinking with Jessi, my sister Laura, and our friend Owen. Jessi and I were drinking wine like we are wont to do when somebody had the brilliant idea of wine bombs.

Why? Oh, dear God, WHY?!

This is where a drunk and/or stupid person adds cherry flavored vodka to an innocent glass of wine. I want to say that it was to try to make that poor bottle of frozen strawberry wine from a previous post taste better, but I honestly can’t remember. I would think that that would be the only reason to add vodka to wine, but who knows.

After the suggestion, Jessi and I poured ourselves fresh glasses of wine and poured a about a half a shot’s worth of cherry flavored vodka in. Jessi did the intellegent thing- she sipped on it until it was gone… not the best idea but it was the better of the two.

I did what you are supposed to do with a bomb- I tossed it back in a huge gulp. Awful idea! One of the worst I have ever had. I was pretty much done for the night and spent a while holding onto the armrest so I wouldn’t tumble off the couch.

Damn gravity always trying to keep me down.

3) A fairly popular Bad Decision that has been known to spread mono is passing the bottle. While I love wine glasses too much to do this very often (they make me feel classy, what can I say?) it has been known to happen. It’s usually the cheap bottle that gets opened toward the end of the night when we have lost all ability to differentiate between good ideas and a hole in the ground.

Thank goodness that this does not happen all that much.

4) Pour Choice: Gallon of Sangria, ready at hand. This came about when Jessi and I were exploring the wine choices at the Bottle Shop. We picked out a couple different wines and then somebody decided it would be a good idea to get a gallon of Sangria… I probably had a hand in it so I could get a glass jug for round 2 of mead making (a fail any way you look at it since the jug got left at a friend’s house and then thrown away).

When we arrived back to my apartment, we cracked open the gallon of sangria and did something that shouldn’t happen (see #3 Bad Decision-passing the bottle) we drank straight from the jug. Mostly so we could get pictures.

It made us feel very Appalachian-esque, drinking moonshine out of a brown jug.

I’m ashamed to admit that it took a few minutes to figure out how to hook our thumb through the loop and rest the bottle just so on our elbow so we could drink one-handed. Something we accomplished amid lots of giggles and leaky chins. 

Well, that gallon of sangria did not fit in the fridge, so it got left on the floor under the coffee table in the living room. Bad idea… it left entirely too much wine too close at hand, which was evident one evening when I made supper for my friend/ roommie, Puffy, and friend Joey. We were sitting around watching movies after, the guys enjoying some beer… me drinking the wine.

My head hurt the next morning… and that’s all I have to say about that.

Wine Review #1: Manzanas Dulces

Since our wine touring days are over until spring, I thought I would keep my blog going by doing reviews of various local wines that I am discovering on my own... which might be new for the vineyards/wineries or just ones that I've never tried before.

I'm not 100% sure if this wine is new for Mac's Creek or if I've just never heard of it before, but I recently found Manzanas Dulces while shopping for wine.

It was a fall wine that was supposed to be launched at their harvest festival that Jessi, Jenna, and I went to, but that didn't work out. When we did not see it out, Jessi and I asked about it while we were there and found out that the labels didn't come in on time so it was still sitting in a holding tank, waiting to be bottled. I offered to sample it straight from the vat (who cares about a label when wine is involved) but I was shot down.

Manzanas Dulces is a white apple wine that is sweet, light, and the apple really comes through to delight the pallet. I really enjoyed it and think that it would be a great wine to use in the apple-cherry sangria recipe that I got from Arbor Day Farms. I have added it to my lengthing list of wines that I love from Mac's Creek.