My Wet, Wild Wine Weekend Recap

This past weekend, we headed to the New York Finger Lakes region to see my sister graduate from chiropractic college. (The drive Friday night was horrendous, and the weather Saturday was cold and wet. We did not care.)

As my sister was called to the stage, she was introduced, thusly: “Dr. Soul A. Sista”. She was hooded by my brother, Dr. Brother, who is a dermatologist.

I sat in the audience with my pharmacist parents, and my psychologist husband, and thought, “I’m feeling a little inadequate here.” When I voiced that thought, DearDR quipped, “Yeah, two doctors and a poet.”

Which does pretty much sum up the situation. Ah, well, at least we all have fun. (Scroll past the pictures if you want to see some winery details.)

The Poet

Two Pharmacists and a Doctor

Two Doctors and a Poet I

Two Doctors and a Poet II

Matriarch and Youngest Child

Local Sights

Not Bad

Lots to Choose From

Pretty Relaxed

The Ladies (No Flash)

If you go:

Although it’s a 5-hour car trip, I can heartily recommend heading up to New York Wine Country. Try to plan to be there at least two whole days (we were only there for one whole day, Saturday) to make it worth your time. Next time DearDR and I go (our 10-year anniversary is in a couple of years), I’m thinking we should arrange to drive home on a Monday.

We stayed at a lovely B&B. The room was well-appointed, comfortable and clean, and I am thinking that DearDR and I should invest in a king-size bed. I haven’t slept that well in a long time (we left the girls with Bella & Tadone). The breakfasts were amazing. (They are talking about having some special family weekends. I can see visiting with the girls in a few years.)

We enjoyed lunch at Knapp Winery and Restaurant. The food was excellent — especially the red pepper bisque. The wine at the winery was so-so. We had a lovely Barrel Reserve Chardonnay — which was described to us as being oaky, but was actually a very light fruit flavor with a tart finish — with lunch.

The best winery we went to was Buttonwood Grove Winery. Their wines, ranging from clear, dry whites to a sweet blackberry, were outstanding. Each one I tried (the typical tasting in the Finger Lakes region runs you $1 for six wines) was so clean tasting — no funky aftertaste, no metallic, chalky, or off notes — I wanted to buy a case. From the nose to the finish, each wine was simply delicious. We limited our purchases to their Chardonnay and Redbud — it was a tough choice between the Chardonnay and the dry Riesling.

DearDR got such a kick out of me playing wine snob: volatizing the esters, inhaling the bouquet, talking about the smells and the flavors I encountered. For example, “Oooh, very minerally on the nose, but with a fruit taste of apricots.” Or, “Big, red fruit, like cherries. Tannic on the finish.” Seeing as he taught me a lot of this stuff, I’m not quite sure what he found so amusing.

It was, akin to last Sunday, so nice to be able to take my time with these things. Dinner that evening was at Belhurst Castle with a tasting in their winery before hand. Their Syrah is amazing — big, bold flavors, dark red fruit to black pepper, all the way through — but it was also $25 a bottle. DearDR ordered up a rioja with dinner, which is a different choice for us. As we were enjoying our coffee and desserts, I mused how we never got to do this. Dinner must have lasted nearly three hours!

The next day on our way out of town, we stopped at Montezuma Winery. They specialize in fruit wines, melomels (that’s honey and fruit, no grapes, i.e. cherry, raspberry), and mead. We bought the Vin de Myrtille (a dry blueberry wine) and a Traditional Mead, plus a red blend called Canvasback Red for my MIL for watching the girls. I would put this one on your list too; they have a Cranberry Bog that is so unique — as if Ocean Spray had made a cranberry wine — I lobbied to buy it immediately, and a Sparkling Mead, but DearDR overruled me.

Oh, well. We’ll be back. Maybe some Burgh Moms want to make a road trip?

A big thanks to Mom and Dad for picking up the tabs, and a big thanks to Soul Sista — ahem, excuse me: Dr. Soul Sista for graduating from chiropractic school. You’re awesome, babe.