finger lakes Archives - Sanders Meanders

A Taste of the Finger Lakes

Laura and I went our first wine tasting eight years ago, when we went down to Crossing Winery in Newtown, Pennsylvania. We really didn’t know what to expect, honestly, having managed to go through nearly 40 years of life without such experiences. They put us in a room with large barrels lining the walls, poured the essential stuff in our glasses, and spoke wistfully of oak and berries and citrus and other things that you’re supposed to taste, but didn’t. But no matter. It was good wine, and even though we didn’t know why it was good, it still was.

That summer, my parents offered to take us up to the Finger Lakes to do a proper wine tour, complete with chauffeur. That would be my Dad, who doesn’t indulge and is perfectly content to drive around and look at the scenery. We had had a good experience at Crossing, so why not?

And we’ve been going at least once a year ever since.

So, as seasoned travelers along this well-worn path, the least we can do is impart some wisdom. There are a few supplies that every Finger Lakes Wine Tourist should have, and they are:

A designated driver. Dad, in our case.
A basket of snacks. Generally we go with crackers, cheese, and slices of salami. Food is not necessarily guaranteed along the trail, although that has changed in recent years. I’ll cover that in another article.
A game plan. Because not all wineries are created equal.
Water. Lots and lots of water.

The game plan is perhaps the most essential, for many reasons. First and foremost, you really don’t want to stop at every winery that comes along, or maybe you do, in which case you probably need some sort of help. You’re best served visiting about six or seven wineries at the most, and it’s good policy to take your time between tastings. Maybe you want to confine yourself to one lake at a time.

This year, we decided to stick (mostly) to Seneca Lake. We were going to start out with Bloomer Creek, which we had never tried before. Bloomer Creek wasn’t open when we got there, but we ended up doubling back later, and it was so impressive that I feel like I should cover them on their own in a future post. But for the moment, we couldn’t step inside, so we ended up at Hazlitt 1852.

There was a bachelorette party in the tasting room at the back, but otherwise, we had the place to ourselves. Although Hazlitt is known for its ubiquitous Red Cat, a sweet wine readily available anywhere in the Northeast, they have a full spectrum of varietals, including the Pinot Gris we took home.

The winery is informal without going overboard about it, and as far as I can tell, is the best winery to go to if you’ve never been to a wine tasting. There is no judgment here.

Another bachelorette party showed up in the middle of our tasting. Then, when we were on our way out, a bus pulled up in the back and a crew of girls with tell-tale matching-bling t-shirts folded out. We figured we needed to make ourselves scarce before a gang war broke out among the bride-to-be factions.

It should be noted that if you are planning a bachelorette party, the best recommendation I can make is Three Brothers in the northeast corner of Seneca. It’s more destination than winery, a wine theme park if you will. There are three wineries on the estate, with one of them, Passion Feet, devoted to everything girly. Note: reservations are required here for buses or limos.

If you would like to avoid the t-shirt and tiara crowd, I have some suggestions as well. First, it’s her day, get over it. Second there are plenty of places for the Non-Bachelorette Party People to go:

Miles Wine Cellars, for instance. Most of the wineries in the Finger Lakes, and especially Seneca, have very good views of the lake, but are not lakefront. Miles is the exception. Located in an early 1800s farmhouse, this winery has perhaps the greatest atmosphere of any winery in the area. The wine is very good, and we usually refer to their “Call Me a Cab” as our House Red. It is said that the old place is haunted by the original owners, which is the inspiration for their Chardonnay/Cayuga blend, “Ghost”.

Space is limited in the tasting rooms, so tour buses are not often found here.

We are old hands at Miles, so we didn’t do the tasting this time, we just stocked up on our old favorites, put them in the car, and walked down to the lake.

Hermann J. Weimer is rapidly and justifiably becoming one of the best-known wineries in the area. The Riesling grape grows very well in New York state, so you really can’t go wrong with any Riesling from the area, but if you want the best, it is here waiting for you. We stocked up with Dry and Semi-Dry 2016. Had we brought any first-timers, we might have done a tasting, because not only does Weimer have exceptional wines of all varietals, but they have a gorgeous array of tasting rooms. We first came here in 2013, and we have worked it in to every wine tour we have done ever since. It is a can’t miss.

Standing Stone, on the east side of Seneca, is one of the longest-running wineries in the area. Everything we had there was good, and we were especially pleased with the Gewürtztraminer and the Saperavi. As it so happens, we discovered a week later that Tom and Marti Macinski, the long-time owners of Standing Stone, were stepping aside, and that operations will be taken over by Hermann J. Weimer. We wish the Macinskis nothing but good fortune in their retirement, and believe me, we have no argument when it comes to their replacement. This could get interesting. We can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Lamoreaux Landing is located in one of the best spots on Seneca Lake and they take full advantage with a tasting room blessed with panoramic views. The Chardonnay was particularly good, and we were very happy with their latest release, 42 North. We will most certainly be back.

We skipped across to the east side of Keuka, which is a pretty easy trip over from Seneca, and visited Keuka Spring. Keuka has some of the oldest wineries in the state, yet it seems quieter than the others. We first went to Keuka Spring one lazy Friday morning a few years ago when we were the only ones in the place, had a tasting, and sat out on the hill overlooking the lake. Even though it was a dreary day then, as it was this day, it is such a peaceful spot that we barely noticed the clouds. This time, the place was packed, and well it should have been, because the wine is very good here.

There are so many wineries in the Finger Lakes that you can’t possibly visit them all during one tour. We visited seven this time around, but there were a lot more that we can heartily recommend:

Konstantin Frank, Hammondsport, NY (Keuka)

Heron Hill, Hammondsport, NY (Keuka)

Red Tail Ridge, Penn Yan, NY (Seneca)

Americana Vineyards, Interlaken, NY (Cayuga)

Ravines, Geneva, NY (Seneca)

Shaw Vineyard, Himrod, NY (Seneca)

Anyela’s, Skaneateles, NY (Skaneateles)

Not to mention, in the non-wine category:

Finger Lakes Distilling, Burdett, NY (Seneca)

Atop the Finger Lakes

In the last post, I stated without reservation that Skaneateles, New York, for my money, is the best small town in the United States, and even taunted Lititz, Pennsylvania in the process. In fact, I even had to tone down my taunting in the final draft of that post. As for the positive aspects of Skaneateles, one that cannot be ignored is its proximity to the other Finger Lakes. This trip is worth the price of admission by itself. U.S. 20 is the main thoroughfare here, and it was the main artery through the central part of New York prior to the New York Thruway, so there are many relics to be found along it.

Just five miles down the road is the city of Auburn. Like most places in upstate New York, it has undergone its share of hardships and loss of industry, but it does have my favorite overall sign-spotting location, the Hunter Dinerant, which has a ghost sign behind it and the Genesee Beer sign in the close distance. This is my shot from last October:

During this shoot, which coincided with an engagement photo shoot I had with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law-to-be, we spotted a sign on the way out of town that I had not seen in any of my research, right on the corner of US 20. Curley’s Pizzeria has been on the corner of State Street and NY5/US20 since 1933 (as the painting on the brick side proudly states. We had planned to go to Seneca Lake to get some more pictures of the happy couple, so I took a few distant shots with my phone that were too blown out to post to Instagram, but good enough to be a mental note. I would return.

And so, in April, I did. And got these:

curleys-wide curleys

A good start to the day, but hardly the last roadside attraction along US 20. The sections between the lakes are decidedly rural, with extremely gentle hills and farmland, but past Auburn is one my favorite sights along any road: a drive-in movie theater. New York has very few left, but the Fingerlakes Drive-In still stands. It was still closed for the season in April, but they left us something behind to remind us of summer and a bygone era:

We seem to have good luck finding old Dodges. See my diner page for a good one outside the Red Robin in Johnson City.

fingerlakes

It had been a hard winter…

We kept along US 20, past Seneca Falls and on our way to Geneva, where we’d eventually make the turn down to Penn Yan and Keuka Lake. “There’s something else here,” I said.

“What is?” Laura asked.

“Don’t remember,” I replied. “Something we passed in October.” I had made a mental note but I had forgotten to pass it to myself after gym class. But I knew there was…something.

And then, there it was. In fact, it was two things. I pulled off the road to the right to make life simpler for the crowd of cars behind me and got out. An old motel, and an old motel sign, barely readable from the wear, ugly/beautiful:

But this wasn’t what I had spotted. Across the road was a Drive-In restaurant, with a long, tall sign that I think I had put aside because I knew its dimensions would be difficult to capture:

But the prize was the building itself, a living testament to good times before or after a trip to the lake. This is what summer is all about:

I don’t know about you, but I just look at these places and whatever cares and worries I may be pulling along behind me just drop off, and I feel like a kid again.

There was more to come this day: some of the greatest combinations of good and bad I’ve ever seen. More in the next post!

New York State of Mind

Not the most original title, huh? But this is the song I would play every time I came home from college: I had the exact moment timed on my audio cassette version of Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits so “New York State of Mind” would play as soon as I crossed the border. That kind of stupidity takes dedication.

Anyway.

Although most of what you see on this site takes place in Pennsylvania, the more you read the more you will see that my heart belongs in Upstate New York. Both me and my wife were born there, my parents still live there, and any time we talk about getting away from it all, it always ends up with us going Upstate, whether it be to the Finger Lakes or Cooperstown or the dear old hometown of Binghamton. So I guess it comes as no surprise that we’ve spent our last two anniversaries in Skaneateles, a town which defines idyllic.

Every year, Lititz, PA gets named one of (if not the) coolest small town in America. I’ve been to Lititz. Nah. Give me Skaneateles any old day.

skaneateles

But do you have a lake, Lititz? Thought not.

But I kid the Lititz.

Now you’ll be amazed to know that Skaneateles has precisely zero vintage or neon signs, but despite this tremendous flaw, I would live there happily and perhaps skip for joy on occasions when I thought people weren’t looking. However, there are still good signs about within easy driving distance, including my favorite sign location in the state.

On the way up, we slid through Cortland. Cortland is one of these places that has some great history, as it was home to Smith-Corona and quite a bit of industry, but the last 30 years have been pretty lean. One thing I’ve noticed about the signs in towns like Cortland: either all the old signs come down, or businesses hang on to their signs for dear life. Fortunately, Cortland seems to fall in the latter category.

skyliner motel-cortland

The Cortland Motel and the Skyliner are off the McGraw exit of I-81. The Skyliner, alas, is no more, but the sign is still up, and points to a vacant lot. The Motel sign was kind of an afterthought. We pulled in and I took a couple of shots from the car, but this turned out to be one of the better finds.

To be quite honest, we were lost. Quite frankly, it’s easy to do in downtown Cortland. They basically toss you on to one way streets until you find yourself in Homer, or Dryden, or Groton. But as I righted the ship and turned back toward the center of town, I found the Melody Land:

This place dates back to before the 40s, is only open Wednesday to Saturday during dinner hours, and is family-owned. According to all accounts, you must get reservations to get in. It was a pity: we got there a good six hours too early…

A few one-way streets later and I was speeding toward Homer (which in this case, was the direction I had hoped) because I remembered a sign along the way that I had missed the previous year. If you take shots of signs as I do, you’ll know this feeling: you spot the sign right at the moment where it would be dangerous to pull over, so you continue on in hopes that you’ll be back again. Even though I had fallen into this trap, I was rewarded:

northend-wide

It was just after noon, and midway through my indulgence the neon of the sign suddenly came alive. I hadn’t gone in and asked. It made me smile.

north-end-color

The fact of the matter was, when I went inside afterward, the woman working there had no idea I was there. Apparently, they have the sign turned on all the time, and she had just forgotten when she had come in. But we had a great talk and gave me the owner’s card. When I got back in the car, I was just so thankful that someone recognized the underlying thing of what I do with these shots: the preservation and appreciation of these great pieces of history.

But not everybody sees it this way. More later…