Although we were hoping for a beautiful Saturday on Keuka Lake, we awoke in our barn suite to an overcast sky and some slight rain.  It was a bit of a challenge to tear ourselves up from our warm king size sleigh bed and to make it to our 9 a.m. breakfast, but when we were served our homemade spinach and white cheese egg souffle with fresh fruit, organic sausage, and piping hot biscuits, it was well worth it.  The juice was freshly squeezed and the coffee was tasty and strong.  Thankfully, we did not mind the rain because we had booked a driver for the day so we could enjoy our wine tour without worrying about directions and without worrying about tasting too many wines while driving.

Our driver, Ron, arrived early and we were off before 11 a.m. to start the tour.  Ron was full of knowledge and gave us insight into the development of the region, the growing Amish farm community, the rising real estate prices of lakefront property, and most importantly the layout and reputation of the wineries.  We were having such an amazing day visiting the wineries (and tasting all the fabulous rieslings and gewurztraminers), we decided to forgo lunch to make it to even more wineries before returning to the Inn at 5 p.m.  Who needs lunch when you have local cheeses and crackers and when there are wine biscuits at every tasting table? More of our winery tour and some pics after the jump…

By the end of the day, the rain subsided and we were treated to a spectacular full arch rainbow over Keuka Lake.  The fog lifted and the views from the last couple of wineries were spectacular.  Ron was the perfect tour guide and told us not to worry if our tour ran over our allotted 6 hours.  The drives from winery to winery took us along lakefront roads and we were surrounded by the bright reds, oranges, yellows, and greens of the spectacular fall foliage.  All in all, we learned a tremendous amount about a wine region close to home, made some new friends, and tried some great wines. 

Hunt Country Vineyards:  Hunt Country was our first stop of the day.  Although there seemed to be some tour buses outside, we were pleasantly surprised to walk right in and up to the tasting bar without a wait.  Alice guided us through our tasting ($2 per person for any 5 wines, fully refundable with the purchase of any wine).  Although we were supposed to taste 5, Alice poured us many more.  The highlight of the tasting for me was the 2007 Late Harvest Vignoles (superb).  The noble rot silky sweetness brought me back to Sauternais region of Bordeaux.  I surprisingly found the dry riesling lacking in flavor and overly acidic, especially because I generally prefer dry whites.  The semi-dry riesling turned out to be worlds more pleasurable.  I did not find any of the reds compelling, but we were surprised by a taste of 2002 cabernet franc (the winery had bought back some cases, so we were offered a taste although it was not on the tasting menu).  The winery had a nice little gift shop and also sold handmade ravioli from The Ravioli Shop, a small Rochester ravioli producer.  We had just finished breakfast at the Inn so food was not on our mind, but if it was later in the day I’m sure we would have snagged some of the seasonal pumpkin ravioli for Sunday night dinner.  Being our first stop of the day, it was hard to rate the Hunt Country wines at first but after visiting the other wineries, I would certainly recommend Hunt Country if you are in the Keuka Lake region.

Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars:  Andy and I had heard the most about Dr. Frank’s wines and understood that they were the highest quality wines in the region, so we were very much looking forward to this stop.  We were escorted around the porch (with a beautiful lakefront view) to the second tasting room with about 12 other people as soon as we arrived.  There was no tasting fee and our affable tasting guide, Susan, presented two wines to select from each time she poured.  It worked out perfectly for us, because we would get one of each and compare.  I found the sparkling wines (that they listed as champagne causing me to cringe- being a Francophile myself) to exceed my expectations.  Both the Frank Brut and Celebre Rose were lovely and were made with traditional old world methods.  The whites were quite nice, but the highlight of the tasting was being introduced to some varietals I had never tried (and never even heard of).  The Cuvee d’Amour (the vitus Amurensis varietal from Siberia and northern China), the Lemberger (light style red from Central Europe) and the Rkatsiteli (a hugely popular varietal in Eastern Europe-a white with crisp acidity) were all new to me.  It was so exciting to experiment with tasting and comparing some new reds and our guide continued to pour for us after the rest of the tasting group dismantled.  We ended up spending much more time at Dr. Frank’s than expected.  It was one of our favorite visits of the weekend.

Heron Hill: Our next stop was Heron Hill.  The setting was once again beautiful and the tasting room was unique as it was modeled to resemble the inside of a wine barrel.  All of the Heron Hill employees were dressed up in ’20s attire and there was nice acoustic guitar music making the tasting room a very festive spot.  We decided to taste from the premium menu (at $5 per person), but were surprisingly not impressed with the premium estate whites.  I also was not a huge fan of the premium cabernet franc I chose to taste, but both Andy and I loved the late harvest rieseling.  There was a smooth honey flavor but also some layers of orange peel and light acidity.  Heron Hill had a great gift shop and were able to stock up on the essentials (new foil cutters, stoppers, and cheese boards).

Bully Hill Vineyard:  We had commented that it would be nice to be in a wine region where the tasting rooms were not overrun with drunken groups of men and women pounding wines for a bachelor or bachelorette party.  Boy were we wrong.  When we walked into Bully Hill, we walked right into one big frat party.  The room was full of groups of men and women celebrating god knows what with underwear on the outside of their pants and giant hot dog and hamburger hats on (not kidding).  After being polite and signing the briefs on the outside of some stranger’s jeans with a sharpie marker, we began our tasting.  Jason, our guide, told us when to sip, told us when to chug, and told us when to cheer.  The goal seemed to get everyone drunk so they wouldn’t notice what they were drinking.  Although the wines were not top quality (some were down right awful- think concord grape juice), the atmosphere was entertaining, and the labels on the bottles were quite artistic.  It was a fun stop, but we could not bring ourselves to finish our glasses (of horrendous sugary grape juice) when ordered to do so by our tie-died and mardi gras-bead-clad director of ceremonies, so we ran.

Ravines Wine Cellar:  The next visit took us to the Eastern side of Lake Keuka to a boutique winery run by Morton and Lisa Hallgren.  What sets Ravines Wine Cellar apart from the rest is first of all, the Hallgren’s only bought the land in 2000 so it is quite a young operation.  Secondly (and I was very excited about this), the winery is run by a French winemaker using Old World winemaking techniques.  Morton Hallgren was born in the South of France in Provence where his family owns Domaine de Castel Roubine.  Morton studied at the Ecole Nationale Superiure d’Agronomie in Montpellier and even spent a harvest at Chateau Cos D’Estournel (which we passed while in Bordeaux and from which we have bought a lot of wine).  From there, Morton worked in Texas, at the Biltmore Estate in NC, and at Dr. Frank’s winery as the chief winemaker.  The tasting room was a bit packed by the time we got there but thankfully we left the underwear-clad, goggle-wearing, wine-chugging group behind at Bully Hill.  We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of Ravines wines and especially enjoyed the whites (try the dry riesling, gewurtz, and sauvignon blanc).  We had high expectations for the Meritage (hoping for a nice old world Bordeaux blend), but it did not blow us away.  Definitely a step up from Bully Hill and one of the more consistent tastings we had but not our favorite of the day.

Rooster Hill Vineyards:  Next stop, winery number six.  Okay, by now I am forgetting to jot down my tasting notes so not too sure how exact I can be on the wine descriptions.  Rooster Hill was a very inviting, friendly place (think large red barn with an impressive amount of rooster paraphernalia- both to admire and to purchase).  Although none of what we tasted was remarkable, we found the 2007 Silver Pencil to be quite pleasant.  It is surely a good buy table wine and it is slightly sweet with some exotic fruit overtones.  I would not pair it with your special grilled branzini with olive, capers, and preserved lemon emulsion, but I would certainly pop it open with the barbecue shrimp kebabs or the summer picnic tuna salad sandwich.  We did find ourselves some lovely locally crafted chardonnay strawberry cheese and pepper dusted crackers to take back to the Inn (our stomachs were beginning to growl by now).

Keuka Spring Vineyard:  Our last stop of our quite long day of tasting was Keuka Spring Vineyard.  By now, the fog had lifted and we were treated to spectacular views of the lake.  We tried some different whites (I believe we tasted their pinot gris and seyval blanc- but once again, my note taking skills were not at their finest by now).  I did very much enjoy their gewurtz and their late harvest vignoles.  We also found ourselves some wine-related regional crafts (envision our wine bottles at home now clad with hand carved hanging black beers and moose- now remember how much wine we had before making these purchases).  The tasting room had a rustic feel and a beautiful lake view.  It was the perfect ending to our day in the country along the Keuka Wine Trail.

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