On The Wine Trail

Today was our day to explore the Finger Lakes Wine Trail. We had read great reviews for Dr. Franks Winery so we headed to Keuka Lake, the next lake west of Seneca Lake. Keuka Lake, meaning “canoe landing”, is the 4th largest of the Finger Lakes and is unique in its “Y” shape.

Our first stop was at Dr. Franks Winery. This was our first ever wine tasting and we really didn’t know what we were doing. It turned out to be pretty easy. The server (she may have a special title, but we didn’t learn that much today) gave us a list of the wines available for tasting. We could have selected the ones we wanted to try, however, we are not very serious or knowledgeable wine drinkers, so we didn’t know enough to know what we wanted to try. She was gracious and didn’t roll her eyes or laugh or do any other gesture that would have indicated her amusement at our lack of experience. Instead, she was very helpful in making suggestions about what we might like to taste.

Now we were on our way again, feeling much more confident in our ability to act like we know what we were doing. Our next stop was for lunch at Bully Hill Winery. We didn’t go to the tasting room here, but to the restaurant. We still selected a wine we wanted to sample before ordering a glass to accompany our lunch. Gene really ventured out and ordered a hamburger for his lunch. I wanted something I couldn’t get just anywhere. One of the appetizer specials was banana peppers stuffed with a variety of cheese then baked and served with toasted bread rounds. It was outstanding, but the peppers were very hot.

Heron Hill Winery

We made our way on down the western side of the lake. Our final stop was at Pleasant Valley Winery for the tour. Pleasant Valley is a very old winery, dating back to 1890. We enjoyed the tour which included getting to see the caves in which the wine barrels were stored for aging.

Old Pleasant Valley Winery

Huge redwood barrel of sherry

We drove home along the eastern side of the lake. We both agreed that, although the wine tasting was a new experience and the winery tour was interesting, we enjoyed the scenery as much as anything we did today.

Keuka Lake