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+--- Thread: My Sunday (/thread-20373.html)
- TheEngineer - 06-15-2007
Finally got to sit down to type out my experience on the Sunday of the offline. Special thanks to Gene who was such a great host! KC and Jean and Don, it was great to have meet all of you (KC, again). So to the writeup
Saturday morning 5:00am, Toronto Ontario
Post on wines.com from KC to TheEngineer. "Mike, Manage it. It's much more than just driving around to a few wineries. We're going up tomorrow morning and coming back Monday morning." (Point taken KC…..looking for my cellphone…)
Saturday morning 5:15 am, Toronto, Ontario, phone call to Finger Lakes New York
Hello? Glenora Inn? Do you have any rooms left? When? For tonight…..yes tonight. There should be a wine group there already. Yes…that group… You got one? Great! I’ll see you tonight!
Saturday 2:00 pm Toronto, Ontario, Lester B Pearson International Airport
PA System: Ladies and Gentleman, the weather in Boston is really poor and our plane will be arriving late. I will give you more details when it is available
Saturday 4:00 pm Toronto, Ontario, Lester B Pearson International Airport
PA System: Ladies and Gentlemen, the plane has arrive and will be prepared for boarding soon. Please stay in the gate area as we will be boarding in 5 minutes.
Saturday 5:30 pm somewhere over Massachusetts, 50 miles out from Boston
PA System: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. The weather in Boston is really bad with high winds and they have just closed the airport. They have asked us to go into a circle over the city until they change their status. They do not know when they can open up again so we will just circle for a while. I have an hour’s worth of gas left so we might have to go back to Toronto.
Saturday 6:00 pm somewhere over Massachusetts
PA System: Ladies and Gentlemen, the airport is now opened again and we have been cleared for landing!
Saturday 7:00 pm back home in Boston…….unpack and pack in five minutes…run for the car with my wife Genevieve and we are off driving 6 hours back to the west to Glenora. I am now rushing to get to the offline! This is good……in the hurry, I forgot to bring any of my wines……..(@#!$!@%#!)
We arrive at Glenora Inn just past 12:30 pm so we made great time, especially given all the police that we saw on the way in. It was pitch black on the roads in and we saw nothing but suicidal squirrels running in front of our head beams moving towards them at 85 miles per hour. We were given the keys to the room at the front desk and we headed in. What a great room. Huge bathroom, nice sitting area with a gas fireplace and an overall very pleasant feeling. Genevieve was tired after the long day at work and the surprise trip that I forgot to tell her about…... We settled in, watched a bit of news and went to bed.
Next morning. I woke up at 6:30am and looked outside. Wow….we were staying IN a vineyard. The room overlooked a vineyard, which was above a glacial lake (Lake Seneca). The lake had a thin layer of morning fog. The sun was burning this off and in some areas, reflected off the lake. The smell was of fresh country. There was a light cool wind on my skin. What a fantastic way to wake up.
I got a note saying that the group was getting together for breakfast at 9:00 am so we had plenty of time to get up and pack. We were leaving at the end of the day unlike the group that had another day ahead of it. My wife was a little nervous as she has never met the group before. I’ve only meet Bob myself. We were both hoping not to make fools of ourselves that day.
The group was mostly waiting for us when we got there, Jane is in a few minutes after us. As is the morning tradition of WW, we started off our day with a breakfast of champions, a bottle of 2001 Glenora Finger Lakes Brut Sparkling Champagne. That went great with the French Toast that I ordered. Gene sat down with us for breakfast.
It was just a beautiful morning. So quiet, so refreshing, the calls of birds and a kiss of warmth now from the sun. I looked up into the big sky and the puffy white clouds paraded past happily, freely, lazily. Very content, I dug into my breakfast and slowly sipped the coffee out of respect for what as in front of us, beautiful scenery, wonderful weather, and great people having a good conversation.
Gene showed us his latest vintage of the brut sparking wine that we had for breakfast. He brought down a few bottles that had been riddled completely. The lees were clearly at the top of the neck. He asked Genevieve to disgorge the lees on the neck with a metal cantilever which she did well. Gene then demonstrated to us the ceremonial way to open a bottle of sparkling wine with a saber. Not an easy task but in his hands, it seemed very smooth and elegant.
After the tour, we went upstairs and picked up a case of Gene’s great white wines. For me this include the Gewurtztraminer, Rieslings, dry Rieslings, Seyval Blancs, and a half dozen bottles of the great brut Sparkling wine! After this is was off to Heron Hill. We all jumped into KC’s SUV. Heron Hill had this massive building that would not look out of place on I-29 in Napa Valley. It was very large and made an obvious impact on the visitors. I wish I could say the same about the wines. I tried a Riesling, a dry Riesling (very nice), a Gwurtztraminer, a Cabernet Franc, and a meritage blend. The whites were okay but the reds were light and not much going on.
The day was just developing beautifully. The clouds were big, white and puffy and the temperature was getting warmer, now closing in on 25 degree centigrade. Very very comfortable wine touring weather. The wineries in the NY Finger lakes area are in hilly area created by the recessing of the glaciers, resulting in rolling hills and deep glacial lakes (Seneca is over 700 feet deep). This provides the basis for the vines and the lakes have a temperature moderating effect.
We the drive further north to Dr. Konstantine Frank. This was the winery that I had wanted to visit for some time. Robert Parker noted that this was one of the best wineries in the area and even gave their Riesling 90 points to which the staff noted that even that “Left Coast Bastard†thought our stuff was good (btw, as KC pointed out,…doesn’t Parker live in Maryland??). Their Rieslings are spectacular. I love their dry Rieslings even more, balanced, crisp and complete harmony. They had a varietal there called Rkatsiteli that KC had me try and if you are an Aligote fan, this wine will work well for you. But the biggest shock was with the reds. I tried their cabernet franc and it was super-dark, super-extracted, with a full mouth feel. While the wine was a bit sweeter than I wanted, there was a nice complexity there. I liked this wine quite a bit. Then he pulls out a meritage blend from the Salmon Run. At $12.99, this wine is a steal. Solid, balanced and unpretentious. I look forward to return visits to this winery. We bought a ton wine from here.
We turned around and headed for lunch at Bully Hill Vineyards. KC tells us the story of how this place was created by the family but the wines were not nearly as interesting (in fact we did not try any). They must make about 30 different labels (we wonder about the focus).
We had back towards Lake Seneca in search of more wineries and stopped off at Keuka Springs winery. Decent whites weak reds, except for their top blend called Epic which could use a little time before being released.
We then headed to Prejean winery. It was getting late in the day but we were still all very fresh. The wines did not impress here. I mean the whites were okay, but the reds were tough to drink. They also made a white port from Chardonnay called the Birds of Paradise.…that was bad ….there are some wines that should not be made….this is one of those.
After this, we headed back to the hotel to consume the other wines that had been brought to the event (and some mailed). I took no notes as I deferred that responsibility to the more experienced tongues around the table that night. The wines included.
(1) 2004 Willow Crest Grenache, Yakima Valley in 375ml. Wow, this was a HUGH WINE!!! It had super large intensity, like a barrel sample of a petite syrah, Super density of flavours, super juice! I can’t believe that a teenager made this wine. I would love to see this kid in a few years. Great bottle.
(2) 1987 E. Guigal Hermitage. Solid cork, the wine has a nice mature colour, great nose if a bit reserved, drinking very well with a lot of secondary notes and flavours. Loved this wine!!!
(3) 1997 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon. What a great wine. Opened up reserved but with ½ hour of air, became just this monster wine but still great balance. Loved it.
(4) 2002 Rubicon was no slouch either, it ran step for step with the Phelps. This thing has a great future though, a bit less dense than the Phelps.
(5) 2004 Domaine Serene Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. (did not see vineyard). Another great bottle tonight. .
(6) 2001 Ferrari- Carano Tressor, a proprietary blend.
(7) 2004 Coyote Canyon Syrah,
(8) 1997 Delingher Cabernet Sauvignon, another 1997 cab that I missed out on.
With the tasting of the Coyote Canyon Syrah, we bid our farewells and headed towards are return trip home. Great day, great people and great (mostly) wines. We could not have asked for more from a lazy Sunday
[This message has been edited by TheEngineer (edited 06-15-2007).]
- brappy - 06-15-2007
Love your writing style Eng! Too bad you missed the wineries east of Lake Seneca. Thanks for the notes.... was wondering when something was going to be posted.
Wish I could have been there....
mark
- TheEngineer - 06-15-2007
Thanks Mark! I wanted to post earlier too but man oh man, once I got back into work, it was like a bulldozer hit me. I'm just up for air now....
Mike
- Innkeeper - 06-15-2007
If I wasn't bent on resisting envy I would be envious!!!
- dananne - 06-15-2007
Very nice notes. Thanks for allowing us to live vicariously.
- TheEngineer - 06-15-2007
I'm still waiting for KC and WoW to post. they sounded like they had a blast on Saturday too!
- Kcwhippet - 06-15-2007
Posted down on Wine Country Touring, Eng. Scroll down to the very last folder.
- wondersofwine - 06-15-2007
Didn't remember to bring my notes with me today so will post Monday or Tuesday. Glad you came and brought G. Thanks for your write up. Wasn't the weather gorgeous! (except on Friday night when I drove through rain, lightning, and fog for two hours!)
- winoweenie - 06-16-2007
Outstanding notes there Eng! Am truly sorry I wasn't there but you don't always get what you desire. Glad you liked the wines overall. I was quite impressed with some of the SWs' but unlike you, found ALL of the reds to be lacking when I was there. Reminded me of a batch of misses aimed at the heart of the white Zin market. WW