as i mentioned in my last post, one of the reasons i particularly wanted to visit the finger lakes was to visit some of the region's wineries. around seneca lake alone there are over 100 wineries and breweries, and after maggie visited last year with so…
as i mentioned in my last post, one of the reasons i particularly wanted to visit the finger lakes was to visit some of the region's wineries. around seneca lake alone there are over 100 wineries and breweries, and after maggie visited last year with some friends and gushed about it i moved the experience higher on my list.
our first order of business was to hire a driver for our excursion. main street drivers specializes in exactly this, and it has many advantages:
they'll pick you up from your accommodation and drive your car, so you can bring along whatever snacks and other items you want for the day
you're with your small group so you can go at your own pace and visit as many or as few spots as you want
you can tell your driver what kind of wines you like [eg our group mostly likes dry white wines] and they can recommend places for you, but you still have the flexibility to change the itinerary as the day goes on
some of the places have limited parking and so don't allow bus or van tours
our driver, kelly, was great and kept us entertained throughout our day spent with her. we decided to choose our first stop and then let kelly make the plan from there; below is how we spent our day winery-hopping around seneca lake.
first stop of the day. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
love jane, too. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
beautiful friends. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
loved us some scout vineyards. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
scout vineyards.
we decided to spend our day exploring the western side of seneca lake since that was closer to where we were staying, and thanks to diligent research on the part of dillard, chrystal, and jane, we chose scout vineyards as our first spot for the day. scout is run by the husband and wife team of daniel and olivia, both of whom are incredibly nice, with the help of daniel's father don who became our new best friend.
scout was hands down our favorite stop of the day, from the beautiful property to the excellent wines to the fantastic hospitality. we loved learning so much about the different wines we had [5 in total included in the sampler] as well as olivia and daniel's story of how they got started in the industry and what led them to starting scout. they were also the only stop of our four that gave complimentary snacks with their tasting which definitely gave them extra credit. oh, and one of the wines in their sampler is vive l'amitie which translates to "long live friendship" so you know we loved that.
if you're interested in giving them a try, scout has a quarterly wine club that is going to be my "i got a job" gift to myself when i finally get a job.
checking out fox run. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
fox run vineyards.
fox run was the biggest and busiest winery we visited so it's not a surprise it was also our least favorite stop of the day. the wines were fine, but after the warm welcome and hospitality of scout the experience at fox run felt much more commercial and much less personal.
at fox run you get a welcome wine to sip while you choose from four flight options, and while the wines were good we didn't get as much information about each of them as we would have liked and so i have already forgotten any distinguishing characteristics about them. we pretty much drank our wines and left almost immediately; they do serve food but it's not allowed in the tasting room so we chose to head out and eat our car snacks on the way to our next stop.
ready to take anthony road by storm. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
winery views. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
wine and snacks for the win. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
couldn't get over the view. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
moved inside to escape the rain. penn yan, new york. may 2024.
anthony road wine company.
anthony road was my second favorite of the day and i think it's safe to say the same for the others in the group. the space and grounds are beautiful, everyone who works there is so friendly and informative, and the wines are great.
again at anthony road there are four samplers to choose from — i did the "wite-out" sampler and all three were excellent — but they also have a few beers and non alcoholic beverages. my favorite feature was a fridge full of meats and cheeses and shelves of crackers so you can pick out your snacks and they'll assemble everything on a board for you.
we loved the back patio and set ourselves up with our wine and our food and this is where we started our game of phase10. we moved inside once it started raining and even the inside space was really nice. all around a great experience.
final stop of the day and still standing. himrod, new york. may 2024.
miles wine cellars.
our final stop of the day was miles wine cellars which is in an old house that is supposedly haunted. i definitely asked what the story was but it's been a few weeks and there had been quite a bit of wine consumed by that point so i'm fuzzy on the details but i think it was something to do with a young couple who died tragically? something like that.
miles also has beautiful grounds but because of the rain we didn't get a chance to fully explore them and i definitely would on a return visit.
from there we decided we were feeling good and it was time to return home, and kelly kept us regaled with tales of her time participating in the school bus road-eo on the return trip. all told we were gone about 5 hours and had a fantastic time. i'll drop some good things to know below in case you ever find yourself in the region.
we love a lakeside sunset. canandaigua, new york. may 2024.
know before you go.
hire a driver. if everyone in your party drinks, this is the best decision you can make so that everyone can partake to whatever level they want. main street drivers has their rates on their website; i think we paid around $290 for a 5-hour day that included stops at 4 places, but you can hire them for up to 9 hours i believe [and they're in other locations around the state!]
bring cash to tip said driver and if you want to leave cash tips at any of your stops
do your research! your driver can give you suggestions, but even they don't know all the places [again, there are over 100 just around seneca lake]. we loved all but fox run but in hindsight we wish we had done more research and picked at least one more of our stops ourselves
bring snacks with you. scout gave bread and olive oil and some fruits with their sampler and at anthony road we bought snacks and they assembled the board for us. fox run had snacks available but they weren't allowed in the tasting room so we didn't eat there. what was clutch for us was packing snacks from the house and bringing them in the car with us and eating during the drives
reservations are recommended but not required. we were there on the saturday of a long weekend and were able to walk in to all the places we visited, but i definitely think we got lucky especially as it got later in the day — when it started raining at anthony road and we moved inside we got the last free table that wasn't saved for reservations, and at miles we walked in right as a group finished their tasting but otherwise would have had to wait
bring cards/games with you. huge shoutout to jane for bringing taco cat goat cheese pizza and phase10 along on the trip. the former was great for friday night and phase10 was excellent for the winery and brewery stops because we could just carry on the same game from place to place. it was perfect for when we decided to stay longer somewhere and have an extra glass of wine, and it provided endless entertainment and competition
there's not just wine. yes, a majority of the places are wineries, but there are a lot of breweries as well so if that's more your vibe look those up or let your driver know and they can prioritize the breweries for your visit. and some of the wineries, like anthony road, serve beer and non alcoholic drinks
go at your own pace. some groups would drink their flights and immediately move on [like we did at fox run], and some would be in one place for multiple hours. the beauty of this is that you can spend your day exactly as you like
pick a geographic area. if you want to minimize time in the car, pick a general geographic area and stick with it as much as possible. we were coming from canandaigua so we chose the western side of seneca lake; our first drive in the morning was about 30 minutes and then our drive back in the afternoon was around 50 minutes.
so there you have it, all the details of our wine tour and some things that will help you if you decide to do the same. enjoy!
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