Day 4: Finger Lakes Wine Festival

We happened to be in Ithaca at the time of the region's annual Finger Lakes Wine Festival. The festival was held in nearby Watkins Glen on the grounds of their international speedway. The Finger Lakes Wine Festival was awesome. It featured the majority of the wineries (about 100) located throughout the Finger Lakes region, along with other parts of New York and Pennsylvania. Admission was $25 for tasters and $15 for designated drivers. You really got your monies worth at this event. Not only did we get to taste lots of wines but each of us received a very nice engraved wine glass for tasting that we got to keep as a souvenir.

We stuck with white wines, mostly Reisling, because 1. It’s what we like and 2. There were way too many wine choices to start trying them all. In general, we did not have a wine we didn’t care for. Some we liked more than others but we weren’t disgusted by any of them. This is mostly due to the fact that we stuck with Riesling- which you can’t go wrong with. The Finger Lakes Region is the largest largest wine making region in the U.S. outside of Napa, California. Reisling in the areas #1 production. Apparently, the climate and proximity to large bodies of water supports the year-round harvest of Reisling grapes.

Anyway, back to the event. . . This is a very well attended event. The wineries are situated under tents and each has a booth/table. There was Merlot Lane, Rieling Blvd., Chardonnay Rd, etc. You just walk to each table and tell them what wine you want to try and they’ll pour you a tasting portion. You can buy a bottle on the spot or you can just walk around tasting all day without making a purchase. We couldn’t resist and made a few purchases to enjoy back home.

An interesting and clever set up was the County Sheriff's booth near the exit. Police officers were giving courtesy/voluntary breathalyzer tests to those who weren’t sure if they should drive or not. The line to blow on the straw was quite long so we didn’t do it then. When we exited the parking lot, we drove to another courtesy breathalyzer checkpoint where you could check your blood alcohol level. Nick chose to participate and blew a .16 which is safe to drive. I thought this was such a great idea and one that should be implemented in events throughout the country. I don’t see Orlando doing it anytime soon since they’re complaining of budget cuts as it is. In the long run, this saves time, money (DUI, court fees, etc), and potentially lives in our community.

After the wine festival, we visited Watkins Glen State Park for one last gorge and waterfall.

My main motivation for visiting Watkins Glen State Park was that it contained over 10 waterfalls, 2 of which you could walk behind (like the one pictured above). We didn't spend too much time here since we were still fatigued from our days of constant walks through the parks. Originally, we had decided to spend the night here in Watkins Glen, but since it was still fairly early, we decided to begin making our way back to the northwestern edge of New York and Niagara Falls. We chose to drive north along the hills of Seneca Lake, and catch a glimpse of a few wineries and veriferas along the way. Only a few miles up the lake and we came upon the Atwater Winery (one that we tasted and liked at the festival). Of course we stopped here . . had to get the true wine-tasting experience at a winery.

The property was nice albeit smaller than I expected. The vineyard sits right on the lake so there was a nice view of the vineyard and lake from the tasting room. We tried the Semi Dry Riesling again just to make sure it tasted as we remembered it and it did. We tried other selections- Dry Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Banana Belt Table White (made from only local grapes)- but the Semi Dry Riesling was the best. We bought a bottle of it.

Next stop was the Wagner Vineyard and Brewery. Nick was looking forward to the micro brewery and I was looking forward to the restaurant on site. The restaurant was closed for a wedding reception. Nick didn’t try any beer because they didn’t have the Pale Ale he was looking forward to. Plus, by this point I was exhausted and I wanted to call it a day. Nick felt bad having a beer while I just sat there with puppy tired eyes. The next picture is exactly that moment.

We was disappointed that neither the Atwater nor the Wagner vineyards had any actual grapes on their grape vines. When Nick and I were in Italy we took great pictures of the grape vines but they didn’t have grapes on them either. As we drove away from Wagner there were other smaller vineyards right along the road. I focused my eyes and noticed round green things on the vines. I asked Nick to pull over so we could take pictures. Nick got out of the car, crossed the street, walked over a ditch full of weeds, and was able to get a picture of Riesling grapes. Finally we get to see the “before” shot of the wine we love.

For dinner we stopped at a Mickey D’s because it was the only place around that was open. These towns are so small they seem to die at 5pm. We were going through the drive when when we notice a reserved parking sign that caught our attention (below).

We were eating our dinner in the parking lot when a car pulls up next to us and an Amish man walks out the backseat to the Racetrac Mart (the Mickey D’s was adjacent to a gas station). I’m guessing he was given a ride because the driver and front passenger were not dressed in Amish traditional clothing as the man was. I said “Nick look! I wonder what he’s going to buy”. I may sound naïve or just plain stupid but I’m fascinated by the Amish now. I think there might be a few misconceptions about them that I have come to believe as truth. I really thought the Amish never came out to “modernized” area (I know this sounds bad, I can’t think of another word) because they were self-sufficient. Can you guess what he bought at a gas station mini-mart?. . a gallon of milk.

This was a taxing day for both of us. We wanted to call it a day but since we didn’t make any hotel reservations prior to coming here we didn’t know where to go. We decided to finish making our way west toward Niagara Falls for tomorrow. We stopped at an exit in Batavia, NY and used the wi-fi from one of the hotels to try and make reservation for a room near Niagara Falls. It was harder than I expected. Unable to find a nice, economical room on the American side, we decided "let’s just go to Canada." So, I’m actually writing this in the car on our way to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

At the moment we're pulling into our hotel near the Canadian side of the Falls. Another day of touring tomorrow, but we're planning on taking it easy. I'm not sure what's in store for tomorrow except to tell you that we'll be having Brunch in the top of Skylon Tower at 775 feet above Niagara Falls. Should be fun as long as Nick can keep his food down for the glass elevator ride down.