Finger Lakes Palate

This past weekend, I ventured to the Finger Lakes Wine Country for the Palate. The Palate was a week long event of special wine activities, including private wine tastings, special pricing on activities, lectures and receptions.

We arrived on Friday and headed up to Hazlitt arriving just before the 1pm scheduled private tasting. Unfortunately Justin decided to take lunch and forgot we were coming. We were suppose to have a special preview of the 2008 vintages. That's okay Justin, as your tasting room staff was wonderful and we selected the different wines for our tasting.

We left Hazlitt and visited Atwater Estates and Chateau Lafayette Reneau before heading over to see our friends John and Stacy McGregor at McGregor Winery. After our visit with John we headed to a special reception at the Radisson before the beginning of "Cabin Fever." At this reception we got to taste a number of wineries selections. What stood out most to us was Ravines Riesling and Shaw's Cabernet Sauvignon. We then headed to the streets of Corning to Cabin Fever. This was a great event. Different stores and restaurants hosted a different winery. As you entered the establishments, you got to taste wines from different producers in the Finger Lakes. We finished off the evening at The Birds Restaurant for a wonderful dinner.

Saturday we were up and out to be at Shaw Vineyards at 11am for a private guided tour and tasting through his award winnings wine. Joining me at this event were Rob Lane - The Finger Lakes Weekend Wino, Melissa Dobson, and Morgan McLaughlin - Finger Lakes Wine Ladyand Executive Director of Finger Lakes Wine Country. All of us under one roof! This event was an event not to be missed. Steve is a very talented winemaker and grower. He doesn't rush to get his vintages to market and nurses them until he feels they are ready to be bottled and marketed.

We started off with a verticle tasting of Riesling followed by a walk to the tank room. In the tank room we were treated to three different 07 Rielsings. These Rieslings were all grown on the property, but in different areas. It was amazing the difference in the three. Then if was off to the Barrel Room. Here were were treated to many different Reds going back to 2007 that were still in the barrel.

After our time with Steve at Shaw we went to visit Ravines, Lamoreaux Landing, Thirsty Owl and Standing Stone. Yes we drove to all three of the lakes. We couldn't have done it without our GPS. We ended the evening at Tony R's Steak & Seafood for a wonderful dinner.

Just because it's the middle of winter the Finger Lakes are still beautiful. I enjoyed getting out of my car and looking at the lakes. It's still breathtaking no matter what time of year it is!
This weekend we were on a quest for white wine. We really enjoyed the Rieslings, Chardonnay's and Gewurztraminer's that were produced at the wineries we visited. Three cases of wine later, we drove the 4 hours home.