In some parts of New York's Finger Lakes Region, inhabitants tell a tale about eight twenty-something adults from Florida, NY (FLNY) traveling along the Cayuga Wine Trail in a limousine seeking to taste wine. As the story goes, the group voyaged along Lake Cayuga for the good part of a winter's day and ended up being embarrassed by the expedition. They couldn't find a place to eat lunch and consequently drank a little too much wine on empty stomachs. They inadvertently insulted workers at wineries as a result of their lack of wine tasting knowledge and they eventually wound up in bed around 9PM. If that ending weren't embarrassing enough, somewhere along the line a few of them ended up in a pile of boxes and bottles of wine in the hotel room yelling things at each other like, “Does anybody owe you wine or money!?!”
But that was last year. And this is a new year with many of those people having reached a new level of maturity since turning thirty. So before the ink dried on that fable about FLNY's latest folly, the group went back on the Cayuga Wine Trail one year later for a return engagement. The new level of maturity resulted in a maternity leave of absence from this year's tour for Mickey and Mariana, a married couple from the original trip. So it was my wife Val and I, Ray and his wife Jen, and Kolin and his fiance Danielle as carryovers from the first year making the trip back to Ithaca. And with Mickey and Mariana taking the year off to be new parents and a bunch of us getting older, it was time to add some youth to the line-up in the form of BY and his fiance Jess--two new twenty-somethings.
I'm not going to waste time with any suspense here. We took care of business this year. We ate like kings all day, we were marginally well behaved at the wineries and we stayed up past our previously established Ithaca bedtimes. At the end of the evening, we even managed to exchange wine and money with class and dignity. The rematch with the Cayuga Wine Trail was successful and we were victorious. So how did we do it? Well, we came back with a vengeance and a five-point game plan. Here's a look inside that plan:
Part A: The Improvements
1. The biggest flaw in the "Year 1" plan was that we found ourselves unable to find a place to each lunch on the trail and thus we lacked the sustenance we needed to finish the tour and function as human beings for the remainder of the evening. That mistake added a certain level of debauchery that we all appreciated early on the trail, but at a certain point we ran out of steam. This year, we took a two-pronged approach to combat the hunger. First, we brought an appetizer that consisted of some crackers, a salami stick, and Barber's 1833 Vintage Reserve Cheddar Cheese--one of the oldest and stinkiest cheeses that can be found at Whole Foods--to eat with a bottle of white wine purchased at the first winery and consumed in the limo. The second hunger solution tactic, and our main course, were Wegman's subs that we ate midway through the tour. If you've ever had a Wegman's sub, then you probably agree that the four hour drive to Ithaca alone is probably worth it just to go to Wegman's and purchase a sub, even if they don't fire your sub to you like Doug Flutie used to do in Buffalo.
2. As I alluded to earlier, last year the bulk purchasing of wine started out great. We'd combine purchases at each winery to rack up the discounts, but at the end of the night we didn't know whose bottles belonged to whom or how much money we owed each other. This year, we came up with a method to track the bottle purchases throughout the day. Val ordered sheets of stickers with each couples's picture on a sheet and we brandished our bottles of wine with these as we purchased them. If that weren't benefit enough, the sticker sheets doubled as "scorecards": If you had the most number of blank spaces on your sheet it meant that you'd purchased the most wine and were in the lead--or as Val would say, "Look at all our empty squares! We're winning!" Back at the hotel, we reconciled stickered bottles with receipts and settled our debts with the following extremely civil exchange:
Person X: “Are we square?”
Person Y: “We are square.”
This exact exchange repeated several times until we were all square.
3. I once went to a bachelor party where a groomsman made a mix CD with all the groom-to-be's favorite songs. The only problem was that almost all the songs were really the favorite songs of the groomsman who made the CD. It didn't matter though! Everyone still loved every song, including the groom-to-be. The lesson I learned that day was that you shouldn't step foot in a limo without a mix CD. So why didn't the FLNYers have a mix CD during the Year 1 wine tour? I don't want to waste time being angry about that mistake. But what I DO want to waste time on is telling you some of the mix CD related highlights of this year's wine tour:
-Some of us were expected to do some kind of gimmicky dance in reaction to our signature songs. But none was better than Jen's "Hypnotize" dance marked by lots of bobbing and double fist pumps. They best part was learning that Jen had a sixth sense for predicting her song because even though the CD was on shuffle, she always seemed to break out her dance on cue for that song when none of us had a clue that it was coming.
-Although these songs rocked our limo in the back, they caused our driver Mike to furrow his brow in the rear view mirror. This gave me a pretty accurate fun-o-meter to determine how much fun the group was having. Did Mike have a very furrowed brow? Yes? Then the group was having lots of fun!
-There was an electrical problem with the limo's sound system that caused the music to stop playing when the car slowed down. This was annoying at first until we told Mike to refrain from slowing down as much as possible in order to keep the music going. We explained to him that the slowing down/music stoppage situation was like the slowing down/bomb exploding situation in the movie Speed...but with greater stakes.4. In addition to the five wineries we toured, our Ithaca extrodinaire Kolin added a new wrinkle into the game plan. Kolin's wrinkle was the Ithaca Beer Company. The beer was delicious and as great as wine is, it just can't be served in a growler. Maybe Kolin's suggestion was an improvement as obvious as Giants Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride calling a passing play on third down and long instead of running a shotgun draw play for three yards (Editor's Note: This line was written before Kevin Gilbride's offensive genius helped the Giants win a second Super Bowl in four years). The lesson here is that there's always room for improvement, even when it seems like everything is clicking.
5. Let's call the last two upgrades we made in Year 2 of the FLNY Wine Tour 5a and 5b. They were both unplanned or incidental, yet they both added value to the trip. 5a was the addition of one hour to our limo. We couldn't comfortably do five wineries and the Beer Company within five hours, so at some point we bargained with Mike to tack on an extra hour and we got a decent bargain. Keep that in mind if you ever have a limo and are stressing over time. As for 5b, well some might argue that it was not an upgrade but here's my argument for why it was. I meant to book the Hilton located in downtown Ithaca, but I booked the Marriott a few miles outside of downtown. Although this was the wrong hotel, the Marriott had (a) much better parking, (b) great access to our rooms, (c) Marsha, one of the greatest Hostesses from Gainesville, Florida who named her grandson after Tim Tebow, (d) a swimming pool (only if we had our swimming suits!) and (e) due to aforementioned hostess, choosing this hotel led to BY "Tebowing" in the lobby for Marsha and eventually Tebowing inside the limo (pictured below). Yes, it's a little bit of a ride to get to the hub that is the Metropolis called Ithaca, but I prefer the burbs.
Part B: The Reviews
Since we handled this trip like professionals, I thought I'd take the next step in wine touring and offer my review of each winery. No, this blog is not brought to you by the number "5" like an episode of Sesame Street. It just so happens that in addition to the five-point plan above, I've developed a five-point system to rate each of the five wineries that we visited. Fine, so I really couldn't have done this blog without the number five playing a big role. Even though I will rate all of the wineries, I'm not using a point system or picking the best. They're all great for different reasons. Besides, as you'll see from this rating system, what the hell do I know?
Rog's Five-Point Winery Rating System
1. Atmosphere: This is self-explanatory, but the atmosphere is very important. A great atmosphere can be the difference between feeling like you’re tasting a good wine and feeling like you're doing shots of spiked grape juice in your neighbor's basement.
2. Pourers: So it turns out that those wine pourers do have a technical name— Sommeliers. Despite that newly learned fact, I will go ahead and continue to use the term pourers even if it says something bad about my social ettiquette or my overall intelligence.
3. Crackers: Last year, we found out how important crackers can be when tasting wine on an empty stomach, but it can be argued that they were more important this year because we actually cared what they tasted like.
4. Wine: Although it's one of five categories, it would obviously be worth more than 20% if I ever get scientific with this methodology. Also, you might notice me comparing wineries to baseball pitching rotations (e.g calling a wine a #1 or #2 like a pitcher in a rotation). Like a strong pitching staff on a baseball team, a good winery should have a strong stable of wines with different characteristics. Just as a strong pitching rotation has a mix of righties, lefties, and guys who throw different pitches, a great winery has strong variety of reds, whites, and wines that throw different characteristics at you (sweet, dry, fruity or oak taste, etc.)
5. Specialties: If you think about it, a lot of the wineries in the Finger Lakes are probably somewhat close in quality since they're all from the same region. So in order to be competitive, those wineries need to go that extra step and not simply stop with a good wine. They need a marquee liquor, food or something sweet to keep the folks coming back.
Thirsty Owl Wine Company
Atmosphere: Val says that this place has the best venue with a gorgeous view for outdoor spring/summer/fall tastings. I've only been there in the winter and I say it's also the best for winter with it's extremely large tasting bar.
Pourers: The girl at the Owl said all the right things that would make me nod my head in approval such as, "This is a 2010--that was a really great year for harvesting," If you make me nod my head, I will continue to drink your wine.
Crackers: I think we extensively covered the quality of Thirsty Owl's crackers in last year's recap. They're perfect for everything from cleansing the palat to snacking on during a ball game. The Owl gets a great score for crackers but gets penalized under "Specialties" for selling way too many stuffed owls and no oyster crackers.Wine: Last year, I was really impressed by Lot 99 and the cabernet sauvignon and this year they added a Meritage from the good harvest year (2010). That's a scary 1-2-3 at the top of their wine rotation that I wouldn't want to compete with if I owned a Cayuga Winery. (Note: Now might be a good time to drop the disclaimer that I prefer dry red wines to sweet and white wines.)
Specialties: The only glaring weakness of the Owl is that they don't have many Specialty items, aside from lots of clothing and stuffed owls.
Montezuma Winery
Atmosphere: The tasting area of Montezuma is a little small and could get very cramped if a lot of people were there at the same time. There are also too many breakable knick knacks close to the wine bar. We didn't bump into or break anything, but let's just say that I'll be highlighting this line from this blog when I study for the next tour.
Pourers: I don't want to get any pourers in trouble, but the girl at Montezuma went off script and gave Kolin and Danielle an extra shot of the amazing maple syrup liquor they make there. And guess who walked out with a bottle of that maple liquor? That's right, Kolin and Danielle. Kudos to that pourer for having the smarts to recognize a couple who looked like they like drinking liquor with their pancake breakfast.
Crackers: The crackers at Montezuma were forgettable and are an area where they could make an easy upgrade. However, they were served with a little more sanitary caution than some of the other wineries, as they had a spoon for dishing them out (a little nod to flu season). This caused Danielle and I--coincidentally, both nicknamed "Bear"--to demonstrate how domesticated bears eat oyster crackers from a spoon.
Wine: Montezuma features a strong Cayuga White and Red Tailed Red at the top of their rotations and is overall a great winery for those who enjoy those sweeter, white wines.
Specialties: Specialty items such as different liquors and knick knacks is the area where Montezuma excels. Kolin bought the bottle of Maple Liquor and I tried a triple distilled honey vodka as well as Tej, an Ethiopian Honey Wine. All were excellent. There were also a lot of great impulse buys, crafts, and decorations and quite a few people walked out with a gift. Jess took a long time to come out and was nearly left behind.
Atmosphere: Any winery that hands you a delicious cup of warmed red wine with mulling spices as you walk in has to be considered a great atmosphere in my book. If that weren't enough, on our way out they made me an honorary captain and rang a bell to make it official (there's a tugboat theme going on there) because I made the group's purchase.
Pourers: The rating of the pourers at Lucas drastically fluctuated based on a couple of the interactions we had. A little background info here: This was the place with the pourers that I'd (possibly) inadvertently insulted last year, so I announced before we went in that I'd be on my best behavior. Well, three minutes later I'd handed Jess our welcoming spiced wine before the guy ID'd her and he wasn't happy about that. Ray really got a kick out of this and eventually all proper ID was shown and everything worked out. And here's some more background info: Earlier in the day, I had a disagreement with Kolin and Val about how they make ice wine. They didn't believe me that it was harvested from frozen grapes. Well, imagine my reaction when our pourer confirmed that I was (mostly) right. Although there are two ways to make ice wine and we were both sort of right, the way I described is the traditional way and here Ray, our resident judge of all friendly disagreements, awarded me victory in the debate.
Crackers: Lucas offered an alternative to the traditional oyster crackers that we'd consumed all day. It was some type of club cracker with seasoning baked on. I would not be surprised if they were purchased from Wegman's.
Wine: The aforementioned warm Tugboat wine with mulling spices is as good and unique as anything you'll find along the Finger Lakes and it's the reason that we'll always go back to Lucas. Most of the other wines are on the fruitier and sweeter side of the spectrum that I don't personally enjoy as much. They also feature a very good ice wine that I strongly recommend.
Specialties: In addition to the mulling spices, which could be considered a Specialty, there is a mustard dip Ray buys here each time that warrants mentioning.
Atmosphere: As mentioned in last year's blog, Knapp is far too concerned with the quality of it's wine to keep up appearances. Although the wine tasting area is nothing especially fancy, there is a large shopping area almost completely comprised of wine and a cool looking, separate wine barrel encircled room for private events and banquets. I suddenly feel like I may need to host a banquet near Ithaca.
Pourers: A nice guy; the pourer here (a) recognized some of us from a wine festival that we went to over the summer an hour from Ithaca and (b) took a group picture of us. Two marks of great service.
Crackers: The oyster crackers at Knapp were one of the big surprises of the day. Let me take you through the process of eating three of these:
1st Cracker: "What the hell? This tastes weird. It tastes like a cookie, not a cracker."
2nd Cracker: "Well, it's not too bad. It kinda starts as a cracker but when it's half eaten, it tastes like a cookie."
3rd Cracker: "This might be the best oyster cracker ever invented!"
Wine: I didn't want to pick favorites, but I think Knapp holds the title for best wines. The Prism and Cabernet Sauvignon are a #1 and #2 that are almost unbeatable, although the Thirsty Owl's triple threat of the three reds mentioned above makes it a close call. Any of both winery's top reds are stalwarts and you can't go wrong.
Specialties: One word: Limencello. Last year we bought a bottle that lasted a few months. This year we had to break it out a day later during the Giants-Packers playoff game. This year we even bought a couple travel limencello's for the limo and after having those, I recommend that Knapp write the following on the side of those bottles: "Warning: Do Not Drink Warm"
Americana Vineyards
Atmosphere: Val thinks we should hold it against them because there are ghosts in the tasting room that was converted from an old barn. I say that the friendly dog that walks around redeems them. Plus, it's got high ceilings, wooden beams, cool lighting and the works.
Pourers: The MVP (Most Valuable Pourer) of the day. We started off asking him if it was okay to give us all the same recommended wines because we were in a rush. Without missing a beat he sarcastically responded, "Oh no! I wanted to juggle and pour 10 different bottles at once!" After he recommended his favorite list--which we loved--I asked him if I could follow him on Twitter and it got really awkward for a second until I "clarified" that I meant the winery, not him. Of course, I was hoping that he personally managed the winery's account.
Crackers: If there were crackers there, I don't remember them since we were doing a rapid wine tasting. At one point, I turned around and BY said "I'm just shootin' everything, Rog". And after feeling briefly appalled, I joined him in his crude behavior and took some shots of wine.
Wine: Although Americana doesn't have a #1 Ace wine, they have an
abundance of very different, exceptional wines.
They have the best range of wines, that includes a Baco Noir, Revolutionary Red, a great Reisling and the Gewürztraminer.Specialties: Americana is a bit like Montezuma with great small gifts that would make anyone happy, but their bread and butter is their fudge. They even incorporate fudge into the last wine sampling. This led to me and BY somehow shootin' fudge.
There you have it. While I have my personal favorite wineries, they're all spectacular and worth a visit. And hopefully, you'll take something away from this blog. Whether it's something you do on a wine tour, how you evaluate your next booze related venture, or even use of the phrase "Are we square?" in your next in-person financial transaction.
No comments:
Post a Comment