The quiet of winter is one of the best times to visit the Finger Lakes. I recently had the opportunity to take part in a “Handcrafted Holiday” tour, an exclusive event at six local wineries. We tapped barrels and tried wine in various stages of fermentation. We ate grapes fresh off the vine and got to sample unreleased wines. Lake Life Catering provided food at each winery.
Our first stop was Keuka Spring Vineyards. We were served beef tenderloin crostini over spinach salad while winemaker Dan Bissell discussed his process, from checking levels to tasting the berries. “Wine is so beautiful because it’s science and magic together.” Our favorite was a delicious 2024 Cabernet Franc with a note of green bell pepper. Bissel says, “If it’s not good enough to put into a bottle, then we don’t do it.”
At Weis Vineyards, we tried a Blaufränkisch blend with strawberry essence paired with a profiterole with chocolate drizzle and berries. After we toured the main rooms, tasting room manager Tambi Shweizer took us behind the scenes to taste a three-week-old tank sample of the semidry Riesling. It was full of apricot, peach, and pear flavors and will stay in the French oak barrels for another eight to ten months. We learned that Zum Wohl is the German way to toast with wine. We tried the 2022 Terroir Riesling Limestone with notes of citrus and melon. German owner Hans Peter Weis found the minerality of the soil around Keuka Lake similar to that of home.
In our group, Reenie is visiting from State College, Pennsylvania. In 2006, she happened upon Keuka Lake and now comes back every year. Sam and Jess are here with friends from New York City. They have visited wineries in Napa, Temecula, and Austria but decided that the best-tasting wine is in the Finger Lakes.
At Domaine LeSeurre Winery, we toured around the grounds and were shown the evolution of the grapes, including those just picked the day before. Owner Sébastian LeSeurre had flown in from France that morning after a visit to his family in Champagne. LeSeurre and wife, Céline, are part of a family that has been handcrafting wine for six generations. They traveled the world before settling here in 2012.
LeSeurre led us into the red cellar barrel room, where we were served greens with cherries, candied walnuts, goat cheese, and honey balsamic. We tasted a ’24 dry Riesling from a vineyard planted in 1971 and he explained the difference with older vines as their roots stretch deeper and explore more of the soil. We sampled a 2019 Merlot barrel select, aged for two years, and ate fresh grapes off the vine. We tried a 2017 Riesling Late Harvest No. 6, his grandmother’s favorite from a limited collection, as LeSeurre reminded us to “Trust yourself. The good wine is the one you like.”
In 1972, John and Josephine Ingle planted twenty acres of grapes, and that was the beginning of Heron Hill Winery. Now, all these years later, theirs is known as one of the top ten most spectacular tasting rooms in the world, as named by Travel + Leisure magazine. The grapes grown for their popular Ingle vineyard wines are always handpicked. Jennifer Campbell, tasting room manager, served us wines paired with deviled eggs over pickled beets, carrots, and arugula. The 2014 reserve Gewurztraminer wine was aromatic, floral, and bright. We loved the 2021 reserve Baco Noir, a Heron Hill favorite, boasting a rustic, toasty warm spice note.
At Hunt Country Vineyards, co-owner Suzanne Hunt met us at the tasting room and walked us down to the barn, where we met her horses and dog, Zorra. The Hunt family settled on this farm 200 years ago in a log cabin on just under 200 acres. Seven generations later, Hunt has spearheaded sustainability efforts at the farm and winery, including energy efficiency, wildlife habitat, and more. We settled in at long tables inside a room filled with giant tanks and enjoyed wines paired with crab cakes in a remoulade sauce. The ’23 Cayuga White was bright and crisp with aromas of kiwi, melon, and lemon zest. We tried a smooth cream sherry fortified with grape brandy and warm with the flavors of raisins, butterscotch, and hickory.
We ended the day as the sun set over the lake at Vineyard View Winery. Owners Adam and Nikki Folts took us back to a separate building where we saw their picking machines and tried a ’24 barrel-aged Chardonnay right out of the barrel. We compared it to a ’23 unoaked Chardonnay, stainless steel fermented and aged to allow breakthrough notes like peach, lime, pear, and green apple. Adam is a fifth-generation grape grower and describes his great, great-grandfather leading a mule with a bale of hay on this farm. We headed back to the tasting room for a hearty corn chowder and, of course, more wine.
Each winery is unique, but they come together to create these events. “We are creating a culture together as a trail,” says Chelsea Race, director of marketing for the Keuka Lake Wine Trail.
If you are looking to plan something special with your valentine this February, check out Savoring Sweets, an event packed with sweet and savory wine and food pairings at the intimate settings of six wineries. For more information, visit keukawinetrail.com.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of (585).
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