OT: Pitt weekend - Finger Lakes vaca questions

[Tom Frey]

No offense tom...but there is no reason i can think of to ever go to Auburn...unless you are going to watch the Doubledays

I agree, but i was trying to get him at least half way out of the cuse with out driving an hour and a half after a friday night game. I guess you could also stay in skeneatles(sp) at the sherwood inn.

 

[jcuse44]

I was just messing with you man haha. Auburn isnt so badf

 

[Bill Orange]

Finger lakes is more beautiful than napa...trust me. If you want red wines then sure napa...but the white wines in finger lakes region are the best in the world...including france.

You are obviously drinking them as you post.

 

[jcuse44]

Im not haha,,,finger lakes wine region also was ranked higher than any wine region in the world recently...including france,italy,chile..the list goes on

 

[retro44]

Coming in for the Friday night Pitt game and gonna do a Sat/Sun night Finger Lakes thing with the fiancee. Hoping for some nice foliage.

Suggestions for foliage routes / wineries / accommodations / restaurants are appreciated.

skaneatlas would be a great place to stay at as it is about a 1/2 hour from the carrier dome and then head 40-45 minutes west to the east side of seneca lake you can hit up many winneries in short run of about 12 miles down the lake. some winneries are side by side.i use to make that run a few times a year.

i live just a few miles east of there

 

[OttoMets]

One other thing to note if you have time Friday during the day take the short drive up to Beak and Skiff Orchards in Lafayette past Onondaga Hill. Not only will you get some incredible views on the way through Onondaga Hill but they have a winery and a vodka distillery about a half mile from the orchard. There winery has three apple wines and about 5 ciders verying from dry to sweet. I highly recommend it. Plus its about a 20 minute drive from Syracuse with pretty much zero traffic.

Concur on Beak and Skiff, both the orchard and the distillery. Great place, especially if the weather is decent.

Don't think this was mentioned on here, but it's a must-visit: Dano's Heuriger (east shore of Seneca Lake) is a spectacular restaurant, one of the best in that region. Won a James Beard last year, I believe.

 

[TexanMark]

Best value in Skaneateles...tell them you read about them in my tailgate guide and they should give you a 10% discount.
http://www.skaneatelessuites.com/skaneateles-suites/

BTW, I love it around Keuka Lake...would love to have a camp on the lake someday. As for the Napa Valley...generally awesome wineries mixed with a few crowded, overpriced villages filled with Bay Area Tourons who clog up 128. Give me the Finger Lakes and a Cuse game anyday in Sep/early October over Napa. Napa is something you should see but not at expense of missing a Cuse game live.

 

[Townie72]

Finger lakes is more beautiful than napa...trust me. If you want red wines then sure napa...but the white wines in finger lakes region are the best in the world...including france.

I'm not sure how long the total list is ... but add "wine" to your list of things you appear to know nothing about.

The stuff --- in a word --- is awful.

 

[jcuse44]

What stuff are you referring to exactly? If you mean the white wines of Finger Lakes you are a complete idiot.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I was just messing with you man haha. Auburn isnt so badf

great OTB in Auburn, that is about it

 

[Millhouse]

wine snob fight!
wine snob fight!
wine snob fight!
wine snob fight!

real housewives of 315

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I'm not sure how long the total list is ... but add "wine" to your list of things you appear to know nothing about.

The stuff --- in a word --- is awful.

Now, I would never make the comment that they are the best in the world, there are a few decent ones out there, decent. Not great, it's come a long ways in the past 15 years. I am not a huge fan of buttery, heavy oak, chardonnays. That said, any decent NYS wine due to the lack of grapes is going to be at least $30 range. Personally, I think the best wines in the world are hands down French and Italian not a huge fan of many of the Cali Reds, too overdone IMO. If I wanted to chew on a piece of Oak or tobacco, I would do just that

Somehow, I will always associate NYS wines with Pint glasses filled with Ice and Sangria and I am NYS enthusiast minus the outrageous taxes and the best restauarants in NYS minus NYC are in Saratoga as well not Ithaca, there is not one good restaurant in Skany FWIW all of course IMO

 

[jcuse44]

Im a fan of chilian wines myself,,,but for whites its all about the finger lakes...

 

[Townie72]

Now, I would never make the comment that they are the best in the world, there are a few decent ones out there, decent. Not great, it's come a long ways in the past 15 years. I am not a huge fan of buttery, heavy oak, chardonnays. That said, any decent NYS wine due to the lack of grapes is going to be at least $30 range. Personally, I think the best wines in the world are hands down French and Italian not a huge fan of many of the Cali Reds, too overdone IMO. If I wanted to chew on a piece of Oak or tobacco, I would do just that

Somehow, I will always associate NYS wines with Pint glasses filled with Ice and Sangria and I am NYS enthusiast minus the outrageous taxes and the best restauarants in NYS minus NYC are in Saratoga as well not Ithaca, there is not one good restaurant in Skany FWIW all of course IMO

 

[Chip]

wine snob fight!
wine snob fight!
wine snob fight!
wine snob fight!

real housewives of 315

I'm staying out of it, because I didn't hear that the red wines in the Finger Lakes were better than those in Napa and Oregon. Would be like saying sex with Roseanne is clearly better than sex with, say, Mila Kunis.

I know you're neutral on that metaphor, I was more speaking to the heteros.

 

[TexanMark]

I'm not sure how long the total list is ... but add "wine" to your list of things you appear to know nothing about.

The stuff --- in a word --- is awful.

The Rieslings are quite good...from the Finger Lakes.

 

[Townie72]

Now, I would never make the comment that they are the best in the world, there are a few decent ones out there, decent. Not great, it's come a long ways in the past 15 years. I am not a huge fan of buttery, heavy oak, chardonnays. That said, any decent NYS wine due to the lack of grapes is going to be at least $30 range. Personally, I think the best wines in the world are hands down French and Italian not a huge fan of many of the Cali Reds, too overdone IMO. If I wanted to chew on a piece of Oak or tobacco, I would do just that

Somehow, I will always associate NYS wines with Pint glasses filled with Ice and Sangria and I am NYS enthusiast minus the outrageous taxes and the best restauarants in NYS minus NYC are in Saratoga as well not Ithaca, there is not one good restaurant in Skany FWIW all of course IMO

I have relatives who live on Canadaigua Lakes and I have been wine tasted to death up there as these proud Central New Yorkers have attempted to show me that NY State produces very good wine. They know I have spent a lot of time in Europe and have at least some knowledge gained over the years. (Neither one of these people do and they'd be perfectly happy to swill California chardonnay from a box if no one were looking. In other words, they are typical Americans). But you just can't compare NYS whites even with less than $25 Sancere or Pouilly Fume or a good Alsatian Chablis or Gewurztraminer. And that's the whites.

French wine is the world's best because 1.) They've been at it for 1,000 years and 2.) The population knows the difference. 3.) They have huge range of soil and the climate and they know what works where. The problem is that with such a huge range of available wines its hard to know which ones you are going to like.

My advice to most Americans who want good wine at a reasonable price is Spanish reds. Just remember these words, "Rioja" or Ribera del Duero" and than "Crianza" or "Riserva" or "Gran Riserva". Put the wine in the refrigerator 20 minutes before you serve it and compare that to NYS wine. Or better yet, don't.

I have recently started drinking Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It can be very good. But it depends on the year as their climate is fickle ... hot and dry one summer and cool and wet the next.

 

[JeremyCuse]

The Rieslings are quite good...from the Finger Lakes.

Yup both dry and sweet, they also have some really good desert/ice wines, unbelievably good.

 

[Bayside44]

I have relatives who live on Canadaigua Lakes and I have been wine tasted to death up there as these proud Central New Yorkers have attempted to show me that NY State produces very good wine. They know I have spent a lot of time in Europe and have at least some knowledge gained over the years. (Neither one of these people do and they'd be perfectly happy to swill California chardonnay from a box if no one were looking. In other words, they are typical Americans). But you just can't compare NYS whites even with less than $25 Sancere or Pouilly Fume or a good Alsatian Chablis or Gewurztraminer. And that's the whites.

French wine is the world's best because 1.) They've been at it for 1,000 years and 2.) The population knows the difference. 3.) They have huge range of soil and the climate and they know what works where. The problem is that with such a huge range of available wines its hard to know which ones you are going to like.

My advice to most Americans who want good wine at a reasonable price is Spanish reds. Just remember these words, "Rioja" or Ribera del Duero" and than "Crianza" or "Riserva" or "Gran Riserva". Put the wine in the refrigerator 20 minutes before you serve it and compare that to NYS wine. Or better yet, don't.

I have recently started drinking Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It can be very good. But it depends on the year as their climate is fickle ... hot and dry one summer and cool and wet the next.

With Zak on permantent vacation you've really stepped up your game.

 

[TexanMark]

With Zak on permantent vacation you've really stepped up your game.

Yup my life is shattered as I drive home from my minimum wage job in my 1988 Yugo to meet my live in Oswego County Frumpy with 6 kids from 4 different Fathers for leftover mac n cheese in her Dad's trailer on the back 40.

 

[Townie72]

What stuff are you referring to exactly? If you mean the white wines of Finger Lakes you are a complete idiot.

I'm not sure I am a "complete" idiot. I suspect that you don't know a whole lot about wine.

I live in DC --- which is a relatively sophisticated area --- and there's not a bottle of NYS wine to be had. There are wines from California and Oregon and Chile and Italy and France and Germany and Spain and Portugal. But there is none from NYS. Why do you think that's true?

Just keep drinking that NYS wine. If you don't know the difference, it won't hurt you.

 

[690West]

there is not one good restaurant in Skany FWIW all of course IMO

IB, this post was very Cali-esque so I'm not sure what you're saying here. But, if you're saying there is not one good restaurant in Skan-town you're nuts. Rosalie's could be considered one of the best in the state.

 

[TexanMark]

I'm not sure I am a "complete" idiot. I suspect that you don't know a whole lot about wine.

I live in DC --- which is a relatively sophisticated area --- and there's not a bottle of NYS wine to be had. There are wines from California and Oregon and Chile and Italy and France and Germany and Spain and Portugal. But there is none from NYS. Why do you think that's true?

Just keep drinking that NYS wine. If you don't know the difference, it won't hurt you.

LOL...this is why I drink beer.

Love you Townie.

 

[Townie72]

With Zak on permantent vacation you've really stepped up your game.

Keeps their heart pumping. It's good for them.

 

[690West]

I'll just leave this here...

"Skeptics and cynics would argue that a state rampant with Concord grapes (mainly for grape juice), and saddled with such obscure wines as Seyval, Cayuga, Catawba, Diamond, Vidal and Chancellor cannot seriously use the phrase "world-class."
Such talk is mindless, notably in the face of what New York has accomplished with arguably the world's greatest grape variety, Riesling. Finger Lakes Riesling today holds its own against the best Rieslings in the world, and in numerous blind competitions has come out on top.
Dry Rieslings from the three properties I visited last week, Anthony Road, Fox Run and Red Tail Ridge, are so stellar they should be on every New York City white-tablecloth restaurant wine list. Few are."
http://www.salon.com/2010/07/28/riesling_from_ny/
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120815/WIRE/208151006