Lakewood Vineyards Visit

Liz Stamp at Lakewood Vineyards pours you a tasting, answers questions from five people, runs the register, helps a customer find a bottle, and does five other things all at the same time. And all with a smile! I was only there for 20 minutes, but I was exhausted after watching Liz. Lakewood Vineyards is a true family winery, with the entire family involved in running the winery. I've even seen the children practicing their sales skills in front of the winery. Even the winery dogs, who are beautiful Australian Shepherds (Having 2 Aussies of our own, we know that their charm can not be resisted), do their part in retaining customers. The Stamps have been growing grapes in the Finger Lakes for over 50 years and started Lakewood in 1988. They make about 25,000 cases of wine per year and it is a beautiful place to stop and taste their wine offerings.


Here are my tasting notes for our visit: 2003 Dry Vignoles, $9.99, Bright citrus aromas with the light taste of oak and vanilla. 2004 Chardonnay, $12.99, Very nicely balanced with slight oak overtones. 2004 Vignoles, $8.99, Tastes of citrus and pineapple, with a touch of honey and finishing nice and light, An excellent wine at a great price. 2003 Cabernet Franc, $15.99, Nice aromas of raspberry/blackberry with a raspberry jammy start with some smoky pepperriness and finishing soft and balanced. 2002 Port, Made from Baco Noir with ripe fruit aromas, sweet, rich, and decadent, a lovely dessert wine. We also scored a sample of the Just Bottled and Not Yet Released 2005 Riesling. All I can say is, if this Riesling is representative of the 2005 crop, then it's going to be a good year. Even newly bottled, it showed awesome floral aromas and a perfect balance of citrus and mineral. Also, see my post right after this for the Q&A with Lakewood winemaker Chris Stamp.