Finger Lakes News and Notes

- Sheila Livadas features Casa Larga Vineyards in her latest winery profile

- McGregor Vineyard Winery announces special sunset hours in July and August. They will be open until 8pm Fridays and Saturdays in July & August for visitors to enjoy wine, special food samples, and Keuka Lake sunsets. Also, check out their Raspberries, Chocolate, & Red Wine Weekend July 8 & 9. One of my favorite things is to bring guests to McGregor for their relaxed sit-down tastings. At my last tasting there a few weeks ago, I was wowed by their Unoaked Chardonnay (100% free-run juice), amazing Gewurztraminer (easily one of the best Gewurz I've tasted yet this year, but only 74 cases produced), Semi-Dry Riesling (another wow 2005), 2003 Vignoles (pineapple and honey with a cranberry finish), and the heavenly 1995 Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay). I know McGregor gets accolades for their reds, but I think their whites are top-notch also.

- Having dual citizenship between New York & Pennsylvania, every year I make the trek to the Poconos for the Pennsylvania Wine Festival. Pennsylvania wine seems to have a bad reputation, but I can honestly say that slowly, they are getting better and better. And in fairness, most Pennsylvania wineries have to deal with much less than ideal growing conditions. I've always enjoyed Pennsylvania fruit wines (other than grape) but now a few wineries are starting to produce top-notch grape wines. The highlights for me were the always good fruit wines (especially their Plum) of Bashore & Stoudt Country Winery & Benignas Creek Vineyard
(especially their Strawberry), West Hanover Winery (a newer winery doing a very nice job with a wide variety of wines), and Clover Hill Vineyards (producing top-notch Riesling and Vignoles)

- Newsday writer goes to the source to discover the Finger Lakes

- How the Farm Winery Act saved the New York wine industry

- A veterans cemetary at the old Sampson military base sound like a great idea to me

- Bikers look tough on the outside but inside, they're softies with big hearts

- Immigration crackdown affecting Finger Lakes farmers and Finger Lakes farmers speak at House hearing on Immigration

- Check your NYSEG bills

- Finger Lakes Railway planning new station

- Ithaca battles Two Rivers in fight over origin of the ice cream sundae. Whoever originated it, I thank them.

- Stay tuned for more winery visit summaries and Thanks for Reading!!! Also, I get a lot of questions and emails from people who are planning visits to the Finger Lakes and want advice on which wineries would fit their taste in wine. I love receiving these emails. Keep them coming. Just email me at the email address at the top of the page and I'll be happy to answer your questions.