Sunday, July 26, 2009

Seneca Lake's Newest Winery


For all of you fruit wine (non-grape) lovers out there, Seneca Lake's newest winery, Fruit Yard Winery, may be right up your alley. Since it is located only a half-mile from my house on Route 14, about 10 miles north of Watkins Glen on the west side of the lake, I have been watching the construction with some curiosity and, with it's roadside farm stand look, I thought I would be buying fresh produce there. On its recent opening, alas, it was a winery.

Fruit Yard Winery is the brain child of Dave Dimarco, who also owns Seneca Shore Winery a few miles to the north, and Dave Shope, an experienced Finger Lakes winemaker with a love of making quality fruit wines. Along with wines such as Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Traminette, etc. (some from Seneca Shore's stock), they produce 7 sweet fruit wines - Pear, Peach, Cranberry, Cherry, Strawberry, Plum, & Blueberry (all in 375ml bottles), with more to come.



The highlights of my tasting were the Strawberry wine ($7.99, 375ml) with strawberry jam flavors and the Plum wine ($7.99, 375 ml), a very complex fruit wine with layers of plum, cherry, strawberry, and apricot into a nice long well-structured finish.
If you are looking for something a little different while you are tasting around Seneca Lake, stop in to the Fruit Yard.








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