Well…two days of Finger Lake wine tasting with Docs parents…..ill keep it short and sweet. In my opinion the reds here are so watered down and bad tasting that they are not worth the time. (at least the places we tasted) If your from the west coast don’t waste the time or money on the reds. Simple as that. Unless………unless you can compartmentalize and only look at the reds from a Finger Lake point of view. Yesterday and most of today I felt like a real snob with my rolling of the eyes and low voice saying why in the world are you attempting to make a red wine!? Then against my better judgement we stopped at an all red winery called Shalestone Vineyards. I walked in with a chip on my shoulder and the server, Jacqueline, was very down to earth sweet and personable tells us that she lived in Cali for a little while. I couldn’t help but open my big mouth and say…..hello! you being from California what do you think about these places “trying” to make red wine is all about. She put me right in my place by saying “you really have to not compare and taste it for what it’s worth in this area”. She took me down a couple of notches after saying that because she was right!!!!
However, with that said I still stand with my original statement if you are here in the Finger Lakes enjoy the white wine!!!!! It’s tasty,crisp,bright and some are truly beautiful wines that are best enjoyed on a hot summer day. Enjoy the whites and stay away from the reds.

Sheldrake Winery….bigger fancier winey then the last two. It was ok, they had this beautiful Gewürztraminer. Flora and crisp. It was almost like smelling a bug lush red rose. They were a little snooty at the end when we asked to taste one of the ice wines. It was an extra 5$….which I’m not a huge fan of ice wine so it was not worth it. It just left a sour flavor when we asked to sample one extra wine and instead of accommodating with a very small pour they were just “it’s 5 dollars”. That was even after we were purchasing a bottle of wine! Mediocre wine with a stingy attitude…..wouldn’t return.

Stopped by Bellwether for some hard cider. Different is what I have to say. Partly I’m sure because I’m inexperienced with cider. My only favorite was called “Black Magic”. It’s the sweetest of them all. The others kinda had a funky taste to them….but as I said I’m reserving complete judgement due to my lack of experience.