Autumn's Bounty -Keuka Lake Wine Trail Tour

A few weeks ago, my husband and I took a break from daily life with a few friends and went on a Sunday wine tour. We purchased some tickets for the Keuka Lake Wine Trail that included eight wineries, but, we only got to five of them. We started out at Heron Hill Winery and not only tasted some good wines but some good food too.

Pictured to the right is a view from the pathway leading up into the winery. And if you like pumpkin, their Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake is to die for!

They had a beautiful garden of which they clipped some flowers for the tables. We loved this pink flower but cannot figure out what it is.

Do you know what this flower is? Please leave a comment -I'd love to plant it in my garden!

Personally, I'm a white wine girl. I can tolerate some reds and have found a handful I really like that I keep in my personal stock. In fact, a few years back I happened to taste a port wine while in Pennsylvania and LOVED IT!!!

So when I discovered Heron Hill had both a red and white wine labeled "Eclipse", I simply had to share it with you. I (of course) like the white more than the red, but I pictured the bottles for all you Twilight fans out there. Come on now...how more ironic can you get...red wine...vampires...twilight?! You see it right?

The next stop was Dr. Frank's
Vinifera Wine Cellars. I'm pretty sure we picked up at least one bottle of wine from each winery but most memorable at Dr. Frank's winery was the view from the deck. Simply breathtaking. This same view could be seen to the left and right with miles upon miles of grape vines.

The day may have started out hazy but it was the perfect setting for the beginning of fall and the harvesting of wine season.

Our third stop was Stever Hill Vineyards. Here we were able to get up close to the grapes and snap a few delicious pictures.

Don't these look so delicious that you just want to pick one off the vine and taste it?! With the vineyard located just behind the house and barn, the black and white cat sitting next to the vines, was picture perfect..but I didn't get that picture. :-)

The tasting took place inside the barn and while we sampled some good homemade cooking, I spied three different colors of grapes in their containers off to the side.

The colors were so lush and seasonally perfect that I had my husband assemble them into a "group picture" for you. Whether purposely placed there or not, they definately added some ambiance to the tour!

The last two stops were Hunt Country Vineyards and Keuka Spring Vineyards. At Hunt Country, everyone was so very friendly and they even had a mascot -Gus. He was a little shy but a beautiful dog! In fact, the vineyard creates a wine named "Gus" (which of course we purchased) and donates a portion of the proceeds to an animal organization. BTW -the "Gus" wine was delicious!

The last stop for the day was Keuka Spring. Now, I don't know if it was the end of the tour, or if the servers had a long day -but ya know, wasn't so great. It seemed everytime the server started coming our way, he would serve someone along the way. It almost felt like he was ignoring us. At one point, I asked him if they had a paper copy of the wine selection list. He stood staring at me with this blank look for a few moments and then asked, "yes, do you want one?". Well, ah, yeah? Duh. Isn't that why I asked for one? So, sadly, not so great an experience for the last stop.

All in all, it was a relaxing, great day with some friends. Tasted some new wines, picked up some new ones for our personal stock and enjoyed the beginning of the fall season.

Happy Autumn!!