This organization was formed to assist the NYS wine & grape industry with product research, advertising, and marketing support programs of various types. Jim Trezise of the foundation says that this cut if it were to pass into legislation would likely be the death knell for the foundation as they do not have enough independent support to maintain their operation.

The Wine & Grape foundation is compared with the Apple Growers foundation which evidently does have enough private support to maintain their programs. Along with these cuts the governor proposes to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores and in almost tripling the existing sin tax for all wine sales, but not for hard spirits sales.

As described, this will be a blow to all New York Wineries. If you would like to read the lengthy report of Mr. Trezise you may do so in the current issue of the “Wine Press” newsletter at the foundation’s website http://newyorkwines.org.

As stated these proposals, among many others are just the initial concept of how the governor wants to address the 15 billion dollar NYS deficit. They are not law yet.

This is an interesting view of the Happy Goat Bottling Process at the Bully Hill Winery in Hammondsport New York.

This company was one of the true pioneers in New York Wineries.

Bully Hill is able to ship to the following list of forward thinking, common sense states: California, Colorado, Florida. Idaho. Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

You may order online or by phone.
Please tell them you read about them here on www.NYuncorked.com

Whatcha think, this stuff gowns on trees?

(Note, this video and all media displayed on this website are the sole property of the owners displayed within, and are used here through the courtesy of Creative Commons rights, with thanks.)

Here is a discussion regarding last years vintage that you will enjoy.

Go to their website, click on History, and read the heartwarming tribute to Monty.
Lakewood Vineyards.
Lakewood Vineyards has become one of the most popular of the New York Wineries.

NYuncorked

Beak & Skiff Retail Store

Typically grapes are used to make wine but wine may also be made from many other fruits and the the excellent apples of the Finger Lakes Wine Region make a very tasty Apple Wine indeed.

Beak & Skiff Retail Store

Your trusty correspondent recently interviewed Steve Morris, one of the members of this family run business that started in 1911. Beak & Skiff have been growing apples for the wholesale and retail market for almost a century.

I asked Steve what the difference between Apple Wine and Hard Cider is and he explained that it is described in the State Liquor Laws in regards to the alcohol content.

The Apple Wine made here has won several awards for excellence and though their production sells out every year, they keep enlarging the business in a manageable growth rate.

I asked if Apple Wine improves with age as some grape wines do and Steve answered with a smile, that they seemed to taste just as good to him at any age.

They use only their own apples, and all fermentation and bottling is done on premises.

Apple Wine Store

Of the several different types of apple wine available, I was told that the Gala Wine was the most popular, but you should try several different ones to see which you like best.

Apple Wine Store

They have a nice retail store on premises that you will want to visit any time you are in the Central New York area. They are located near the intersection of NYS Route 20 and Route 80 closer to Otisco than to LaFayette. Otisco Lake is considered to be the easternmost of the glacially formed Finger Lakes. The view is spectacular any time of the year but in the fall it is absolutely breathtaking!

Gala Apple Wine

The day that I visited, Steve had just received a large amount of equipment from Germany that will be used in their newest venture into the spirits world. Beak and Skiff will soon be distilling apples into Apple Vodka, Apple Brandy, Eau de Vie, and Pommeau. There is no date targeted yet for production and sales availability as there are many unknowns in this startup operation.

They have built a whole new building with state of the art technology to operate the new still, but much depends on inspections, approvals and licensing before any products will be ready.

View from Apple Wine Store - Distillery in the Background

You may purchase their tasty wines by ordering through the Internet or by telephone order as well.
Prices are generally slightly less than most grape wines and you will want to try several of them for a change of variety.

So when you take a day trip to the Finger Lakes Wine Country make sure you stop and sample some delicious Apple Wine. It is one of the New York State Wine products that you will be hearing about for a long time to come. Tell them you read about them here at NYuncorked.com - New York Wines
http://www.beakandskiff.com/

Note: They only ship wine to New York State at this time.

ps: This just in… You might have noticed that NYuncorked has a sponsor ad for Dollar Rent-A-Car down at the lower right hand side of this website. We have great news for your Day Trip in the Finger Lakes Wine Country. We have secured a further discount coupon for you to use. Enjoy your day trip in comfort.

(Make sure to use the coupon when ordering your car.)
Save 10% off Time and Mileage only on NEW YORK area location’s standard retail rates. Exp. 03/15/09 Coupon SAV10

As ms. Hargreave describes the internal content of the grape and its juices you will automatically start to salivate. The wine making business is alive and well in New York State and we appreciate such knowledgeable input from experts.

Picking Chardonnay Grapes for Wine - Classic Wines TV - Click here for more amazing videos

Links to:
Classic Wines
Bedell Cellars
Stonybrook University

We have been under new management for about three months now and we are thrilled with the popularity and activity being generated by this website. Our readership is growing leaps and bounds every day!

We do not sell any specific product, and we do not target any specific winery or company in the New York State Wine business. This is an information website, where we inform, educate and entertain our readers. Nothing more, and nothing less.

We are not performing any sleight-of-hand marketing and intend to just keep giving you more and more of what you obviously like, good content and information about the delicious wines of New York State.

The main writer of this website was born and raised in the Finger Lakes Region and has always admired the people and the country that creates such marvels of high quality products.

In the 1960’s I had the very good fortune to become friends with one of the kindest, gentlest, and most polite gentlemen that I have ever had the pleasure to know, Mr. Jim Wagner of Hector, New York. I knew Jim through our common love of collecting antique bottles and he owned one of the finest collections in the country.

Once I went to visit Jim in the winter and his wife said he was down in the vineyard and I could go find him quite easily. There he was, working solo, cutting and trimming vines and tying up the sparse remainder of the vines to the growing wires. It looked to me like there was not much left of the vine but jim laughed and said that was the way it was done.

As we chatted I mentioned how much I admired him and his family and their laconic lifestyle, and their family owned wine making business. Jim smiled and said, yes it was a good life, but see those hills over on the west? In the summer sometimes enormous black clouds come rolling over those hills and across Seneca Lake. If the clouds include an unwanted hail storm, we are out of business for a year. If that happens two years in a row, we are out of business, forever! We lost my good friend Jim at a much too young age and I sure miss him.

It dawned on me that it is not all fun and games. These people are the salt of the earth and they deserve every single bit of praise that we can bestow upon them. It goes without saying that the best complement you can give these families would be to purchase and enjoy their very yummy products!

So for those of you who are wondering who we are and what is our game plan, I say just read and enjoy. We make a little money off of advertising and we will never spam or scam you in any way.

We just LOVE New York - Wines!

If you find this website interesting and helpful we encourage you to subscribe to either the RSS feed or by email to receive notices of our newest postings.

If you have a website regarding New York State Wines, we would REALLY appreciate a backlink to NYuncorked.com.

Thanks so much.
Rich

When you are planning your trip to the Finger Lakes Wine Country you can do no better for lodging comfort than to schedule your stays at some of the finest Bed and Breakfast facilites that there are in New York. The beauty and love of life shows through in the personal homes that are shared with travelers, much as was the custom in the earliest of times.

In the time period that New York State was opening up for settlement to the New Englanders and others that were flooding through, it was customary for any weary traveler to shout out when approaching someone’s home, “Do you keep tavern?” almost always the answer was yes and they got to sleep on the kitchen floor for maybe a penny or so.

The tradition of accepting travelers lives on and with a much higher degree of hospitality and amenities. Today we want you to consider the sumptuous establishement named the Abner Adams House.

Established in 1810, located in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York in the Village of East Bloomfield, NY (10 minutes to Canandaigua, NY, 30 minutes from Rochester, NY). Providing lodging accommodations for discerning travelers. Peaceful, private, romantic getaway, scenic walks and drives. Discover the Finger Lakes History, Wine Trails and so much more.

It’s a beautiful life!

Abner Adams House Bed & Breakfast - Click here for more free videos

Winemaking in Long Island - Crushing Sauvignon Blanc - Classic W - For more funny videos, click here

That said, it was time for another day trip with my fiancée, Jolene. At least a few times a year, we hop in my Pontiac G6 GT on a nice day, put the top down, and head off on- what we affectionately call-a “grape escape.”

One of our favorite, and most unique wineries here in Central New York is actually an apple farm! The Beak and Skiff Apple Farm Winery is just a 10- or 15-minute drive to LaFayette from Syracuse. This place started out as wholesale apple business at the turn of the century, today it’s evolved into a diversified apple farm that not only grows, harvests, stores and sells apples-they now have a winery! In 2001, they started with a hard cider. They’ve since added six more apple-based wines and hard ciders. My favorite is the Northern Spy Apple Wine, made from Northern Spy Apples, and featuring all the complexities that come with this late-harvested fruit. Aside from the great wine, a quaint country store, and a bustling online business, the family that runs the farm also lets the public in for apple picking season.

After spending an hour or so picking apples in the morning and buying a few bottles (OK-cases) of wine and cider, we got back in the Pontiac G6 and headed to Waterloo. It’s a bit of a drive, about an hour. So we cranked up the XM radio on the G6 and enjoyed the music and the sunshine until arriving at Cayuga Lake Wine Trail, in the heart of Finger Lakes. As the name indicates, this is much more than just one winery. Well over a dozen wineries makeup this beautiful locale, which is dotted with scenic waterfall views.

We started at Americana Vineyards, experiencing a unique blend of fine wines, homemade fudge and an afternoon cheese tray at the winery’s Crystal Lake Café. With all the wine tasting we’d been doing, Jolene and I decided we’d leave my G6 here, and call a driver for a private tour of the rest of the wineries on our list. After an evening of great tastings, live music and dancing-our driver dropped us off at a nearby bed and breakfast for the night.

Now, that our daytrip had turned into a two days, it was time to get a ride back to the winery where we parked the Pontiac overnight-and head out on one last adventure. I hadn’t been to this last winery, which is in Hector, New York, so we used the OnStar in the Pontiac to get us there worry-free. Within 45 minutes, we arrived at Chateau Lafayette Reneau. It was breathtaking. Nestled on 140 acres of vineyards, ponds, and woodlands is a brick house and renovated barn/winery with panoramic views of Seneca Lake. And with the top down on the G6 Convertible, it was absolutely spellbinding.

With Jolene as my official designated driver, I sampled a peachy Dry Riesling with a subtle and unique spritz, their bold Cuvee Rouge produced from hybrid grapes, and my favorite, the Owner’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, layered in black cherry and plum fruit-with a silky finish of chocolate and spice. The winery was a little out of our way but well worth the 80 miles we’d be driving to make it back to Syracuse before dark.

As the sun set and a chill cooled the air, we put the top back up on the G6, but vowed we’d spend the entire next weekend getting to know more of Central New York’s fine wineries.

Guest post author: Michael Toddler is a self-proclaimed wine aficionado and numismatist who spends many a weekend in his G6 tracking down fine wines and rare coins. Often an online contributor on subjects that spark his interest, he’s also been known to write a blog or two.