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TB
Citizen
Username: Lenox
Post Number: 3
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2006 - 9:28 pm: | 
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Looking for suggestions on which wine trail to go on and where to stay in the area. Feedback about your experience would be great too!
Thanks! |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2196
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2006 - 10:39 pm: |
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Go down Seneca Lake from north to south, ending just above Watkins Glen. Seneca has a number of small, high-end wineries on route 414, on the east side of the lake, especially Shalestone Winery, Silver Springs Winery and Standing Stone Winery.
Steer FAR away from wineries like Swedish Hill, Tickle Hill, and the wineries combined with gift shops. You'll find them full of people tossing down way too many "tastings" of wine for a buck. Stay away from Watkins Glen as well. It feels like a honky tonk.
There are nice areas along Seneca Lake around Hector, Burdett, Dundee, and the shoreline of the lake around the town of Geneva is excellent for walking and viewing.
Keuka Lake has the Dr Konstantin Frank Winery, a BIG establishment known for its excellent rieslings and good gewurtztraminers, as well as some acceptable red blends in its Salmon Run label. But the Frank winery is very touristy.
You could start your trip from Geneva, NY, (on Seneca Lake) with easy access south to Keuka Lake and the east side of Seneca. I'd steer away from the west side of Seneca as the wineries there are fairly touristy. The east side of the the lake has some "garagistes," as the French would call them, and that's interesting (Shalestone is among them).
Geneva also has a really good Italian restaurant just across from a Hampton Inn. The name escapes me, even though I have had a number of fine meals there. And it has a very good wine list representing local product as well as other labels.
The whole area is a HIKE from NJ, however: about a 5 and a half hour drive, some of which is quite boring. You can shorten it by heading northwest through Ithaca and cut across country to Seneca Lake. A good e-map will show you how.
Let me know if you'd like more info.
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Sherri De Rose
Citizen
Username: Honeydo
Post Number: 390
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 7:15 am: |
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Rich and I rented a house on Keuka Lake on THAT Sept 11. What should have been a fabulous vacation was a tear filled week. We had a friend on the plane which crashed in PA. Anyway, the Finger Lakes is a beautiful place. As far as Watkins Glen, I believe that is where this fabulous gorge is. I am sure the guidebooks will tell you exactly where. It was the most spectacular view of nature I have ever seen. There is also a small town at the bottom of one of the Lakes (I believe the town is called Hammondton) that is worth a looksee. Enjoy! |
Bailey
Citizen
Username: Baileymac
Post Number: 396
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 8:04 am: |
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The glen gorge at Senaca Lake is beautiful, we've gone twice. If you're very energetic, you can take a long walk uphill, starting at the bottom, or start at the top and walk downhill the whole way. (I recommend the downhill approach).
There are 17 waterfalls along the way, it's about 2-1/2 miles in total. There are trams that will give you a ride back to where you parked your car, top or bottom.
Senaca Lake is the biggest of the fingerlakes, 2-1/2 miles wide, 38 miles long and 700 feet deep, with several vineyards, and you can take a cruise on the river too. It's a very nice weekend! |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2197
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 9:32 am: |
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Hammondton is at the south end of Keuka Lake, and also has some nice cafes and restaurants. It tends to feel a bit crowded in the summer and early fall, however.
At the top of Seneca, you can visit Seneca Falls, NY and its sister village of Waterloo. Seneca Falls is of note because of its place in the history of the women's movement, with local mementoes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Seneca Falls is also the "transition point" between Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake.
Again, Seneca Lake is the most spectacular of the lakes and has the most varied topography. It's the shale on the east side of the lake and the long summer sun that has the inventive winemakers trying new things there. |
ncakes
Citizen
Username: Wbwallflower
Post Number: 326
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 9:56 am: |
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My uncle has a great restaurant on Seneca. Stop by and check it out if you're in the area! http://www.danosonseneca.com/  |
TB
Citizen
Username: Lenox
Post Number: 4
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 7:38 pm: |
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Thanks to all for the feedback! I take it Seneca is the place to be. |
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15499
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 7:55 pm: |
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KEUKA is the place to be.
Go to rentalplus.com to find a place in any of the lakes. |
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15500
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 7:58 pm: |
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p.s. it's Hammondsport. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2210
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 9:10 am: |
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sbenois is right.
It is Hammondsport, at the south end of Keuka.
The lake is in a Y shape. Keuka has more lakeside houses and cottages than Seneca, Canandaigua, or Cayuga. Most of them are placed so that the lake road is right behind them and the lake right in front, with the anticipated tight consequences for parking and for little usable land space right around the houses. Most of the owners/renters seem to come from Syracuse and Rochester, which are comparatively close by.
If you're willing to forego a location right on the lake, there are vacation rentals and homes for sale on the hills overlooking Keuka along routes 54 and 54A that have spectacular views of the lake and the surrounding countryside. We looked extensively at second homes there and almost bought a hillside house on 10 acres (4 acres of grapevines) with a spectacular view. We decided on a similar property in Vermont, sans grapevines of course, but with spectacular mountain views. |
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15503
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 9:17 am: |
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I go up there every year and I've also played with the idea of buying something to retreat to.
I want to live on the bluff. What an amazing place. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2212
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 10:58 am: |
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Sbenois:
We spent perhaps 45 full days looking at homes there.
We were really interested in a house that is still on the market and may be of interest to you, on the hills overlooking Keuka Lake from the west, stunning views and the home nicely renovated. And you wouldn't believe the price.
PM me if you'd like more information. |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1622
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 3:14 pm: |
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I grew up in Rochester and spent summers in the Finger Lakes, usually on Canandaigua but also on Keuka and Seneca. It was our version of the Jersey Shore or the Hamptons. Absolutely one of my favorite areas in general. As Innisowen says, the prices for 2nd homes there are stupendous because the housing market in general in upstate NY is depressed. If you work your way over to Naples, you'll find some nice little inexpensive antique stores and plenty of local roadstands selling fruit and vegetables, handgrown, some run by Amish or Mennonite farmers. Enjoy! |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2217
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 10:15 pm: |
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Zoesky:
We looked at a farm owned by an Amish family that was going to go back to Lancaster County. It was big but not well kept. I think we might have run into the sole Amish family that were not good farmers, so they were packing it in and going to do something else back in PA.
By the way, most people don't realize it. From Stone Arabia, NY (which is not far from Fultonville/Auriesville area) right through to Seneca Lake, there are many transplanted Amish. Apparently, the price of land in Lancaster County, PA is so high that they can sell, move to upstate NY and buy more land and bigger houses for the money.
It's interesting that once you leave the Metro NY area and the counties of Dutchess, Orange, and parts of Sullivan, heading north and west in NY, the housing market is quite depressed, and prices are low.
When we looked in the Seneca Lake area, we found a stupendous home on 5 acres for $300K overlooking the lake and vineyards. It had been on the market for 700 days, according to the real estate disclosure! Our sense was that if a house like that was going begging, it might not be a great idea to buy there.
In addition, we failed to find a lot of diversity in the population of the Finger Lakes, outside of Ithaca, Rochester, and Syracuse.
We have since bought in Vermont, where most homes for sale are on the market for less than 60 days and which seems to draw a diverse population. |
Sherri De Rose
Citizen
Username: Honeydo
Post Number: 392
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, August 6, 2006 - 8:18 am: |
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Rich and I have a second home in S.W. Sullivan County (Couldn't have afforded to buy it on a handyman's income....Got stock options during the corporate heigh days). Anyway, there are many wonderful second homes here for $150K and up. It is less than 2 hours away, area is filled with lakes, the Delaware River, fabulous scenery, skiing in the winter. Anyone interested in getting more info can PL me and I'll tell ya all about it. Don't get here as much as we used to but as soon as we cross the river all the stresses melt away. |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 2964
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, August 6, 2006 - 3:40 pm: |
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Thread drift:
Zoesky -- where in Rochester did you grow up? I went to undergrad and graduate school in Rochester, and I love it up there.
I always thought the area around Canandaigua was gorgeous. Also, I believe there are some wineries in the Finger Lakes area. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2219
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, August 6, 2006 - 5:08 pm: |
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There are perhaps 150 wineries in the Finger Lakes area. Development projections assumed there would be some 300 wineries in the FL by 2012. But those projections are from several years ago when the economy was better, consumer confidence was higher, and there was not such a glut of new wineries the world over.
The Finger Lakes are still one of the "under-discovered" glorious spots in North America. |
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