Wine Trail Traveler

Summer means wine, concerts and boating

Here in Finger Lakes wine country along the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail, the deals and contests are pouring in. Our first promotion for the summer is our $25 gas/gift card. During the next three months, every Friday from now until Aug. 26, we will be drawing a lucky card winner to encourage visitation along the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail. To be eligible, all you need to do is join our email club located on our home page. If you're already on our email list, make sure to fill out the survey that is part of our monthly e-newsletters. This gas/gift card will be redeemable at the winery of your choice. Good luck!

Partnerships are a wonderful thing here in the Finger Lakes, and we are presently working with two great partners. Now through Sept. 5, at the Museum of the Earth, the artwork of artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson, titled “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway,” is one of the highlighted exhibits for the summer. This exhibit explores evolution, extinction and prehistoric life. While all of Troll’s paintings are fun to look at, there is an added treat located in many of the paintings: a cheeseburger. To encourage the road trip theme, the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail is offering an appreciation card to anyone who visits the museum this summer. This card entitles the bearer to a 15-percent discount on a minimum three-bottle wine purchase at each of the winery members along the trail. Yes, this is a prehistoric road trip you will not want to miss!

Another partner we’re working with is Greek Peak Mountain Resort in conjunction with the Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance to host our first ever Be a Wine Maker for a Week Contest.

 Tell us why, through a video or essay, you would like to learn more about wine-making here in the Finger Lakes. The contest includes accommodations at Greek Peak, working with three of our wineries, free wine tour and tickets to two great festivals, Cork ’n Fork and Lucas’s German Fest. Check out the website www.winemakerforaweek.com for all the details and start to enter now. Voting closes Aug. 12 at noon.

 They will be hosting an outdoor party with a gourmet barbeque from the Crystal Lake Cafe, an outdoor bar, ice cream, games, and special giveaways.

Enjoy live music from Purple Valley, Radio London, Pete Panek and Steve Southworth and the Rockabilly Rays with a special fireworks presentation around 10 p.m. Admission is free and the festivities start at noon.

Summer is all about great wine, concerts and boating. Check out our new concert page or our boat-accessible winery page on our site located under wineries for a complete list. During the summer Montezuma Winery is offering an outdoor farmers market from 3 to 7 p.m. every Friday from now until Sept. 2.

Bottling the 09 Cab « Winemaking: Wine Trail Traveler

It took longer to drive to Vint Hill Craft Winery than bottle our barrel of 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. DJ, Vint Hill’s winemaker, had the bottling machine steam cleaned and cooled by the time we arrived. Our wine was racked into a stainless steel tank that was connected to the bottling machine. The first task was to flush out any water that may have condensed in the line. DJ ran some wine through each of the bottle spigots into a bucket. He then returned the wine to the stainless steel tank. This wine had a little water mixed in with it. Returning it to the wine in the tank would not affect the wine. If we didn’t do this, the lingering water that was in the bottling line after the cleaning may have affected the first bottle.

Meghan and Kevin helped us with the bottling process. Meghan placed empty bottles on the track, Kathy placed a capsule on the bottles as they passed her, I loaded the filled bottles into a case while Kevin took pictures. I was filling cases as the same rate that Meghan was emptying cases. It took less than an hour to completely fill a barrel of wine. There was one drawback though. The label machine was broken so our bottles do not have the label on them. That will have to be done by hand once we receive the labels. That will be a good task while watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Luckily we took two cars to Vint Hill because we needed to put cases in both of them.

I have bottled wine at home using suction and gravity. There was a small bottle filler at Tin Lizzie Wineworks. But a bottling line at a winery is simply hands down the best way to bottle.

DJ told us that bottle shock was only a short time. The aromas will return after a couple days. I was formally under the impression that bottle shock would last for weeks. We did try our wine after the last bottle was only half full. I am looking forward to watching the wine evolve as it now bottle ages.

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