Tired of people saying there's nothing to do in Upstate New York? ME TOO! You'll find my rants, raves, and reviews of all sorts of activities to do if you live in the Capital District/Saratoga region or its nearby surroundings. From local establishment ideas to day trip suggestions, you'll find it here.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

And then there was wine!

More of what I did on my stay-cation!



Name of attraction: Sheldrake Point Winery
Address: 7448 County Road 153, Ovid, NY 14521
Date and time of most recent visit: 7/5/11; 5:00 p.m.


Sheldrake Point was recently voted one of the best wineries to visit in the Finger Lakes, and has a highly acclaimed bistro on site called Simply Red.  However, due to my late arrival at the vineyard, I was not able to sample food at Simply Red.  The bistro is only open for lunch hours, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.


My primary reason for stopping here, however, was because I knew Sheldrake Point produced a late harvest Riesling on site that was awarded the Best Sweet Riesling in the World honors at the Canberra International Riesling Challenge in 2010.  As I adore late harvest Riesling, I figured this was as good a stop as any to pick up some cheese and snacks, and sample some yummy wine!  I parked my car, and looked out over the views of the vineyards and Cayuga Lake, and felt like I'd made a pretty good choice for my light-dinner stop:









So, I'll tell you--that late harvest Riesling was fantastic, and worth the $2 fee to sample it.  My overall experience at the tasting was decidedly less fantastic, however.  I unfortunately happened to stop in right as a large group of rowdy, college-aged folks drifted into the facility, and I even more unfortunately sat down next to friends of the woman staffing the tasting bar.  All of this meant I got very little attention, and was given very rushed, clipped explanations of the various wines in the $5 flight of wines I'd chosen to sample.  I imagine I would have had a better visit if I'd arrived perhaps a half hour earlier, but what can you do?


I did, however, buy a bottle of that late harvest Riesling, some wine crackers, and several delicious local cheeses at the Sheldrake Point gift shop, all of which I took back to a lovely B&B (the review of which will follow soon!) where I enjoyed a smashingly tasty late evening light meal.


Overall review: 3 out of 5 Upstate!Stars
Learn more at their website: www.sheldrakepoint.com

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