A Visit to Hunt Country Vineyards

For our second day of wine touring around Keuka Lake, Nena, Jackson and I were joined by my parents. We headed for the western side of the lake, starting at Hunt Country Vineyards.

Yes, I know that I've only posted about one winery on the eastern side of the lake, but I'm going to switch it up a little bit. We'll get back to the eastern shore again soon

There's a little more off-the-main-road driving involved when touring some areas of  FInger Lakes wine country and Hunt Country is a little off the main drag. Still, after reading Jason's post a few weeks ago, I knew that I wanted to taste my way through their wines.

Even though the vineyards at Hunt Country don't offer the typical lake views, they are picturesque none the less. We were amazed at just how beautiful the entire region is throughout our trip. It really is absolutely beautiful.

The wines at Hunt Country, on the whole, were okay, but there were a few wines that stood out for me and my family.

I've downplayed Finger Lakes reds plenty in my time writing about New York wines, and those comments were backed up here. I didn't care for the reds much, though I picked up one bottle of their newly Alchemy ($14), a non-vintage blend of 45% cabernet franc, 40% cabernet sauvignon and 15% Noiret (a hybrid developed at nearby Cornell). It was medium bodied, smoky and a little peppery.

I was a little disappointed in the dry riesling, but Nena really enjoyed the newly released 2007 Semi-Dry Riesling ($14), which was decidedly sweet, but balanced with just enough acidity. The flavors were much more tropical and ripe than many Keuka Lake rieslings we tried with peach, pear and a little pineapple.
 

I also really enjoyed the wine that brought me to Hunt Country to begin with, the 2007 Valvin Muscat ($15). I'm a sucker for interesting, unique wines, and this floral, melony white with just a little residual sugar (and nice acidity) fall into that category. You'd think that more wineries in New York would grow and bottle muscat.

When we left Hunt Country, with a case of wine between us, we headed to perhaps New York's best-known winery, Dr. Konstantin Frank. But that's another post for another day.

 

Comments

[Brian]

My wife and I visited Hunt Country was a few years ago on our first trip to the Finger Lakes. The Keuka Wine Trail brochure mentioned that they offer wine tours so we asked the lady at the register if they were doing tours today. She said they don’t offer tours on wine trail weekends (the place was packed), but then looked around and called over a kid who was stocking shelves and asked him if he could stop and give a tour. Turns out he’s family and comes home from college on the weekends to help out. He gives us a 30-minute tour that was nicely balanced between the standard tour dialogue and a 19 year olds take on what is really going on. The one thing people always say about upstate New York is how nice the people are, and that impromptu tour is one of the reasons we’ve been back every year since.