In The Beginning

Our wine tasting experiences started about the time we became the proud parents of our first golden retriever. Indian Summer's Amber Leigh was my birthday gift the second year we were married. Amber was a free spirit who lived to race down the stairs and leap off the end of the dock at the family cottage on Canandaigua Lake. Her mission: to rescue anyone or anything she saw in the water even if it meant jumping off a moving sailboat to retrieve her victim! We spent many a sultry summer's day at "The Lake" and of course at the nearest wineries in Naples and Hammondsport.

Bully Hill in particular was our favorite. We soaked up the wisdom of Walter S. Taylor, Bully Hill's founder of the "they took my name and my heritage but they didn't get my goat" fame. I still have the bottles - empty of course - of the year the staff took black magic markers and blackened out "Taylor" from Walter S's name due to legal issues with the Taylor Wine Co.

While sipping wines produced by the winemaker at the time, Hermann J. Weimer, we learned the basics of wine tasting: how to hold the glass, sniff, swirl and spit (or swallow!) as well as phrases like "tank car wines." We also learned about a Butler's Key. A Butler's Key is a cork puller that has 2 prongs instead of a screw device. You "walk" the 2 prongs down the neck of the bottle on either side of the cork and pull the cork out whole. It is the easiest, most fail-safe method to uncork a bottle of wine. According to the staff at Bully Hill, it was developed by butlers so they could sneak a sip of wine and replace the cork with no one the wiser! We were sold on it and still use our Bully Hill Butler's Key 25 years later.

Bully Hill was a staple to us in our early days as well as a refuge to us when we started our family. We'll never forget the late October trip we took with Pam and Dave - leaving our infant daughters at home with their grandmothers. Snow squall aside, we had a blast sampling wines and I enjoyed being a volunteer bartender that evening at the winery. Flash forward 17 years and 4 golden retrievers later, and Bully Hill Winery is still a fun visit. Stay tuned for updates on a recent trip to the winery.