Ravines Wine Cellars

This year being a “Big One” for us – 25 years – I have been thinking of our life together. But I found when I reflect on our married life, I think in terms of Golden Retrievers! It seems we have had different goldens at different stages of our marriage. Amber was our first. She was with us during our early, carefree days and she was carefree. Then we had Hanna (or Saint Hanna as we now refer to her) who literally grew up with our daughter. Hanna was a lady from day one. Always well behaved, very willing to wear whatever outfit was requested of her; the ideal dog. Why would we even contemplate another dog when we had Hanna? Well, blame it on the kid who wanted a puppy. We took her to Indian Acres where we purchased Hanna and - DUH - ended up waiting for a puppy. When we took Rory home in November, Hanna sulked for several weeks! She and Rory eventually became good buddies. Rory did everything the Big Dog did and was totally lost without her when Hanna passed away at age 13. So what did we do? Slow learners that we are, we ran right out and got another puppy. Unfortunately, we couldn’t return to Indian Acres because Barb Clark, the breeder had passed away. If anyone has read Marley and Me, (by John Grogan) you will understand what we have gone through with Maggie our 4th golden. She could be Marley’s sister! We met her father – a nice, mellow golden who sat patiently in a washtub for an hour while we talked to the breeder, however, Maggie’s mother was conveniently not on the premises. She was visiting a friend. Riiiiiight. Long story short, after 2 years, we are still adjusting to Maggie, as she obviously isn’t even TRYING to adjust to us! But I’m rambling.
I wanted to continue our wine trail down route 54 South on the East side of Keuka Lake. Just a few yards past the turn off to McGregor Vinyards going towards Hammondsport is Ravines Wine Cellars - a relative newcomer to the Keuka Lake wineries. Ravines Wine Cellars was started about 5 years ago by the Hallgren Family. The wine maker, Morten Hallgren, learned to make wines on his family’s estate in the South of France before coming to the area and is currently one of the Finger Lakes most award-winning winemakers. Ravines Wine Cellars is known for producing “fine, dry wines in an elegant, European style.” and has been written up in Gourmet magazine as a “Don’t Miss” winery!
Having barely escaped a huge downpour, Jim and I ran up to the elegant winery that sits on a bluff overlooking the lake, (providing the employees with what they call the best “office view” of anyone they know!) The wine tasting cost $2.00 for a choice of 5 wines. We were provided with a list of 9 wines from which to choose: Dry Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Keuka Village, Dry Pinot Rose, Chardonnay, Cerise, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Meritage. Phil, our host, started us with the Dry Riesling, explaining that dry wines are meant for food pairings. This Riesling had a nice minerally finish. We purchased the Sav Blanc 2006 as a possibility for our pack to rate or for the wine tasting we are doing at Spirit Work Knitting and Design’s Yarn Tasting In October. It was light and crisp with citrus (lemon, grapefruit) flavors. We also liked their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We purchased the Cab Franc for our pack and lastly tried the Meritage. (Meritage is a word developed from 2 words -merit or outstanding value and heritage). A meritage must have at least 2 Bordeaux blends in it. Ravine has a really great meritage made from Cab Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot varietals. Delicious!
Here are a few of the food and wine events Ravines Wine Cellars hosts:
August 17 The Winemaker’s Tasting Dinner: The Many Faces of Riesling.
$55 per person. Reservations required.
August 18, 19 5th Anniversary Weekend with live jazz and food and wine pairings
Sept 15, 16 Chocolate Tasting. All types of chocolate paired with Ravine’s red wines.
Enjoy!