What a fantastic afternoon we spent at Standing Stone Vineyards on the east side of Seneca Lake! Our friends, Pam and Dave joined us for a delicious lunch at the Bistro at Thirsty Owl Vineyards on Cayuga Lake. Then we traveled west a bit and arrived at Standing Stone just in time for the barrel tasting. We joined Jenny and Gary in the big yellow barn that houses the barrels. We tasted several wines - 2 Chardonnays that differed in the yeast that was used in the fermentation process (and yes, they tasted very different), 2 Pinot Noirs, a Cab Franc, 2 Merlots, Petit Verdot and Saperavi. What a great experience to taste wines in process as well as to compare different vi
ntages of the same varietal. Let me give you a heads-up - the 2010 wines are out of this world! Next we filled up our plates with breads, spreads and meats and headed back into the winery for our vertical tasting of Pinnacle. Pinnacle is Standing Stone's Bordeaux style blend, generally comprised of Cab Sav, Cab Franc and Merlot, although the 2007 Pinnacle (Wine Spectator score of 87) has Petit Verdot blended in also. We tasted the following years (vertical tastings compare different vintages of a given wine): 1997, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Love, love, love the 2005 and 2007! Very interesting to see, smell, and taste the differences over the years, plus it gives you a nice experience in tasting the effects of age 
on the wine. We had time to chat with winery owner and winemaker Marti Macinski, who, while a wealth of information about each vintage, is clearly passionate about her vineyard. This event was a wine-club member special event, so here is my plug about joining a wine club. While getting shipments of wine is great itself, the special events such as this barrel tasting provide for wonderful learning opportunities that you wouldn't ordinarily have.It was a great time with great friends at a unique event. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon in November!
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