Travels to Oz Chapter 1

The sleet and snow pellets didn't stop us as we ventured out to visit favorite wineries yesterday. Yes it was April 21st! First stop - Fox Run Vineyards and Opus At Fox Run for a sandwich. Fox Run's former executive chef Heather Tompkins and Chelsey Madia opened their wildly successful Opus Expresso and Wine Bar in Geneva ( 486 Exchange St.) and, at the beginning of April, opened their second location in Fox Run's tasting room. Yay for all of us who eat there because the food is fantastic! Drooling over the unbelieveable sandwich and salad selection, we finally settled on a hot turkey and cranberry with asiago cheese on a wonderful nutty bread. Delicious!

Just as we placed our order, owners Scott and Ruth Osborn came over to say hi. We hadn't seen them in awhile, so we briefly caught up, then took our sandwiches and sat down to eat. As we were finishing, Scott came over, sat down and we discussed some of the new green plans he has for the winery. He invited us over to the tasting bar where we continued our conversation over several delicious wines. Ever the librarian, I mentioned to Scott that I just finished reading Evan Dawson's Summer in a Glass. (A must read by the way). Scott is part of the way through it, but he started with the chapters on his Winemaker Peter Bell and Assistant Winemaker Tricia Renshaw! Fox Run will host a book signing with Evan Dawson on June 4th.

We enjoyed tasting his award winning Rieslings, the Red Tierce and the White Tierce among others. We had a chance to sample the soon to be released Cab Franc Lemberger which is wonderful, so watch for it's release. (Here is the plug for joining wine clubs because you get first shot at new releases as well as limited productions such as the Blanc de Blanc we just received in our last shipment). We totally enjoyed our time at Fox Run with Scott. Where else but in the Finger Lakes can "average joe's" like us chat with the owner of one of the top 100 wineries in the world? We selected a couple of the Reserve Chardonnay, a Riesling and the Red Tierce to take home. (Red Tierce and the Ruby Port are almost sold out...) We will remember our afternoon at Fox Run as we savor the wines this summer.