View

Our view from the house on Seneca Lake.

By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

The blog is going to be quite for the next couple of days, because Nena and I are in the Finger Lakes for a three-day post-Orlando vacation (with Jackson at my in-laws'). We're joined by our friends C&A who enjoy good food and wine as much as we do.

We got to the region yesterday in the late morning and were joined by Evan and Morgan Dawson at Ravines Wine Cellars, where owners Lisa and Morten Hallgren spent some time with us. Lisa is an amazing cook, so if you ever have a chance to eat ANYTHING she cooks, I can't recommend it enough. Her food is only matched by Morten's dry, balanced wines that are easily among not only the region's best but the state's best. Wait until you try the 2007 Meritage and 2008 Argetsinger Vineyard Riesling. 

Next up was a Finger Lakes Tweetup (an offline gathering of like-minded people on Twitter), hosted by Amy Cheatle at Damiani Wine Cellars, where we met and enjoyed some delicious wines with 30 or so (mostly) members of the Finger Lakes wine community. There were so many great wines poured that I hesitate to pick any favorites. I will say that the Lembergers and Blaufrankisches were popular. As was a rose sparkler that I'll be writing about more shortly.

And finally, we ended our day with a delicious dinner at Stone Cat Cafe, just up the road from Damiani. Locally focused (both on the dinner and wine menus) good prices and great food combined to create a tremendous experience. I can't recommend Stone Cat enough. It doesn't hurt that most of the Tweetup folks ended up at the bar for the evening. Our meal warrants its own post, so look for that soon.

Today we're spending the day tasting on and around Seneca Lake and tommorrow morning we head over to Cayuga Lake for the day. It's hard work, but someone has to do it.