Wining Your Way Thru the Trail
by Jim Reilly

Mention New York’s wine country, and most people think of the Finger Lakes where 66 of the state’s 138 wineries grow grapes and make wine. Wine buffs know the old-timers in the Hudson Valley and the young Turks on Long Island’s North Fork. But if you’re traveling the Seaway Trail, New York’s only nationally-designated scenic byway, these places are a bit out of your way.

Fear not. If you want to spend a day sipping wine, chatting with winemakers and touring vineyards, a number of wineries are in reach. Most are concentrated in the Lake Erie grape-growing region, which stretches from Buffalo through Erie, PA to Toledo, Ohio; and is considered to be the third largest grape-growing region in the country. In New York, the wineries are strung along the Seaway Trail in places such as Fredonia (Woodbury Vineyards), Westfield (Johnson Estate), Forestville (Merritt Estate Winery) and Ripley (Blueberry Sky Farm Winery, actually in South Ripley, near Findley Lake). In Pennsylvania, the quaint little town of North East, just over the New York/Pennsylvania border near Erie, is home to five wineries, including Heritage, Mazza and Penn Shore Vineyards. North East also boasts more restaurants and gift shops than you’d expect to find in a town of about 6,000 people.

A nearby body of water and local topography here, as in the Finger Lakes, provide the moderate year-round temperatures and microclimates needed to grow vinifera (Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon) and French-American hybrid grapes, such as Seyval and Baco Noir, used to make fine wines. As you move east and north along the Seaway Trail, long cold winters, short summers and lake effect snows make it hard to grow these grapes. In places such as Buffalo, Rochester (with the exception of Casa Larga Vineyard) and Sackets Harbor, you’re more likely to find micro-breweries cranking out artisan beers (see sidebar) than microclimates nurturing vineyards. That’s why it’s surprising to find wineries tucked away in small, North Country towns such as Adams Center (Behling’s Spookhill Farms Winery) in Jefferson County and Canton (Pleasant Valley Winery) in St. Lawrence County.

“We’re the only one in this part of the country,” says Pleasant Valley owner and winemaker Bob Warnock. “We don’t grow our own grapes, though. We get ’em from the Finger Lakes, and make the wine here.” Since we’re here, we’ll start our tour of Seaway Trail wineries at Pleasant Valley.

Bob and Marilyn Warnock sold their first wines in 1994, although Bob, who retired from the Corning Glass plant in Canton in 1990, has long made wine as a hobby. It’s a small operation, turning out about 1,000 gallons of wine a year. Signs along Route 11 lead visitors through town and into the country to the winery on Judson Street Road, where you may see deer in the yard grazing on leftover grapes. Or apples, which Bob uses to make his Valley Gold and Winterlude wines. He makes dry, semi-dry and blush wines, too. Pleasant Valley is open for sales and tastings year-round, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, with extended hours Thanksgiving through Christmas. Call (315) 379-0221.

A few years ago, at a meeting of the New York Berry Growers Association, Mike Behling met a guy who made strawberry wine. Mike had leftover and overripe strawberries fermenting in a field of the farm he and his wife Catherine own, and he thought, “Gee, that’s not a bad idea.” Behling’s Spookhill Farms, on Route 11 between Adams and Adams Center, sold its first strawberry wine in 1998. The next year, it added apple, pear, blackberry, blueberry and raspberry to its line of fruit wines, sold at the farm’s roadside stand. This year, Mike plans to add peach, sweet cherry, plum and elderberry wines.

He uses all local fruit—apples from his family’s farms in Mexico, strawberries from his own fields, wild raspberries, blackberries and elderberries picked by local people. “We put at least a quart of fruit in every bottle of wine,” he says. It takes about 30 pounds to make five gallons.

Behling’s Spookhill Farms is open for tastings and sales 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 1 through Halloween, and from 8 a.m. to 6 through Christmas. Call (315) 583-6181.

A note about tastings: They are free at nearly every winery included in this story. Where there is a charge, it is nominal, $1 or $2 at most.

Casa Larga Vineyards, the Mediterranean-style winery Andy and Ann Colaruotolo started in Fairport, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. A family operation, the farm winery grows more than 20 grape types on its 40 acres of vineyards and produces about 40,000 gallons of wine a year, from tart Rieslings and rich Chardonnays and Cabernets to a late-harvest dessert wine.

The view from the deck is spectacular, and the Italianate bell tower is a favored backdrop for wedding photos. Casa Larga is booked a year in advance for weddings, corporate meetings and other events. It’s open year-round for tastings and sales (it has a two-story gift shop) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 Sunday. Given its location southeast of Rochester, Casa Larga is a convenient stop for those traveling between the Seaway Trail and the Finger Lakes. Call (716) 223-4210.

Heading west into Chautauqua County, the first vineyard along the Trail is Merritt Estate Winery. It is also the first farm winery opened in the County under regulations signed by Governor Carey in 1976. Established on a homestead that had been in the family since the late 1800s, today the winery is under the direction of William T. Merritt and bottles more than a dozen wines. Active in many community events from the Taste of Buffalo to the NY State Fair, Merritt has also become known for its wine coolers and “sangria slush” made from their Sangria de Marguerite and lemon-lime soda. Merritt is open year-round for tours and tastings from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Call (716) 965-4800.

Gary Woodbury recently opened Woodbury Vineyards retail outlets in Aurora, Ohio and on Seneca Lake, and has plans to extend his wine-selling reach even farther. But home base for the winery’s two dozen wines and 40-acre vineyard will always be the family farm in Fredonia, where Woodburys have grown grapes since 1910. “My grandfather grew concords and sold them to Welch’s, like everybody else around here,” says Gary, who started the winery in 1979.

Just 3 miles from the Thruway, Woodbury is open for tours and tastings from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and until 8 p.m. all days in summer. (888) 697-9463. Mark Lancaster, winemaker and general manager of Johnson Estate Winery in Westfield, can’t wait to taste what the 1999 vintage produced. “We had a record crop,” he says, thanks to late summer rains that plumped grapes that had been small. The oldest estate winery (since Brotherhood went public) in New York, Johnson Estate makes 12 different wines from Chancellor, Seyval, Vidal, Delaware and other native American and hybrid grapes grown on its 140 acres of vineyards. As an estate winery, it must grow all grapes used in its wines, just like the French chateaux. “We like it that way,” Lancaster says. “Everything’s under your own control.” 

The winery is open for tastings 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily year-round, with tours June 1 through Sept. 1. Call (716) 326-2191.

If Pleasant Valley Winery in Canton is a small operation, the Blueberry Sky Farm Winery in South Ripley is a tiny one. “We’re really, really small, kind of a microwinery,” says Rosalind Heinert. Which is appropriate, since her husband, Don, the winemaker, is a veterinarian with a degree in microbiology. The Reinerts make wine from blueberries, elderberries and dandelions they grow on their 75-acre blueberry farm.

They buy plums, rhubarb, cherries, peaches, apples and pears from local farmers. They also make jalapeno, onion and garlic wine, for cooking. “Some people drink the jalapeno,” Rosalind says. Coming soon: cranberry, tomato and cucumber wines. It’s a pretty old farm, close to Chautauqua Institute and Route 17, five miles from North East, PA. Open year-round Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Call (716) 252-6535.

North East may be a little town, but it contains some big wineries. Heritage Wine Cellars & Restaurant produces 100,000 gallons— roughly 20,000 cases of wine a year. Neighboring Mazza Vineyards processes 100,000 gallons of grape juice, half of which goes into wine. The rest goes to Welch’s, which has its biggest plant in North East, PA.

“We’re in the heart of the Lake Erie appellation. There are 50,000 acres of grapes in the township of North East alone,” says Heritage’s Bob Bostwick. “That’s why the wineries are here: It’s a natural grape-growing region.” He makes 50 varieties of wine, from sweet fruit wines such as blueberry, strawberry and loganberry to dry vinifera varieties such as Chardonnay and Cabernet.

It’s the only winery in Pennsylvania with a restaurant on premises. There’s a bed-and-breakfast, too, not to mention a deck with room for 100 diners and a big picnic pavilion. The winery is open 10 to 6 daily year-round, until 8 p.m. in summer and fall. Tours and tastings are free. It’s a few hundred yards off I-90’s Exit 12, near Erie. Call (800) 747-0083.

Bob Mazza buys most of his grapes from other growers in and around North East, saying he prefers to concentrate on making wine rather than growing grapes. Mazza Vineyards, established in 1973, is a lovely Mediterranean-style building with stucco walls and tile roof. 

Its retail and tasting room features a cathedral ceiling and chandeliers, and there is enough wrought iron, dark wood and earthy stucco to furnish a Spanish villa. 

Mazza specializes in native American varieties (Catawba, Concord, Niagara, Cayuga) and French-American hybrids (Seyval, Vidal), but also makes classic French varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot. This year, Mazza plans to introduce Pinot Gris, an Italian varietal. “We also make a sparkling Riesling and a sparkling cuvee,” he says. 

The vineyard is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily September through June; till 8 p.m. July and August; and 11 to 4:30 on Sundays year-round. Call (814) 725-8695.

Cheers! Salut! Bon Appetit!

Note: Most of the wineries are closed on major holidays. Always call ahead to confirm times. Many of the wineries maintain Web sites on the Internet.

Jim Reilly discovered the world of wine when he was in college, and has been exploring it ever since. He is a feature writer and wine columnist for The Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse, NY.