Finger Lakin' Good! Heart and Hands Sparkling Rose and Red Tail Ridge Rose

I spent a wonderful weekend in New York state's Finger Lakes region with David and two of our foodie and wine minded pals; Frank and Julie.  We stayed at the AMAZINGLY gorgeous Aurora Inn directly on Lake Cayuga.  I won't bore you with details, but let's just say there was some tandem bike riding and booze fueled Scrabble games!

Although we enjoyed ourselves, I feel like Finger Lakes wines don't get a lot of respect among wine drinkers.  There are a handful of wineries like Dr. Loosen and Weimar that can be found in a lot of NYC stores, but mostly you don't see a whole lot of selection on the shelves.  Heart & Hands Wine Company and Red Tail Ridge are two wineries that are relatively young and they are doing some interesting things.

Heart & Hands is right up the road from the Aurora Inn in Aurora New York.  This is the eastern shore of Lake Cayuga.  The winery is run by and young couple; Tom and Susan Higgins with their sweet Swiss Mountain dog; Fion.  This is a relatively small production bottling some 1,500 cases of Pinot Noir and Riesling.  Tom is the winemaker and he started the winery 3 years ago in 2008, but is by no means new to the industry.  Boy knows his Pinot, he worked at Calera over in California.  That stuff is GOOD!

I particularly enjoyed their sparkling wine a 2009 Brut Rose of Pinot Noir.  The package is snazzy and the bubbles were very tasty.  They are producing this in the traditional method where the 2nd fermentation takes place in the bottle. The price was nice, too at $25.  I thought there was a pleasant toastiness and a delicate aroma of fresh strawberries and cranberry that was very refreshing. Very easy to drink a bottle of this alone... beware!

The next rose that I tried and loved was the Red Trail Ridge Rose of Pinot Noir 2010.  This comes in a smart looking bottle too.  This is tapered and lean and it seems to match the feel of the wine which is fruit punch colored, but crisp, elegant and minerally on the palate.  Fragrant notes of strawberry and bing cherry hit the nose, but this is a gorgeous dry rose - perfect for sipping with friends, lakeside, before dinner... maybe I'm speaking from experience.

Red Tail Ridge Winery, located on the western shore of Lake Seneca; is owned and operated by Mike Schnelle and Nancy Irelan, a husband and wife team.  They started the winery 6 years ago in 2005.  They are also accompanied by their two working dogs;  Shazaam (German Shepher) and Scooter (Yellow Lab).  They actually have official titles of  Winemaker Management and Pond Inspector and Mud Puddle Assessment respectively.

Red Tail concentrates on quality Reisling and Pinot Noir, but they're also doing some Chardonnay and some cool varietals like Dornfelder and Teroldego.  On another impressive note, they are LEED certified.  A very difficult green certification to come by.  It's all of these things that make you feel better about yourself and the environment as you sip away!!
Heart and Hands Brut Rose: $25
Red Tail Ridge Rose 2010: $20