Hudson Valley Adventures, Part 1: The Wineries of Upstate New York
Anyone who knows me well knows that I have the alcohol tolerance of...well, I can't think of anyone or anything that has as little alcohol tolerance as I do. One strong mixed drink and I'm more than tipsy; two and I'm pretty much useless. The good news is that I seem to deal with wine okay. And that's a good thing, because (1) red wine is happy, and (2) I didn't know it until recently, but the Hudson Valley has some very pretty wineries that are within reasonable traveling distance from New York City.
Of the four wineries pictured in this post, we visited the first on our way down from Rhinebeck's Sheep & Wool Festival in mid-October, and the other three as part of a bus tour called, appropriately, "Take Me to the Vino." The bus tour, um, featured entertainment and very loud, off-key karaoke. (You haven't lived until you've heard a busload of sloshed thirtysomethings singing "I Will Survive" and "Don't Stop Believin'" at full volume.) That said, if you want to go to more than one winery on one day--which is very tempting when they're all so pretty and all within about an hour of each other--it's far better to let somebody else do the driving than to careen all over the winding rural roads of upstate New York with a wine buzz.
On a whim on our way back home from Sheep & Wool, we followed signs to the Clinton Vineyards, a tiny vineyard right off the Taconic State Parkway in Dutchess County. For all four of the vineyards pictured here, getting there is two-thirds of the attraction.
After losing our way twice, finally...
A Lassie-esque watchdog guards the valuable products in the tasting room.
Mmm...wine. Unfortunately for us, Clinton Vineyards does not make red wine; just white wine and dessert wine. Most dessert wines are waaaaaay too sweet for either of us; Clinton's were actually pretty good.
Even better than the wine was the scenery. We went on a gorgeous Sunday in October, and the entire vineyard just glistened.
I can easily imagine a horse-drawn carriage moving slowly down this path.
The origination point of all the yummy alcohol.
For the next three wineries, we boarded the Little Wine Bus, which does weekend tours leaving from midtown Manhattan.
Two hours and change after leaving the corner of West 47th Street and 7th Avenue on a cloudy late-September Sunday, we found ourselves standing outside the Millbrook Vineyards, a huge hilltop vineyard about 15 miles east of Poughkeepsie.
The tasting house and physical plant where the wine is produced at Millbrook.
On the second level, where tasting takes place, there's a large art gallery. The art was excellent; it actually upstaged the wines, which ranged from decent to mediocre to awful (one wine, touted proudly by the proprietor as an "unoaked" wine, whatever that means, clearly needed to be oaked).
A roomy balcony overlooks the multi-acre vineyard. Of the wineries we toured, Millbrook was by far the largest operation.
My friends, that's a LOT of wine.
Adjacent to the tasting/production plant is a lovely little lake where our busload enjoyed cheese and crackers (or in my case, crackers and crackers).
On the other side of the Hudson, in a dippy little town called Pine Bush (somewhere west of Newburgh), we stopped at the Baldwin Vineyards.
Baldwin had a far cozier vibe than Millbrook; going inside the rustic wooden barn brought you into a wood-paneled tasting room that felt much like being in an old basement rec room. Good times.
You'll love Baldwin Vineyards if you love dessert wines; it's pretty much all they make. Dessert wines are, um, an acquired taste. The seven wines we sampled ranged from uncomfortably sweet to cough-syrup-sweet.
As with the other two wineries, just chilling outside at Baldwin was as enjoyable as tasting the wines.
But if you want scenery...wow...I saved the best for last. Benmarl Winery, touted as America's oldest vineyard, is a real gem. Situated a few miles off mountainous Route 9W in Marlboro, a bit north of Newburgh, Benmarl's hilltop location gives it one hell of a view of the Hudson River.
Benmarl looks like nothing more than a series of old houses when you first drive up to it...
...but when you get out of the car and walk around the buildings, the view is incredible.
The tour group we went with was smart enough to schedule our lunch break here. None of us were in any hurry to get back on the bus. As a further plus, of the wineries we visited, we liked Benmarl's wine the best by a wide margin.
Mmm...red wine.
Of the four wineries pictured in this post, we visited the first on our way down from Rhinebeck's Sheep & Wool Festival in mid-October, and the other three as part of a bus tour called, appropriately, "Take Me to the Vino." The bus tour, um, featured entertainment and very loud, off-key karaoke. (You haven't lived until you've heard a busload of sloshed thirtysomethings singing "I Will Survive" and "Don't Stop Believin'" at full volume.) That said, if you want to go to more than one winery on one day--which is very tempting when they're all so pretty and all within about an hour of each other--it's far better to let somebody else do the driving than to careen all over the winding rural roads of upstate New York with a wine buzz.
On a whim on our way back home from Sheep & Wool, we followed signs to the Clinton Vineyards, a tiny vineyard right off the Taconic State Parkway in Dutchess County. For all four of the vineyards pictured here, getting there is two-thirds of the attraction.
After losing our way twice, finally...
A Lassie-esque watchdog guards the valuable products in the tasting room.
Mmm...wine. Unfortunately for us, Clinton Vineyards does not make red wine; just white wine and dessert wine. Most dessert wines are waaaaaay too sweet for either of us; Clinton's were actually pretty good.
Even better than the wine was the scenery. We went on a gorgeous Sunday in October, and the entire vineyard just glistened.
I can easily imagine a horse-drawn carriage moving slowly down this path.
The origination point of all the yummy alcohol.
For the next three wineries, we boarded the Little Wine Bus, which does weekend tours leaving from midtown Manhattan.
Two hours and change after leaving the corner of West 47th Street and 7th Avenue on a cloudy late-September Sunday, we found ourselves standing outside the Millbrook Vineyards, a huge hilltop vineyard about 15 miles east of Poughkeepsie.
The tasting house and physical plant where the wine is produced at Millbrook.
On the second level, where tasting takes place, there's a large art gallery. The art was excellent; it actually upstaged the wines, which ranged from decent to mediocre to awful (one wine, touted proudly by the proprietor as an "unoaked" wine, whatever that means, clearly needed to be oaked).
A roomy balcony overlooks the multi-acre vineyard. Of the wineries we toured, Millbrook was by far the largest operation.
My friends, that's a LOT of wine.
Adjacent to the tasting/production plant is a lovely little lake where our busload enjoyed cheese and crackers (or in my case, crackers and crackers).
On the other side of the Hudson, in a dippy little town called Pine Bush (somewhere west of Newburgh), we stopped at the Baldwin Vineyards.
Baldwin had a far cozier vibe than Millbrook; going inside the rustic wooden barn brought you into a wood-paneled tasting room that felt much like being in an old basement rec room. Good times.
You'll love Baldwin Vineyards if you love dessert wines; it's pretty much all they make. Dessert wines are, um, an acquired taste. The seven wines we sampled ranged from uncomfortably sweet to cough-syrup-sweet.
As with the other two wineries, just chilling outside at Baldwin was as enjoyable as tasting the wines.
But if you want scenery...wow...I saved the best for last. Benmarl Winery, touted as America's oldest vineyard, is a real gem. Situated a few miles off mountainous Route 9W in Marlboro, a bit north of Newburgh, Benmarl's hilltop location gives it one hell of a view of the Hudson River.
Benmarl looks like nothing more than a series of old houses when you first drive up to it...
...but when you get out of the car and walk around the buildings, the view is incredible.
The tour group we went with was smart enough to schedule our lunch break here. None of us were in any hurry to get back on the bus. As a further plus, of the wineries we visited, we liked Benmarl's wine the best by a wide margin.
Mmm...red wine.