Skaneateles is big on beauty, short on wineries.  But we did stop in at Anyela's Vineyards on our way out of town. Suffice it to say there must be a reason Skaneateles is short on wineries. Anyela's has a beautiful post and beam tasting room with a wonderful view but the wines were, unfortunately, forgettable. Lisa noted the Dry Riesling had a "nose of lighter fluid," while Gary found "chemical compounds of unidentified origin" in the Pinot Noir.  Anyela's first production was in 2004; the vines are young; perhaps (we hope) they'll improve.

Next stop, the east side of Cayuga Lake and King Ferry Winery, producer of Treleaven wines. We'll write up our full tasting notes of all the wines we recommend from our Finger Lakes trip in a few weeks, but here's a quick re-cap of our favorite Treleaven wines.

• Dry Rosé 2008: comprised of 100% Cabernet Franc, this bursts strawberry on the nose and tastes like summer. Best with food, not as an aperitif.
• Meritage 2007: 61% Cab Franc, 28% Merlot, 11% Cab Sauv.; round, full flavor with cedar, blackberry, and pepper.

A few miles down the road from King Ferry is  Long Point Winery, where we had a long and successful visit with winemaker Gary Barletta. We first discovered Long Point during a trip to Albany, NY, where we tasted Barletta's killer 06 Zin.  We were anxious to find out how an upstate New York winemaker could grow warm-weather grapes so successfully. Turns out, he can't.  Barletta  sources his Zinfandel grapes from Lodi and Mendocino in California then produces the wine in New York. Barletta has a fascinating back story, which we'll cover in detail, but here's the wine we walked out of his winery with:

• Reserve Zinfandel 2006 — even better than the non-Reserve from that vintage
• Syrah 2006 — these grapes also flew in from CA but found a wonderful home in NY
• Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 — we didn't taste this but bought it site-unseen

Next stop...Geneva, home of Hobart William Smith college and another gorgeous lakefront.

Where We Stayed — Chapman House Inn
The Chapman House has location, charm, personality, and an amazing breakfast to offer guests. Built in 1802 and carefully, lovingly restored by the current owners/innkeepers, the Inn is directly across from Hobart William Smith and just blocks from downtown. What the Chapman House doesn't offer, however, is quiet.  Hard by the freeway, the trucks roared through our beautiful room all night. Innkeeper Steve said only a handful of guests had ever complained about the noise; indeed a mother-son duo at breakfast said they slept like babies (they're from Brooklyn...where noise is the norm, I guess.) 

So, if you're not noise-sensitive, by all means go to the Chapman House Inn. The service is warm and friendly, the rooms lovely, and the breakfast to die for.  For VinoDuo, it was too much to take. We reluctantly checked out and moved on to Penn Yann, to Los Gatos B&B. 

More tomorrow.