wine tour

So one of the few things I dislike about New York is that unlike Boston, it seems like there is not a lot to do immediately outside the city. Boston has neat places like Salem, Newburyport and Marblehead all within an hour’s drive — where can you get from Manhattan in an hour? Hmm… well, how about an hour and a half?

As it turns out, there’s quite a bit to see in the Hudson River Valley. Yesterday five of us went on a little wine tour to Washingtonville and Marlborough, N.Y. and had a ton of fun.

First up was the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, which was having its annual grape harvest festival in connection with the Bloomingrove Chamber of Commerce. There was a lot of bands, vendors and small children running around. The biggest winery in the Hudson Valley, Brotherhood also bill itself as the oldest winery in America (est. 1839). However it was too busy to tour their museum or underground cellars, alas. And I think we all agreed that their wine was not very good, except for this “honey wine” that was very unique. Still an enjoyable experience.

Then off to the much smaller Glorie Farm winery in Marlborough, which is on a very scenic farm with a beautiful tasting room. I bought a $10 bottle of this pear wine, which was actually not sweet but dry and very different. Recommended.

Up next was some apple-picking at nearby Weed Orchards, which was having their annual apple harvest. We had a lot of grapes as well as apples. Yum!

Finally we hit Benmarl Winery, which says it is “America’s oldest continuously producing vineyard.” Whatever, it was beautiful, with a view of the Hudson River and some very nice wines. They were also having their annual grape harvest festival, but it was smaller and more relaxed. Their wine was quite good, too. Unfortuantely by this time the sun had gone down and it was getting chilly so we elected to head back to NYC.

If anyone else wants to go on a wine tour through the Hudson Valley, I would definitely recommend it. There are some 20 wineries in the region, although they’re so dispersed you can’t really hit more than three in a day. Here’s a website that will help you plan, the “Shawangunk Wine Trail.”

The leaves were just starting to turn color when we say them yesterday, we figured in two weekends it should be the height of the fall foliage season!