Jason:

What do you think is the best song for this episode?

Bri:

You're asking like my honest opinion? Well, I guess you want it to be Deck the Halls.

Jason:

I think you would guess correctly. If I had a bell on here, I'd bring it.

Bri:

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You won the grand prize.

Jason:

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. How many years have we been doing Deck the Halls? Four.

This has been a good year. It was a good year once again. I guess we should talk about what Deck the Halls is because we get a lot of people who are like, what is this thing that you go to, right?

So we're decking the halls. Three days, over two weekends. It's usually the last, is it the week before?

It's the weekend before Thanksgiving. And then the weekend after. Not the weekend of Thanksgiving, but the following weekend.

Bri:

Well, because everybody's going to be off and eating Thanksgiving dinner. Nobody wants to serve you wine. You should be serving your wine at Thanksgiving dinner, copious amounts of it.

Jason:

And yeah, so this, and both weekends completely sold out as it is every year. The Seneca Lake Wine Tour does a great job of that. And during our research, we found out that it was launched in 1992 and it is the brainchild of Elizabeth Smith of one of our favorite wineries, Atlantic.

Yeah. And according to Elizabeth, she says that it started in 1992 and the only two years it was ever paused was for COVID. And she was credited with originating that idea.

So how did it become as popular as it is? She said that the wineries started doing it events and had thought that it was a good way for people to be invited to all the wineries on the trail. Traffic was slow in the winter months.

And at the same time, so the Monty Stamp, who is her late father-in-law, was selling grapevine wreaths for extra money. So that's where the wreaths that we get at our starting, at our starting winery come into play, we found out.

Bri:

Which is super fun because I always wondered why the wreaths look like they do. Right. Like they're not the traditional, like full of greenery.

Pine and greenery.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. So that was really cool.

Which, I mean, it makes sense if you're on a wine trail, a grapevine wreath. But to know that this is what he did.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

So the idea came from giving a wreath to every guest and a unique ornament at each winery, which is what they do. And it's important to have something to collect each stop. So it was their fourth event in 1992 on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail.

The trail, they had advertised through flyers and radio ads. And then the phone started ringing, tickets were available at the door. They didn't offer pre-sale.

So they were hoping to get like 120 guests. And the phone started, they had planned for 300, they ended up getting 700.

Bri:

I can't even imagine that. Like doing it today, I can't imagine 700 people.

Jason:

They ran out of ornaments, but they took the names of everybody and made good on delivery of those ornaments.

Bri:

Which is so crazy because I feel like today that would never happen.

Jason:

Why? And that's why, you know, now it's, it's creates more of an intimate setting and that's what we like about it. It's not oversold.

Yeah. And they, once it sells out at each location, that's it. Right.

I mean, it's, it's like getting, it's like getting a concert ticket. I need a ticket. You got tickets?

Bri:

And it's so funny because we, we, our own experiences, we know like it gets a little crazier, a little busier, like on Saturdays, but not as overwhelming as I, I could never imagine like 700 people. That's crazy, crazy.

Jason:

So they are looking to make it festive, not too rushed and crowded. And COVID was, was part of what made them reevaluate things and then really make sure that they limited those tickets. And again, it makes it for a intimate experience, even though like we just said, Saturday can be a little wild at times, depending on where you go.

But the, and then her advice when she was asked was to take advantage of the whole weekend, Friday through Sunday, don't sprint this thing. The people we talked to who sprint it.

Bri:

Which I don't really understand. I mean, I can get it if you can't take the Friday off of work. Sure.

Okay. But make sure you really like divide it into Saturday and Sunday and enjoy yourself, you know, like take it slow and really like listen and, you know, figure out, because I feel like when you drink too many wines too quickly, they all blend together and now you don't even know what you're drinking now, if you're in it just to like collect the ornaments, let's say, or whatever. And you're not really, you know, you're like, Oh, I could take or leave the wine or I just have a few or whatever.

And, you know, we did see people say like, Oh, I'm good. You know? Yeah.

So maybe though, maybe not everybody wants to be drinking at every spot or whatever, but I don't know. For me, I want to know what I drink. I want to remember what I drank.

I want to experience, I want to enjoy the whole experience that each winery is providing to you for this event. You know, their decorations, their food pairings, their, you know, everything. So yeah.

Jason:

This year there were 17 wineries on the trail. Each stop you get wine tastings, you get a food pairing. They also give you a cool recipe book when you go to your starting winery.

Bri:

Yeah. So if you really love something, you can make it at home.

Jason:

It's in there. And yeah, there were some things in there. I think we're going to get into that and try to make them ourselves.

And then you get an ornament at every stop. So when you're done this year, you would have a wreath with 17 ornaments. And then they also, for their couples and their singles tickets, they also do a kind of stay and play kind of a, I guess they call them sip and relax tours as well.

We don't take advantage of that because we kind of, I don't choose our own adventure kind of thing the way that we do it, but you can do with the couples ticket, you can buy into a two night stay Friday and Saturday that they do at the Holiday Inn Express up in Geneva. Saturday and Sunday mornings, they have breakfast at the hotel. They have six hours of transportation packages that you can purchase as well if that's what you choose to do.

And they do the same thing with individual tickets where they offer the pretty much the same thing. And so my big question for you coming out of now finishing up the fourth year is what do you like most about Deck the Halls? Most?

What do you like most about it?

Bri:

I mean, I can list like a whole list of things, but I think like the most is just how festive it is. Like I'm pretty excited to put on my festive Christmas clothes and see how everything is decorated and I don't know, I guess the festivity of it all, if that's really the word, is probably what I love the most, right? Because you can go to all of these wineries any time of the year and they're still a winery, but I feel like when they do this event and everything is lit up and decorated and, you know, people are dressing up, which I think has just increased over the years, like with outfit.

I mean, I know personally, we looked around last year and I was like, whew, I gotta up my outfit. Like, I mean, I'm kind of in the holiday spirit.

Jason:

This is probably the most quote unquote festive year we've seen for people like really putting in.

Bri:

I was really, really excited this year to make sure that I picked out some super fun outfits to wear, to really just get into like the spirit of everything. So I don't know. I think that's probably my favorite part of it because, you know, what are they?

I don't know. Everything covered in lights and glitz and glitter is always more exciting than the everyday, right? Your neighborhood is just your neighborhood.

But somehow at Christmas time, when everybody puts lights on their houses, it's like magical, you know?

Jason:

So yeah. Yeah. Me, you know, I like the opportunity to get around and I, you know, you know me, I'm not so much a planner as I am plan of attack.

So I like to know that.

Bri:

Oh yeah.

Jason:

That's you.

Bri:

All you. All day.

Jason:

Over these three days, we're going to be hitting 17 wineries. We're going to do it responsibly.

Bri:

Right.

Jason:

You know, and here's our suggestion we throw into it. We threw a couple of bucks ahead of time into a fun travel charcuterie board and it literally said backseat. So when it's like, okay, we're getting to that point where you have to eat a little something.

Bri:

They give you a little food pairing, but a for me, lactose intolerance girl, I, I can't always eat the people. I can't always eat everything that is offered. So it's not enough food for me.

For me also, you don't plan it by what foods they're going to offer. You plan it kind of like your drive time and where you want to hit in like what section. Yes.

So sometimes like you'll have a day with like a bunch of like cookies and trees and then the next day you're like, oh, now I have a whole bunch of like meatballs and chips and whatever. So like one day could be like a more, a heavier food day, you know, with like your actual food instead of like just treats, you know, so, and I know that they probably all talk to each other and they probably try to do like a big variety of stuff because as a whole, when you look at it, it's not all cookies or it's not all savory. It's, they have a big mix of everything that everybody's offering, but depending on how your plan of attack as you do for us, you know, depends on what you're eating, right?

So we definitely do need snacks. Snacks, yeah.

Jason:

Snacks are, snacks are super important. Yeah. We always do like the beets and cheeses.

We do breads. Yeah.

Bri:

And crackers and pretzels.

Jason:

The last second we found this like really cool fig honey bread.

Bri:

Was that it? Aldi? Oh my gosh.

It was so delicious. And then of course I didn't see it when I went back. That, that, that's the bad thing about Aldi.

You fall in love with something and then you can't get it like even next day, next week, depending on how many they had.

Jason:

Yeah. Right. Right.

And then I'm going to go back to my sheet here because I'm of course bouncing between things because of something that I thought of. I guess, you know, to, to start talking about some of the specifics of the winery, we, we, we, you know. Oh yeah.

Bri:

We're doing something a little different today.

Jason:

Usually we're, you know.

Bri:

So on Buffalo Brews podcast, we usually crack and open a beer, but instead we open a bottle of wine from one of our favorite wineries.

Jason:

What do we have here is, uh, we have Toast Winer. This is their 2021 Dry Rosé Pinot Noir. On your little stand.

I know I had to get it up there so high enough so at least some of it can show in the camera.

Bri:

So cheers.

Jason:

All right.

Bri:

Delicious.

Jason:

I like a rosé that's slightly woody, you know.

Bri:

I just love rosé. That's a 21. If I actually had to pick a wine that I love more than any other wine, it's going to be rosé.

I know you're not shocked. No, but I mean, seriously though, every which way everyone makes it, I still love it. It's one of the wines that I can actually drink sweet, which I'm not a big sweet fan.

I can drink it dry. You can mix it. You can do whatever with it.

You could add bubbles to it. It doesn't matter. I will still always opt for the rosé.

I just love it so much.

Jason:

Let's talk about one of the things that might stand out to you. So I mean, again, plan of attack and we hit a certain amount of wineries on each day.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

But it's not so much the days and how many we hit, but I like to highlight some of the wines and some of the places that we went to because we learned a lot of things on this year's excursion. And I think it's fun to share with folks as well, but where would you want to start? We started at, of course, Toast, which is what we're drinking here.

So we drive into Toast, we talk with Mike, love talking with Mike because you get a little private curation of things that are going on and some of their new vintages because they came out with the new Citra, which is a Citra hopped wine. Just let that sink in for like two seconds.

Bri:

I know. Right. So anyone who thinks that they love beer and they hate wine, it's definitely the one wine that you want to try.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. So then and then we also were turned on to the new vintage of the James, which we really enjoyed.

Bri:

That was good.

Jason:

Yeah, that was that was a lot of fun. And of course, before before we went on this event, we also inventoried everything that we had in our possession, which is like way more wine than I thought we had. Yeah.

Bri:

Yeah. So, guys, we we left with 60 bottles and we came back with two cases because we needed more wine.

Jason:

So we're now over 80, 80 bottles of wine.

Bri:

Hey, minus one.

Jason:

That's right.

Bri:

One more, one more, one more cheers. There you go. I mean, hey, you can't always drink beer.

But in the same sense, when we do this deck, the halls were on Seneca Lake and there's also breweries. So we also enjoy drinking beer in between drinking wine, because why would we not?

Jason:

Right. Well, from so toast now, some of the participants, I mean, some of them we're going to we're going to mention some of them. We're going to stop and talk a little more.

Bri:

Yeah. Do you have the list? You can just run through the whole list.

Jason:

Yeah. And I actually have the I actually have the map because as we so we went to toast, we went north. So we were hitting like Glenora, Fulkerson.

Bri:

We had we spent a long time at and we learned a couple of fun new things at Fulkerson, which was they make grape juice out of their wine grapes.

Jason:

Yes.

Bri:

So like if you think of the non fermented version. Yeah. So if you think of like, what is my favorite wine and is it my favorite because I love that grape?

Well, they've made grape juice. So I was super excited about it, which was funny because the guy was talking about wine and I was pointing over to the cooler and I'm like, is that actually grape juice made from these like like wine grapes? And he said, yeah.

So I'm excited because my son is not a drinker. You know, he is a good sport. And every single time we think that he might like something that doesn't taste very alcoholy.

I don't even know if that's a word. I've just made it up. But something that you can't really.

Jason:

It's in the dictionary now.

Bri:

It's not really heavy on the alcohol. I'm always like, hey, maybe try this. It might be something that you like.

And he is a very good sport and will take a sip. But he just really has not found anything that he's liked. So I was super stoked to do this because now when we do all of our holiday drinking, he's home for the holidays.

And I brought home all these different grape juices and a fresh pressed apple they do from apples they have out there, too. Empire of New York State, Empire Apples.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

So I'm pretty excited. And that was really cool. So I kind of was like not focused in on the wine situation there as much as I was focused on what's happening over here in this juice area.

Jason:

Right.

Bri:

So but I was pretty stoked and we haven't tried it yet because we're recording a couple of days before Christmas currently. And yeah, so he's home for Christmas and he's going to have his own tasting.

Jason:

And Fulkerson's really fun because they also have their own disc golf course that's golf with frisbees. Right. We have to get out there in the summer and do that.

And they have a whole stock of disc golf in stock in their store. And also, if you're a wine brewer, mead brewer, beer brewer. Yeah, they have like tons of supplies.

They have tons of supplies there for you to take advantage of. And then, of course, they have some great some great offerings. I always like going to Fulkerson for the Syrah.

They have one of the, to me, they have one of the best Syrahs in the Finger Lakes. So I always enjoy getting that. So we had the Syrah Rosé.

We had their classic Syrah.

Bri:

And then we did like a barrel aged one or something, didn't we?

Jason:

Yeah, the other one. I think that was their Syrah Reserve.

Bri:

Reserve. Yeah, that one was real good. And I believe I did the regular and you did that.

And then we taste tested to see what the difference was. Yeah. And it was big.

Like when people say, oh, is there just a big difference? Does it really matter? It was a big difference.

You could totally tell. You could tell that you were drinking a Syrah, but it was definitely the flavor profile was very, very different.

Jason:

Syrah Reserve, robust and smooth, aged in French and Hungarian oak for a year.

Bri:

Oh, there you go.

Jason:

I had still had that sheet. Fancy! Yeah, they, you know, they make some really cool things.

And then we learned that they actually work with the local Geneva College on a grape hybrid that they call a Vincent. Right.

Bri:

Which is the bottle we brought home because we really liked that one.

Jason:

That was unique and very good.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

Yeah. So, yeah, big, big kudos to Fulkerson and all the kids learning how to make wine, right?

Bri:

Thank you.

Jason:

You know, I mean, everything that we learned from high school, we know how to like splice, you know, splice and wrap so that you can get trees to like grow new branches or something. You know how to do that? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I never learned that.

It's actually a survival skill. I just went to like chemistry. Yeah, it's a survival skill.

So if you need, if you're looking for.

Bri:

In biology and math.

Jason:

If you need a tree to, to be able to create, especially fruit trees, if you're trying to create more fruit tree, like a tree that yields X amount of fruit, but you need it to yield more fruit as a survival tactic, you learn how to splice branches together to get it, to grow more fruit branches.

Bri:

That must've been in your country school because in city school, they did not teach.

Jason:

Thanks to this Amish home study course. I'm doing quite well.

Bri:

I did not have home Mac. I had nothing.

Jason:

I learned how to make fortune cookies and home Mac.

Bri:

I don't know.

Jason:

That's how deep we went.

Bri:

Nothing. I got nothing.

Jason:

Yeah, we have, but we always enjoy Fulkerson fruit yard. We learned that fruit yard is actually, they actually closed for the season and they're only open for the two weekends of Deck the Halls and then they closed back up until the following spring. Yeah.

So that was always cool. It's always fun going in there and just having a little chat with them. And, you know, fruit wine is a whole different category and they come out with some really fun things.

Bri:

Yes. Because I feel like I've learned a lot. I feel like when we have tastings there, it's not wine.

You could get drunk because it just, right. Cause it just tastes like juice. So we have, um, purchased a few things from there that I have made into at pool time, spritzers, like their peach, um, we did the plum.

We've done the shrubbery and we've done the strawberry. Oh, I know, you know, that one, the shrubbery wine. We've had that.

And we've purchased a few of those bottles over the years. To hold to the summer, to make a spritz out of because it's incredible. And we actually told the girl this time that that's what we do with them.

And she said, there's so many people who do that, but why not? I mean, you just add some club soda into that and you have some bubbles and it's so refreshing on a hot day by the pool. It's just, it's, it's a delight.

Jason:

They've got a fun look. Their location is really cool too, because it's right on 14. If you're heading South from Geneva toward, um, Watkins Glen.

I always say Glenn's fault. I don't know why I say that. I don't know.

Glenn's Falls is like way out to the East. Um, yeah. And Watkins Glen.

Uh, so it's right on the main drag there. Yeah. And I mean, you can stop in, get what you want, bounce right back out and you're right back on your way.

Bri:

Yeah. So if you're looking for some fun pool time excitement, I recommend stopping in there, having a tasting of what your favorite fruit flavor is and turn that right into a spritz. So good.

Jason:

Uh, you pull out of fruit yard, you take a left and a left and you up the hill and you hit Tabora, which, um, is like, it's one of our honorable mentions for like aesthetically one of the best places to experience It's so pretty in there all the time. One of the sisters or one of the moms comes in there and just decorates it to the nines.

Bri:

It's pretty. And they have a really cool, so besides where their tasting room is, they have this really cool store that you can also go into in a separate building. That has like food and pies and cakes and you can buy their wine in there.

And it's just, there's, I don't know. It's just, it's really cool. And they are one of my favorite ornaments.

They, yeah, I mean, like they come up with some pretty cool ideas.

Jason:

I mean, not, not to completely change subject. I mean, but to touch on for a moment is that talk about how you get an ornament, your food. It's really cool to see what people come up with from year to year.

And Tabora is always top three, something different, something cool. They love cookie themes. So one year it was a gingerbread man and one year it was a snowflake cookie.

And it's like whatever, but then my favorite, they make it look like a cookie that's just been like, but my favorite one wasn't even a cookie.

Bri:

It was the one where they did the peacock feather. Oh my God. I love that so much.

It was so cool.

Jason:

But Tabora is, it's definitely worth a visit. We had the opportunity. So we were getting ready to check out and we got to Kayla.

Bri:

Before that we're wandering around and I said, is this non-alcoholic wine? Oh yeah.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

Yeah. And our friend, Tony, who's actually been on an episode where we were talking about NA beers, he doesn't drink. So I was super excited about getting this NA wine because he isn't doing the wine tour with us because obviously he can't drink all of the wines.

So we went, then we went up to the register and then yeah. Kayla comes over, find out she is the, she's the winemaker. So she said, have you had this?

And I, we were like, no. And she said, let me get you some cold. I'll be right back.

She leaves to go to the other building I just talked about.

Jason:

Yeah. The store was a hundred yards away, maybe.

Bri:

Yeah. But still she left to go over there to get a, a cold bottle of this for us to try to make sure it's something that we would really enjoy before buying it. And it was great.

So it was called Cuvée Sans. And what, what did we look to see that it was, it was a Cuvée Blanc. It was inspired by Cuvée Blanc.

Yeah. And like sans means. It was super refreshing and it had like this lemony like taste to it.

Like it was really, really good. So we brought that home for, uh, for our friend, Tony, and hopefully he'll really enjoy it. Yeah.

We haven't given it to him yet. No. It's for the holidays, but I'm hoping he's gonna, he's gonna like it.

But that was the only winery that I've ever seen that. And I was super, super excited and it was delicious. And come to find out it was just released like in November, the beginning of November.

Right. So super fun.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

I'm so glad someone did it.

Jason:

But you know, holiday time, they, they always do that place up great.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

Um, a fun, you know, a really great selection of wine there. And it's one of those places that we want to go back to and do a full on tasting sometime, like a, like a not holiday.

Bri:

And I think that's, what's really cool about this event too, before we go on to the next thing, is that you have the opportunity with this ticket to have a small tasting at all these wineries. And then you can figure out like, oh my gosh, I really loved this one. I want to go back to Seneca Lake at a different time.

You know, say in the summertime when it's beautiful and you can sit out and some of these places have the most breathtaking views and you can sit outside and have a wine tasting. Or if there's a wine that you're like, oh, I really, really love this. You can just go back and have a glass of that wine and sit and look at, you know, how beautiful it is and enjoy the warmth of the sunshine, looking out at the lake.

So yeah, I think it's a great opportunity to be able to try a whole bunch of things and see what you love.

Jason:

I think, yeah. And, and, and as far as views, I mean, both sides of the lake, you get a kind of a different feel. We'll actually, we're going to talk, we'll talk about that here in a few.

Actually, I probably should make a note on that views because I don't think I wrote that down in my notes, but I wanted to bring that up because Seneca Lake is, is really fun when it comes to views. Heading north was Seneca Shore, which the owner of Seneca Shore, if memory serves me correct, is very, very knowledgeable in like medieval times in the middle ages.

Bri:

You think? Look around it.

Jason:

So it's a, it's a, it's literally a middle ages or medieval, medieval theme. Yeah, for sure. And they do a, they have some great names for their wines, but I mean, no different than a lot of the wines that you see out there, just with their unique grows.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

So they, it's, it's always fun. You go in there, they go in there and they've, you know, it's like.

Bri:

It's like super nerdy merchandise. And if you're really into that thing, like Jay is.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

He's so excited. He's like, I want to dress up and come back and take pictures.

Jason:

One of these days I'm going to put on my knight of Narnia gear and just walk in there and go, just start beating my flagging on the.

Bri:

Oh my gosh. See, this is what I deal with.

Jason:

Bring me my wine. No, I just said very, sorry. That was very game of Thrones.

Bri:

But you know what? They would probably love that so much. And you won't be the first or the last to do that.

Like they're so fun when you're in there and everyone, like every time you are super nerdy and geeking out in there, people are just on board with it. So they, they're probably all nerds at heart. They probably like part of the interview process to work there is how do you feel about, you know, ABCD on the nerd scale?

And then when you answer correctly, you're hired.

Jason:

Ding, ding, ding.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

Um, I know we finished a Friday cause we, we, again, we take in the whole experience Friday through Sunday.

Bri:

Yeah.

Jason:

I know the last visit that we did on Friday was at Fox run, which Fox run runs.

Bri:

One, two, and as far as ethics, you know, aesthetics when it comes to their setup the best for them for me is when you walk downstairs in this special room that's closed off any other day.

Jason:

Because if you look at the old pictures of it, it was this rundown barn.

Bri:

Right. And they built actually around it. So I have been there actually before deck the halls for a wine tasting.

That was very low. And I had no idea this room existed. So our very first year that we did deck the halls, I was like, we go into what door?

Like, I was like, there's a secret passage. I'm so excited. And then you go down there and it's just so, so cool.

Where's my 1D20 here?

Jason:

Check for secret doors. There we go.

Bri:

Success. Look at that. You didn't get a 20 though.

I didn't need a 20. I got an 18.

Jason:

Read the room.

Bri:

I don't know anything about this.

Jason:

I'm an accomplish. I'm an accomplished.

Bri:

Um, anyways, so you go down there and they have this enormous tree and it's so beautiful and it's cozy down there. And they've had this ribeye mac and cheese that I feel like they can't ever deviate from because it's so incredibly delicious. And, um, so anyways, we're looking at the tree this year and I don't know that we ever looked really looked or if they've never looked at the tree carefully, they don't do this every year.

I don't know. But anyways, just never looked at it. So they have all of the ornaments from the start of, uh, Dr. Hall, 30 years of 30 plus years of on this tree and not every single one of them, obviously, because.