1 Day Trip to Penn Yan, Seneca Lake, and the beautiful Finger Lakes Region

 

Bathroom Sign at Seneca Stag Brewery

It all began with a TV news report.  One Sunday morning I saw a report about an ice cream place that used duck eggs to make their custard...and the ducks were living on property!!  Sounded like a fun time...and I knew Penn Yan was near wineries-so the planning began!!

For the first time I am writing a blog about Al and I traveling with another couple.  Sometimes we do travel with others, and this trip with D and K was incredible, and hopefully will give you some ideas of how to create a memorable day trip-as well as some fun places to visit in the Fingerlakes region!

We left home at 10:00 AM for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Penn Yan, NY.  The drive is super scenic- a little Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake are views along the drive. 

Our first stop, Seneca Stag Brewery, opened for lunch at noon, and we planned to arrive early.  The day was sunny and beautiful with white puffy clouds!  As soon as we arrived the owner Dar popped out and let us know that we could come in at any time.  That was so nice of her!  This brewery just opened in December-and that kind of welcomeness will surely bring in the repeat business.  We saw games outside in the gorgeous outdoor space-corn hole, giant connect four, large dice, etc.  We decided to play a couple games because we knew that we had plenty of time for lunch. The boys won Connect 4...but the girls cleaned up at cornhole!!  How fun!

Just about noon we ventured in to get a flight of beer and order lunch.  Dar had told us that currently they are only working off of guest taps.  Like everything else-the stuff they needed to complete their brew making process is having supply chain issues.  They expect it to arrive any day-but she said she's been expecting it for a while now.😒

We ordered inside, in the gorgeous refurbished barn with a spectacular loft seating area, but ate outside on the patio.  We saw several other tables of people come in shortly after noon.  We travel mid week (this was a Thursday), and we were pleased to see she had good business.  We spoke with a couple who were vacationing in the Finger Lakes and just decided to stop in.  We actually talked with several people this particular day that traveled to the Finger Lakes for a vacation. We certainly understand why!!!

The food was very good, and we tried a few different things between the 4 of us.  We wish Dar well this winter, when tourism will understandably reduce.

2 weeks before, we had made an appointment for a 1 hour wine tasting class at Kemmeter Wines.  Many years ago I had read a book called Summer in a Glass-and the major winemaker written about in that book was Johannes Reinhardt from Germany, who is the owner of this boutique winery.  When I heard that he owned the winery I felt that it was an absolute must for us to meet him and learn about his genius for winemaking.  

Our appointment was for 1:30.  They are only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday 1:30-5:30.  This was the only time slot available that day for his one room tasting cabin-so I'm glad we booked early. 

The tasting room at Kemmeter

This was the BEST wine tasting we have ever been to...and we've been to a few wineries over the years!!🍷  Johannes knows everything, and loves to talk about his wines and grapes. He is super passionate about his grapes, and turning those fruit orbs into amazing wine.  There were 8 people at our tasting (he usually only takes 6 but there was some kind of scheduling snafu...) and we all learned so much.  The last couple there (#7 and #8) have returned every single summer from New Jersey-that is how committed they are to this winery.  We understand!!!😍

The grapes are literally organized at this vineyard!

He let us explore each wine before he told us anything about it...then he told us everything about each wine.  He wanted us to explore on our own palate without interference.   It was so interesting. We tried 5 different wines-1 red Pinot Noir, 2 Reislings, Rose, and Pinot Blanc.  We bought all 5 wines-a total of 8 bottles.  

I felt that we were in the company of the Master!  Although this was not our purpose for coming on this trip, it was my absolute favorite part!!

Our next stop was Spotted Duck Creamery.  They had advertised a flight of 12 different custards-and we were all excited to try 12 different flavors.  Unfortunately, that particular day they only had 8 flavors-so we did 2 flights of 4.  We even planned ahead bringing extra cups, so that we could divide each flavor in half so that only the couples were sharing with each other! That worked out very well.  The custard was really good and creamy.  It started to rain a bit while we were there, so we just hopped under the patio.  It was just one of those brief showers-and it passed quickly and the sun came back out.  The ducks were cool-we saw some eggs they laid in the yard!  They have a resident peacock and a few other kinds of birds.  It was fun watching them. After the rain the peacock randomly vanished out of our sight and we never saw him again!!

Our final planned stop was Anthony Road Winery.  We made an appointment at this winery for 3:45.  We arrived about 3:30 and enjoyed the grounds and the beautiful garden.  This winery is huge landwise as well as vineyardwise -and was the place that Johannes worked for about 13 years before opening Kemmeter in 2013.  It has a wonderful view of Seneca Lake. 

 It is located across the road from Kemmeter-so Johannes didn't go too far!  Unlike the boutique, small building feel of Kemmeter, Anthony Road is a high end place.  There was a large room with a few tables of tastings going on at the same time.  We chose a preplanned tasting from a list-and all 5 of our wines were brought out at the same time.  The young lady gave us a brief introduction to each wine-then left us to our tasting.  She did swing by several times to see if we had questions.  2 wineries-2 totally different tasting experiences-both good ones.  It was interesting to us that both wine tastings were done in full size glasses so that the body of the wine can be brought out easier by swirling.  We bought 2 bottles of wine from this tasting: a chardonnay and a pinot gris. 

Our original plan was to go home (it was about 4:30)...but not wanting the spectacular day to end, we asked employees of Anthony Road about a great place to eat dinner.  They did NOT steer us wrong.  We called for a reservation-and we were off to find our way to this great restaurant.

They told us Sopalta @Plum Point  had lake view dining.  They were not kidding!!  We left the main road and drove down the windy road heading toward Seneca Lake.  The Lodge (Plum Point) is across a small lane from the lake.  They have a beautiful dock, with chairs to sit in for the guests of the Lodge or dinner guests.  The lodge itself not only has regular rooms-but they also have Yurts that look pretty amazing.  Since we had a few minutes before the restaurant opened at 5 we walked down to the Lake-gorgeous!!

Yurts at Plum Point

The restaurant is very high end farm to table.  They have an impressive outside dining area, and an equally beautiful indoor space.  We decided to sit inside-and we chose a table in front of huge windows...the best of both worlds, views-but no wind or weather of any sort! The food was amazing, and our server Maddie was the best. We were so glad to have made this dinner an extra addition to a perfect day!

In real world 2022 realities-a perfect day trip does require a bit of planning.  Businesses are only open certain days/certain hours.  Some require reservations-other places you can just wander in. We tried to space things out enough so that it never felt rushed at all.  3 out of 5 of our places did need or suggest reservations-so it was good that we had made those (even the dinner at the last minute, it got busy!).  We also had to space it out so that we never were drinking too much.  Originally in our planning we were going to the creamery after the brewery-but when we had to book Kemmeter at 1:30 we decided we would be able to stop at another wine tasting after the custard.  What we were not able to do (since Al was driving), was have a full glass of wine after tasting at each location.  It worked out just fine-and allowed the girls to have a great Cadillac Margarita for dinner!!

We arrived back home at 8:30 PM...10 1/2 hours of adventure!!

In all, it was a wonderful daycation with great friends, which all began with watching the local morning news on that fateful day!!🦆🦆

All places highlighted and underlined have been reviewed in more details on Trip Advisor.