From the Editor

From what I hear...
It’s been a great summer – for weather, for tasting room traffic, for fruit!
I hope everyone has savored it as we ease into the other side of the warm seasons.

The Finger Lakes Libations continues to celebrate our fifth anniversary. We also continue to spotlight the legacy wineries that appeared on early winery maps of the region, participating in the earliest versions of marketing the industry and still owned by its founders. The process will continue, of course, since there is much to cover. In this issue, we celebrate Wagner Vineyards, Bully Hill Winery, and Lucas Vineyards.

We also pay tribute to a pioneer regional wine newspaper that grew up right along with the industry as it exploded by exploring the woman who brought regular news coverage to the Finger Lakes: Nancy Parker and her FLX Wine Gazette.

Two of the newest wineries have completed their inaugural seasons and we checked in on them: Cane and Vine on Seneca and Constantia on Cayuga. As usual, wine editor Phil brings you all the news around the lakes with the Wine Press. We have also introduced a Grapevine page to capture last minute announcements of interest in time for press. (Many thanks to readers who submitted photos, such as Wayne Schutz’ pics of Pleasant Valley Wine Co.)

The Wine Classic results are in and what a doozy! Dominated by Finger Lakes Wines, it is so impressive that we just had to provide some results for our readers. Kudos to Weis Vineyards for Winery of the Year award for the fourth time (three of which are consecutive)! And although this is a wine centric issue, be sure to check out Christian’s profile of the brand new Off Leash Brewing.

Lastly, I’d like to thank our readers, advertisers, and winery and brewery staff for all the support that allowed these pages to exist for the past five years. Here’s to the next five!

Ever Yours, Denice