A few weeks ago, our wine club the Syracuse Wine Meetup Group caravaned into the Finger Lakes Region of Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. Using designated drivers, we stopped at several different wineries, some very ostentatious looking buildings having mediocre wine. Our last stop was this little ‘hole in the wall’, and our group was blow away by their wines. Silver Springs Winery only had a small number of red wines, but we agreed they were the best reds we had that whole day.

I’m coming from a history of not liking wines until only a few years ago (I’m 53 now). As one liquor store owner told me last week: “The taste of 95% of our wines aren’t worth selling”. I had the unfortunate experience of not tasting wines before I purchased them. All that has changed since I began making wine at Lakeland Winery. Because of the thousand’s of different wines (and the tastes change EVERY year) being produced,  my advice to new wine drinkers is take the recommendation of a trusted source. Than, as your experience and tastes grow, trust yourself. I’m still not to the point where I appreciate the driest wines, but who cares. I’m having fun along the way:)