On a Whim... Wine, Brunch and Pumpkin

A last-minute decision created a Sunday adventure to Seneca Lake as we visited J.R. Dill Winery for a new vodka release. Afterwards we headed to, friends of the podcast, Toast Winery for some of their new offerings and to talk shop. Finishing the day with cracking the seal on pumpkin beers for the season that took us nearly 40 minutes further south. We finish the episode with a pumpkin beer tasting. 

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Transcript

What do they say previously on Love Island Australia, I can't do the accent. Previously on Buffalo Brews Podcast. That's right. I can't believe you actually just announced that you're watching Love Island Australia. Well, you know, you have to watch a little, what do you call it, trash TV? Yes, I love trash TV though. I mean, but the Australian, I mean, the Australian women are. They're so pretty. Super. And they're fun. I know. Yeah. So I've watched the US and Australia and I vote Australia every time. Do you, is there another version you watch, UK or something like that? Of the Love Island? Yeah. Or watched it? Well, I tried to watch it, but their accent is so thick. I have a hard time understanding what they're saying. So I got to watch that on subtitles. Wait, you're going to watch a British show on subtitles? Don't judge me. Well, I'm not, I'm not judging. I'm not judging. So this is actually Labor Day. We decided to throw this together on a whim. Yeah. Because why not? I think that's really the episode title should be on a whim. The whole weekend was. It was. Yeah. We canceled hiking for today. We're supposed to finish the Western New York and Finger Lakes challenges. We did not. But sometimes your body is just too physically whooped. And it was really me. And by us, she means she. Yes. I said, I'm too tired to hike today. Right. That's acceptable. Yeah. But yeah. Saturday. What do we. And so. Okay. So here. You'll have to rewind. I will do this for you. Okay. So Friday, Saturday, I was supposed to go out with my spend the day with my girlfriend. And then we found out it was supposed to be rainy and crappy. So we couldn't have pool time together. So we had pool time on Friday after work. And my work was nice enough to let us out early. And therefore we made just plans on Saturday night. Which left Saturday open for Jay and I to, I don't know, what did you say? Let's go drink some Abbey ale. And this is how it started. Yeah. Buffalo Brewing Company was is partnering up with the old Simon, William Simon Brewery, which was a brewery from back in the seventies. So the building still exists on the, on the corner of Clinton and Emily in Buffalo. But the, the beers are being recreated and brewed by Buffalo Brewing Company. So we went down previously to try Simon pure, which they stopped making in 1972, the year I was born. And then they came out with a batch of old Abbey, which was their other popular one. Which is basically, it was like Simon pure with hops. So it was nice. It was, you know, wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but I thought it was nice. So that turned out, you know, turned out really good. And then this is what happens is I always say, what are we close to to go drink some more at? Right. Where did we end up? And then you said we're downtown. And I was like staring at you because to me that means nothing. If anybody knows me, I have zero sense of direction anywhere. I just name places if I get the name right. And I say, is it by so-and-so? Where are we now? Yeah, I have no idea where I am. So I end up going on Instagram. Let me just tell you, everyone, Instagram is what makes all these crazy ideas happen. Absolutely. So I'm on Instagram and I'm like, oh, are we close to this brewery? And you were like, no. And then you were like, we are. And then he finally just gives me some names. So then I pull them up on Instagram. So I pull up Beltline, right? That was the first one we went to? Yeah, Beltline Brewing. Yeah. And they had a beer that was blueberry, lemon, and lavender. Yes. And I was like, I need to have this beer. That was on their fruited, one of their fruited sours that they had. So I said, can we go there? Because I would like to have this beer. And Jay said, sure. So then we're both on Instagram while we're sitting there having a beer, looking at stuff. And what do I find? Oh, Seneca Lake. And guess what's happening there? Vodka. A vodka release from J.R. Dill. And it's vodka that is made from wine. From white wine grapes. Yeah. And I was so intrigued. I said, well, I kind of want to go out and get this vodka. Jay's like, what if this vodka is terrible? That is a two-hour drive. And I said, well, they're also doing this brunch. Right. Bubbles and brunch, right? Bubbles and brunch, yeah. So they were doing a brunch where you got a mimosa and then a breakfast buffet situation. So I said, let's drive out there. I will buy tickets right now for this brunch. So I did. And we were like, okay. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to drive out there. We'll have brunch. We'll taste this vodka. If it's awesome, I can buy some, you know, and whatever. Maybe we'll stop at one or two places. And then we said we could see our friends. So this turned into a day. But backing that up, Jay's on Instagram on a different thing, Western New York. And what does Breyer Brothers post? Yeah, they came out with, yeah, they, what did they come out with? Peanut butter and jelly. The PB&J, PB&Jam session, fruited sour. Now, I am a sucker for a PB&J fruited sour. Well, you're a sucker for PB&J. Well, yeah. It's literally our staple of hiking. It's kind of like one of our monikers. So the Peabree and Jay adventures. Right. So, yeah, it's actually kind of a fun podcast title. They put that together. I think previously, I think the best fruited PB&J sour I'd had was maybe froth. They did a decent one. But I had been looking for another one. And, yeah, Breyer got over the hurdle pretty easy on that one. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I believe I had a peaches and cream. Yes. When we were there. Yeah, part of their Punch Bowl series. Mm-hmm. Yeah. If you haven't been to Breyer Brothers down on Elk Street, they are, the word I've been using this weekend is elite. They've hit elite status, I think. They don't make anything bad at all. Nope. Killer beer, killer seltzers, like every single time. I tell them all the time, take my money, please. And because it was Labor Day weekend, they had a band outside. Well, a guy with a guitar singing, which was cool. So you could sit outside. It was a beautiful day. And then what did we do? Did we go anywhere after that? We had to go meet our friend. Oh, no. I know what happened. I said, you know what I would really like to have? And you looked at me and said, what? And I was like, macaroni and cheese. Yes. And then, if anybody knows, I'm lactose intolerant, so I can't just go home and make a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Right. Right. So then we were looking at stuff and, you know, Jay was like, well, I can make some. You can have two bites of it. And I was like, I want actual macaroni and cheese. So we look up the Cheesy Chicks and we find that they have vegan mac and cheese. So we go out to the Cheesy Chicks to have a little dinner before we meet our friends out at a bar to see a band. So we went there. Not only do they have vegan macaroni and cheese, but they have an entire vegan menu. So the whole front of a menu, like when you would go to a regular place to, you know, choose your food from. Right. They have a vegan one. So I was over the moon excited and I was like, oh, my gosh, I have so many choices. So I ended up going with a like a what would be kind of a Philly cheesesteak situation, except for they did it on macaroni and cheese and it was all vegan. They have an amazing vegan and gluten free selection there. Just crazy. And they had they had vegan chocolate chip cookies for dessert. So she was like, oh, if you make it a meal with like a side and a drink, you could choose the vegan cookies to go with it. So I was like, perfect. I'll take that. That's perfect. So then we so we had something to eat and then we met our friends at Rationales on Main Street and we saw a band and we had a few drinks there. Which did you have anything that you remember? Yeah, I well, I mean, think I think the big notable one that we had, I guess, I think it was all it all came down to that rosé. Oh, for me. From Stoneyard that they had. So they have they do have some can selections as well. Yeah, they had they had Flower Power from Ithaca there and they had an Ithaca tasting going on as well. So, yeah, we partook in that. Yeah, I think it was just it was a pretty chill evening. Yeah, it was just a nice day and you were just chatting with everybody, having some laughs. Yeah. Listening to the band. You had a sour from Strange Bird to start. I remember that. Yeah, then before you moved over to that, we added the espresso martini and then moved over to that that rosé beer, which was really good. I think that was probably the best beer that either of us had for the night. So, yeah, that was really good. Yeah, it was interesting. Yeah, that's made at Stoneyard. So, yeah, that's a that's a really cool one. I mean, you know, we've been talking a lot about these wine and these wine and champagne inspired beers lately. Well, I'm a sucker for rosé. Right. There's that too. You're right. That'll come up in a different part of this conversation. Oh, rosé. What is this? And then, you know, that's how it happens. Right. So it was a sparkling rosé style sour. OK. I just pulled it up to see what the picture looked like that I had taken with lemon, hibiscus, black raspberry and pomegranate. Which is perfect. It definitely fits the bill. Oh, it was great. Like it was it was warm. So it was, you know, a warm summer night and have a nice cold, refreshing beverage. Yeah. Checked out a band there. Then we had this kind of on a whim idea to go out to J.R. Dill Winery. Yeah, that's where I got our brunch tickets. Yeah, on Sunday. Yeah, I bought these brunch tickets. And J.R. Dill Winery is located on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake, probably about two thirds of the way down the east side of the lake, down toward Watkins Glen. So drive out there. Place is packed. Yeah. So, you know, to the point where parking was tricky for a second, but we figured it out. And people were parking like up on the other side on the lawn. Yeah. So, yeah, it was a really good turnout. Yeah, brunch was great. You got a mimosa included. They had like a French toast bake, eggs, bacon. Surprised there wasn't a rainbow going into the pan of bacon. There was a potato bake situation. Yeah. The cheesy potatoes. That was that was good, too. These chocolate croissants, you know, chef's kiss. Beautiful. Those are fun. Cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls that will just walking by and would give you a toothache. They were really big. They were big and they were delicious. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what bakery they got those from. Yeah. Those in the croissants, but they were good. Yeah. So we got it. I got an opportunity for a few minutes to talk to John, the owner of Jeff. Jeff. Jeff. Jeff. Wow. The owner of J.R. Dill Winery. So he was just, you know, kind of talking about how they how they put that together. So they have an oven that's on a pallet. And when they when they when the events over, they just take the pallet and put it back up on the shelf up on their rack. Which is crazy. And they installed the 220 outlet just for this stove. So crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. So, yeah, we had fun there. And then we got the deep lake vodka after a tasting and fell in love with that instantly. So that's going to be some some great cocktails because we're talking about for this season, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas into New Year's doing more cocktails. It's my favorite cocktail time. Yeah. Because, I mean, you can only do so many fall beers and winter warmers. You know, we always look for a good spiced beer when Christmas time comes around. We'll still be watching for that. But I think we're have some fun with some cocktails and for sure and really play around with some fun ideas, you know, getting into some, you know, Halloween movie watching. Yeah, I think it's a good time. Yeah. And then we we head off to the west side of the lake afterwards. So our friends over at Toast Winery. Yes, which we haven't seen in so long. Yeah. You know, this is December. I would be doing my due diligence if I said if you want to listen to a fun interview about how a business got started, listen to episode 32, which is from our second season early. Like we're talking 2022 when we did this interview. And Mike and Jane, it was a great interview to learn about how they came from like, you know, New Jersey. One of them grew up in Erie. The other one, you know, grew up in Jersey and, you know, living in North Carolina. Then they buy a winery in the Finger Lakes. Don't give it all away. Well, I mean, there's just there's a lot of stuff in this interview. Yeah, it's a great story. Yeah. And then we had the opportunity to try out a lot of new things that we really wanted to check out. And then we ended up with our own personal curation from Mike because he looked at our And the other things he wanted us to try, too. So I love that, though. That's what I love about them. They kind of know what they want us to have. And, you know, besides what we're curious to drink and things like that. Right. I love it. Yeah. We one of the ones that we really enjoyed was the New York Groove. That's our first ever estate wine. And by estate wine, it means grapes that they grow exclusively for them. It's not buying grapes from someplace. It's, you know, they've got their own grapes. So it's classified as an off dry white blend. Delicious notes of apricot, which I picked up immediately from that first sip. Peach, pear, apple. And then they will have you back in the groove. So, you know, he was testing our musical trivia. It was you more than me. Yeah, I didn't know it. You knew it right off the bat. Yeah. That's a little little reference to Kiss. Yeah. I'm not a I'm not a kiss. Yeah. Person. Which. So which ones. So other ones that we had. I know we got to try this Weigelt again, which we actually tasted in 2022 when it was still in the barrel. Yes. Which was very exciting, which is why I wanted to have it now. So now that we got it, we got to try it bottled. Right. And it's just as just as good as I remember. Just, you know, well aged now. Right. It's great for bottling. And then there was the fun Bougie. Bougie. Yeah. Which we found out was a. Named after Jersey. Yeah. Brittany. Shout out to Brittany at Toast Winery. She comes in from New Jersey once in a while to help out the family. So her nickname is Jersey. That's a week ago. We've been calling her Jersey before we knew what her name was. Yeah. That was that was a good one. They got a gold medal. Ninety three rating best in class winner for the twenty twenty four New York wine classic and fits the bill. They. Yeah. Robust dry notes. Cherry raspberry fruit. I liked that it had like a black pepper note to it. Yeah. That was the first thing you said. Yeah. That was that was really cool. It was, you know, just just subtle enough to give it a little like. Something special. Yeah. Loved it. It was good. Yeah. And then, you know, you got into your bubbly's as well. Yeah. Well, I mean, I love my bubbly. Yeah. Would you try the pet Nat Chardonnay, which is what is the full name of it? Petulant. Natural. It's a French term for. Yeah. That's what Mike was telling. Yeah. Yeah. It was a French term. So I got to do a little more research on that. Research on champagnes and sparkling wine. Mike's going to hear this and he's going to say, guys, I just told you. This is how we shoot from the hip here. I know. See, if we had written something out instead of just sitting here recording. Well, like what was that? What was the flavors you picked up on that originally? I mean, I just thought it was just super smooth and it was delicious. And I love the bubbles and for whatever reason. And I think this was the thing that he was talking about is how like when they bottle it, it kind of like naturally produces its own bubbles. And for me, when you first sip it, you almost it's a different kind of I don't even want. I don't even know what you want to call it. Like a dance on your tongue almost. Right. Like for me, that was what what was surprising. Right. And so it almost tasted like you were drinking this. You don't know if you're drinking really wine or if you're drinking champagne. Right. Like it's that right in the middle cross section where you could like teeter both ways if you weren't sure what you were drinking exactly. You know, and I mean, for me, I love that because I'm a big fan of like the bubbles. You love the bubbles. You know, like champagne. I would just drink an entire bottle by myself. And it's not even so much that I'm in love with champagne. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's not that it's not good. But like I love to have things that are bubbles. Right. You know, so I don't know. It was good. It was very special. So I'm excited to have that. And then the best one that we tried, which I was just floored and excited. And can we jump right to the Citra? Jump right to the Citra. Yeah. For you beer lovers out there. It's the idea of, I don't know, wine and beer having a love child. Yeah. It's like a hopped wine. And I hadn't, it was so funny because when we just went to the Lancaster Renaissance Festival, we had the same type of thing in mead. Yeah. It was a Citra hopped mead from Lily Bell. Yeah. And the same thing. I just drank it and I was like, this is amazing. So I was super excited when you first, the nose on this. Oh, it hits you right away. The nose on this is beautiful. And so for that, like you, you smell it, you're getting super excited about it, but the taste is just out of this world. So, yeah, if you are a beer drinker and you are like, oh, I don't really love wine. Well, I'll tell you, this would be your wine. Just think this would be your Citra dry hopped Chardonnay. Yeah. What a fun, fun flavor. This is going to be something that's going to, you know, kick them into a whole new category now. I'm excited. They put it into the right category, their toasted series that they have. Which we've already loved. Yeah. The peach they did. The Rita. Hello. That's like the perfect thing to go with Taco Tuesday. Imagine, yeah, a wine with coarse sea salt. Right. It's like a margarita wine. Really. Yeah. It was really good. So, but yeah, the Citra wine was just, I don't know, it was something special for sure. It's something that down the road we'll definitely have to drink as part of the podcast. There was one other one. Flip that back over real quick. There you go. Oh my gosh. All right. The skin fermented dry Riesling. Oh yeah. So we learned about this. It has an orangish hue in the bottle. And we learned that it has to do from the pulverizing of the grapes that brings more of the tannins out of the skins. And it gives the wine an orange hue. And it was, I thought it was very good the way that it was done. You know, because it's like, I think they build it. It's like, have you ever tried an orange wine? But it's not really, it's more, like I had like almost a tartness to it. Almost like tart apple that came along with it for a wine. And then it just had like with the tannins that were released from the skins, it just offered a different type of flavor than I'm used to in most wines. So yeah, I like that. I thought that was fun. I thought it was different. And then to cap off our tasting, we had two things for dessert. We had the winter warmer that they've started with the new glasses. Yeah, yeah. Their mulled wine that they do. So we got a little sample of that one and we brought home two glasses because this year's glass is clear. So I'm really excited about that. And then Mike poured us the luminescence white port, which they won a medal for. Yeah, I think this was at the 24 Classic as well. The Best in Class Winner 2024 Wine Classic. And then gold medal with 91 points, aromas of honeysuckle, pear, lychee, and apricot. And it was super smooth too. What I liked about it was deserty. So I'm not a sweet wine drinker. And right off the bat, when I smell it, it smells just overly, overly sweet, right? So I'm thinking when I taste this, I'm just like almost going to just be like, okay, I tried it, but, you know, not my favorite thing. Not as sweet as it smells. No. No, I did the same thing. I thought it was really sweet to the smell. It was really, really good. For me, the first taste had this like zing to it. And you didn't get that on the second, but you didn't expect it on the second sip either. Like you just got this zing and then you were getting all the flavors on the second sip. You know, kind of like a vanilla note on the finish. It was really cool. It reminded me of dessert. It really did. Oh, for sure. So it's more like a port wine with this. It's like a perfect dessert. So, I mean, that would be something that you would drink for me, I would think, you know, after a meal. So you do Thanksgiving and then you bring out this bottle, right? You do a nice dinner with your friends and you bring out this bottle. You know what I mean? This is definitely something to, after dinner, enjoy while you're just chit-chatting and letting the meal settle. And having this, you know, deliciousness just dancing on your tongue. And Mike challenged us with Thanksgiving. He was talking about, because I'm a big Gewurztraminer drinker for Thanksgiving. And then he, I think, added in the skin fermented wine as well. It was a nice compliment. It was, you know, a great pairing, a great personal curation. And then we're going to get to go back out there in November with the tribe when we do our Friendsgiving. And then they have a brand new room addition that they had just put on. Yep. So you can make reservations for large parties, which is really cool because not all the wineries out there will allow parties that are more than six. It's rare. Yeah. So this is very exciting. So if you want to go visit our friends over at Toast Winery, they are at 4499 New York Route 14, Rockstream, New York, 14878. You know, because I want to give them a little shout out exactly where they're located. So I pulled that up. There's a reason why they're one of the best on Seneca Lake. I mean, I had no, and it's so funny because I had no idea they were so new and had just opened when I stopped in there for the first time. Just because I drove by and I said, look, this place looks really cool. Let's stop in there. And who knew? And who knew? Yeah. And just knocking it out of the park year after year. Yeah. Once we said goodbye to them, because we're going to see him two more times, like I said. Yeah. Friendsgiving. Friendsgiving. And then we're going to see him for Deck the Halls in December. So we'll get a lot of time to see him down the road. But once we got, we went back around the lake, back up past J.R. Dill. Well, actually next to J.R. Dill. Well. Because we went to Gristiron Brewing. First, we did not. What did we do? Oh, we went to Upstate first. So we went up through Watkins Glen and we decided to stop at Upstate because I said, well, I always have a rule that I don't drink pumpkin until after Labor Day weekend. But it was Labor Day weekend. Yes. And we're all the way out on Seneca. So I bent the rules a little bit. So what did we do? We had to stop and get a beer because they had pumpkin. Right. Broke the seal. So it was my first pumpkin beer of the season at Upstate. And then I'm on Instagram. And because of where you are, it finds other things around you. So we were already going to go back up to Gristiron because they weren't open. Right. When we were at J.R. Dill. Yeah. So we went back over there. We had a pumpkin beer there. Yeah, we had their pumpkin. And then I was back on Instagram. So then it became the pumpkin tour. Right. Then I was back on Instagram and then I saw Scalehouse was just releasing that day. Their pumpkin. Their handsome Jack. Yeah. Yeah. So we were like, all right, I guess we're going over there afterwards. And it was Hectoberfest. So we had the fest beer, which was pretty good. Had to have the meatballs. Right. The bowl of balls. That's literally what it's called in the menu. Bowl of balls. And it's five giant meatballs and they are delicious. And I still have not figured out how to make these things. A little smaller than I would say a baseball. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But they're pretty good sized meatballs. Gosh, they're so, so good. So I had that pumpkin beer and then I had a peanut butter stout because no one goes to Scalehouse without having a peanut butter stout. It's in our cooler. I don't even drink stouts too much. No. And that is just phenomenal. It's sublime. I love it. I love it. It's great. So what further then I did. Well, from Scalehouse, we were supposed to go home. So we were supposed to go home. This is what happens when Sabrina, you know, has these crazy ideas. I'm going to let you take it from here. So my whole idea to go out to Seneca turns into an entire day at Seneca, which turns into Horseheads Brewing is no longer. It's no longer in Watkins Glen. Right. That spot was taken over by Lucky Hair. I said, so where is it? And you're like, only in Horseheads. So then I map it out to see from where we are to there. I said, it's only a 35 minute drive. South. It's only. We're supposed to be heading northwest. It's only. It's only 35 minutes away. Let's do this. Let's do this. Right. So we drive to Horsehead. Well, first we look to see, make sure they're open and they have pumpkin. They are. And pumpkin is being served. So we drive out to Horseheads Brewing. We have ourselves a pumpkin ale. We look in the cooler. They have none. And then so I asked her, I said, oh, you don't have any of it canned? And she's like, oh, I have tons of it canned. I just haven't had the chance to put anything in the cooler. She was the only one working. The only person running that whole place. On Sunday, Liberty Weekend. And it was mobbed. It was. We couldn't even sit outside. We found this little table inside that we sat at. Didn't get her name, but she was a rock star because she was holding that place down. She was. She was. So we bought two six packs and enjoyed a beer. And then I decided this other idea. I said, how far away is upstate from here? Like the upstate that's in. Upstate Brewing, which originated in Elmira. Which is another 10 minutes south of Horseheads. We need to go northwest, by the way. It's fine. So I said, it's only 10 minutes away. And they close soon. We have to go. I just want to go in. I think we got in there like 10 minutes before. Yeah, I was like.