As a fellow wine lover, I booked this tour hoping to learn about wines from New York State. Unfortunately I learned absolutely nothing and left extremely disappointed. The two tour leaders, whilst very friendly, didn’t teach us anything about Long Island and their wines, including the terroir, climate, common varietals or wine making practices.
The first winery, Lenz, sadly only provided three small wine tastings. After that, we had to stay for 90 minutes.
The second winery, Raphael, had four wine tastings with a small meat and cheese platter in a plastic box. I’ve never experienced something so common at a wine tasting before. You can buy wine by the glass (like at Lenz), including a Chardonnay and Sauvignon blend called ‘Chardeaux’. The name reflects the class of the establishment.
To put it nicely, the third winery, Osprey’s Dominion, was foul. To sum up their wine, one of their staff members boarded our bus before we disembarked, and informed us that after our tasting we could purchase beer. And he was correct - after tasting their wines, we certainly didn’t want to try anymore.
I feel very mislead by the tour - it has not been designed for those that want to explore the local wines of New York State. The tour company has no idea about wine, and the wineries they chose were very disappointing.
If you want to get drunk with friends and you don’t care what you drink, book this tour. If you love wine, stay away. It’s not good and you’ll just waste your money. Also - it’s a long trip there and back, and they never offered a rest room break.