January 28, 2025 — We are currently experiencing mail delivery problems when WE WRITE TO AOL.com, Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com and other major email providers. If you provide an email address for response, please be sure grapevinecountrytours.com is cleared through your spam filters and/or provide a phone number so we can call you. Our mail is not going into spam folders, these servers are rejecting our responses.  Our IT is looking into the problem.  We will respond to requests within 2 days.  If you need a response sooner, please call.

We enjoy speaking with our potential guests to determine what best meets their needs. Here is some of the information that we need from you in order to give you an accurate rate:

Date you would like to tour?

Number of people in your party?

Pick up location?–where you are staying so there is no drinking and driving

Do you want one of our clean, reliable vehicles or would you like us to drive your vehicle?

Kinds of wine you enjoy so we can make suggestions for reservations

With this information, we can give you quality service. Contact us:

Calling 315 585 9599, (our 800 number has been disconnected)

Or email Bonnie@grapevinecountrytours.com or Nicole@grapevinecountrytours.com

Facebook and Messenger are unreliable ways to get an answer as we do not always check these.

We look forward to hearing from you to reserve your wine or beer tour.  Remember we do not allow drinking of alcoholic beverages in our vehicles.

Sometimes, it is important to save some money and still have a great time.  We understand that, so we offer you an alternative to traveling in one of our vehicles.  We can put one of our drivers in your car to take your group.  Rates begin at $45.00 per hour with a minimum of 4 hours.  Rate is determined by the distance we need to travel from our base to your pickup location.  Give us a call to find out more.

We are fully insured to drive your car.  We wouldn’t have it any other way!

Remember, we pick up strangers and return friends.

Check out this article on the Finger Lakes by Forbes blogger, Michele Robson, who recently toured with us.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelerobson/2023/06/30/move-over-napa-its-all-about-finger-lakes-wine-vacations/

With the rising cost of gasoline, we need to make some changes to our pricing structure.

If you are staying on the lake you plan to tour, the cost is as quoted.

If you are visiting wineries and breweries on one lake while being picked up on another, there will be a gasoline surcharge added to your tour cost.

The best thing to do is book your lodging reservations near the lake you wish to visit.

Thank you for understanding.

Bonnie

Students and Travelers,

We are now offering weekday airport runs from Geneva to Rochester or Syracuse.  Give us a call to reserve your space in our clean, comfortable and reliable vehicles.

Belhurst is a uniquely beautiful lodging and winery destination on Seneca Lake in Geneva, New York, the heart of the Finger Lakes. You may try the classic wine tasting, which offers a variety of wines to suit every palate. They also offer beer and cider tastings.

A favorite with our guests is the Wine and Cheese pairing. Here you are offered five wines and five cheeses, all local. If you are looking for a more lavish experience, they offer a Food and Wine pairing dinner. This is a six course meal with locally sourced ingredients to create unique, seasonally inspired dishes paired with Belhurst Castle wines.

Your Grapevine Country Tours driver will be more than happy to make Belhurst Castle a stop on your customized wine tour.

I started this business with an interest in wine and a bit of desperation after the tragedy of September 11 when the travel industry tanked.  It wasn’t easy to start from scratch, and there were times that people tried to discourage me from taking the risk, but I forged on.  There were difficult years for sure, but the industry welcomed me and I found friends at the wineries and in the tourism community.  It wasn’t until 2017 that someone encouraged me to apply as a woman owned business.  I already considered myself one!

The paperwork was immense, but I finally succeeded!  Now I am proud to say that my daughter-in-law, Nicole, has begun to work with me in this fantastic business.  Together we are a strong force!  We have a lot of fun in all that we do.  And I am thankful for all of the support that we get from our wine tour friends.

Bonnie Osborne

There are lots of ways to go right while picking out a wine to finish off a meal, but there are also some ways to go wrong. To guard against that, there is one rule of thumb that should always be followed when scanning your local wine shop for the perfect sipper: The wine being chosen should always be sweeter than the actual dessert, according to Dan Rivas, general manager at Bank & Bourbon, located in the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“It can be helpful to try and match your wine and dessert based upon their similar flavors,” Rivas says. “One example would be a sparkling Moscato D’asti which has notes of fresh peach and pear and slight residual sugar which would match up beautifully with any dessert that incorporates fresh fruit and lavender.”

Chocolate treats, however, can be a bit tricky. Rivas says that starting your search with a fortified wine, such as Port or Madeira, is a catchall recommendation. However, you can get more specific depending on the type of chocolate that is in the dessert.
“With milk chocolate which is typically half chocolate and half milk, a ruby Port would be an excellent choice because it is going make for a more fruit and spice driven pairing. With dark chocolate, a tawny Port or Pedro Ximenez sherry pair wonderfully because they will add nutty and raisin flavors to the dessert. When pairing with white chocolate, some recommendations that tend to pair well are ice wines which will accentuate the dessert with notes of pineapple, and Brachetto D’acqui which will deliver notes of crème and raspberry,” he explains.

But, when all else fails and you’re at a loss, go for the sparkling.
There is nothing better than a good sparkling wine paired with a good cupcake. Something about the bubbles I feel just enhances the flavors.

Thanks to New York Wine and Grape Foundation May 2019 Newsletter

90 Points awarded to Billsboro Winery’s Sawmill Creek Vineyards Cabernet Franc

90 Points awarded to Hosmer Winery 2016 Pinot Noir

90 Points awarded to Sheldrake Point Winery Estate Bottled Dry Rose.

*Info taken from NY Wine and Grape Foundation email.

Wine & Spirits magazine has published a special issue and 1st Annual Insider’s Guide with the cover title, “Conversations&Tastings with 50 Masters of Place”.

The various writers, sommeliers, and others divided up the world, with international Riesling authority Stuart Pigott profiling the Finger Lakes as a region that has changed dramatically in the past dozen years due to a passionate focus on quality and experimentation, especially with Riesling wines but others as well.

His narrative is sprinkled with specific examples of his points from several wineries: Boundary Breaks, Red Newt, Red Tail Ridge, Hermann J. Wiemer, Keuka Spring (Gewurztraminer) and Anthony Road (Vignoles).  His first visit was in 2004, when he was blown away by the region’s natural beauty, though not many of the wines; but on his next visit just six years later (and now six years ago) it was clear that major change–dramatic improvement–was underway.

New York Wine and Grape Foundation newsletter, August 21, 2016