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

Chateau Frank, the historic house high above Keuka Lake just down the road from Dr Konstantin Frank Winery, now includes an “1886” Reserve Tasting Room for VIP events.

Chateau Frank was the dream of the late Willy Frank, son of Konstantin, father of Fred, and grandfather of Meaghan.  Willy planted the classic Champagne grape varieties on neighboring Seneca Lake, and converted the home’s basement into an incredibly space-efficient sparkling wine production area.  Chateau Frank’s elegant sparkling wines have won dozens of top awards in competitions around the world.

The newly renovated 1886 room, named for the year the house was built, is directly above the sparkling wine cellar. The elegant space will be the site of special, rotating wine and food experiences every Friday and Saturday.  www.drfrankwines.com

From New York Wine and Grape Foundation newsletter

Anyone who has been around for more than a few years knows that the quality of New York wines has improved dramatically, and consistently, among vintages and wineries. This is a tribute to the grape growers who focus on quality, the winemakers who maximize it, and the many people who work together toward that common goal.

According to Jim Trezise of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation:

Happily, this week brought some more good news about the business climate for our industry.  Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that a sales tax exemption on samples of beer will also be extended to the wine, cider, and spirits sectors, saving money which can be invested into the businesses.  Second, the State of Pennsylvania finally became the 44th state to allow direct-to-consumer shipment of wine, which will begin as of August 8.  This is especially important for New York wineries because a huge number of out-of-state visitors to the regions are from Pennsylvania, yet their State’s bureaucratic, antiquated government monopoly system for wine sales essentially locks out New York wines.  Now, finally, consumers in the Quaker State can be free.

The first major law that demonstrated the importance of a positive business climate to the growth of the New York grape and wine industry was enacted 40 years ago: The Farm Winery Act of 1976.

It was a lifeline for struggling grape growers, a stimulus for industry growth, and a major event in the development of the modern New York wine industry.

In the late 1970’s, New York’s many winegrape growers were hit by a perfect storm: major changes in corporate ownership of the large wineries, a flood of cheap subsidized imported wines, and changes in consumer tastes. Prices for grapes were plummeting, and the market was drying up.

At that time, all wine grapes from independent growers went to a handful of large wineries, most in the Finger Lakes.

The Farm Winery Act created another option: Make and sell your own wine. It had to contain 100% New York-grown grapes (not necessarily your own, however), and at first the annual limit was 50,000 gallons (now 250,000 gallons), but you could sell your wines directly to consumers, as well as directly to restaurants, wine retailers, and of course wholesalers.

This was new freedom!

Information taken from New York Wine and Grape Foundation Newsletter, May 22, 2016