In the Finger Lakes Meeting Cameron Hosmer

Our next appointment was with Cameron Hosmer. Since we made our way from Connecticut to Geneva, New York, the previous day, it was about a half hour drive to reach Hosmer Winery where we had an appointment with Cameron Hosmer. He and his son can do laser guided planting and we had a few questions for him. Since we are doing tall grafts, we were wondering if Cameron's equipment could handle that. Cameron said that he is getting some new equipment from Wagner (currently somewhere over the Atlantic on it's way to the Finger Lakes) that he felt confident could handle our tall grafts. Cameron gave us a tour of his vineyards, showed us his winery and gave us a taste of Cayuga fermenting in insulated milk tanks that can hold 2000 gallons. The Cayuga was very nice, a little fizzy, indicating that it was still fermenting, but there was none of the foxiness one associates with hybrid varieties.

The trick, according to Cameron and his winemaker is to pick the grape at around 17 Brix.
It was a beautiful spring day. Our next appointment was with Eric and Tina Hazlitt of Sawmill Creek Vineyards, located in Hector, New York, on the east side of Seneca Lake.

Since Hosmer Winery is located on the west side of Cayuga Lake, it was just a short drive to reach Sawmill Creek Vineyards. But along the way, we saw some interesting and inspiring sights, such as this Amish farmer tilling his land. As we drove further along the rather deserted country road, we saw the following amazing site. Sitting on a fencepost was this hawk. We passed her/him once and decided to turn around to see if we could get a photo. S(h)e stood perfectly still long enough for us to get this portrait.