Anthony Road Wine Company

http://www.anthonyroadwine.com

Anthony Road Wine Company is located in Penn Yan in the Finger Lakes on the west side of Seneca Lake. It is owned by Ann and John Martini. The winemaker is Johannes Reinhardt and the vineyard manager is Peter Martini. They planted the vineyard in 1973 and the winery was opened in 1990.

We found the winery on a slightly drizzly day. The tasting room is in an L-shape with the large tasting bar in the back right of the tasting room. Mary Lou was our wonderful tasting guide throughout our tasting.

You stand at the tasting bar for the tasting and there is a tasting fee for five wines. The wines are poured from the bottle and Anthony Road Wine Company uses both corks and screw caps. Wine crackers are available to cleanse your palate.

While tasting we learned that Anthony Road Wine Company uses only grapes grown in the Finger Lakes region to create their wines. They use 100% estate grapes except for some from the Cayuga Lake region. There are approximately 40 acres of planted grapes at the winery which include Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, Vignoles, Cabernet Franc, and Lemberger. In about one mile’s distance is Young Vineyards which they manage and that is another 40 acres growing Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc, and Lemberger.

An interesting story is about one of Anthony Road Wine Company’s most popular wines, Tony’s Red. Tony is a man who originally owned the land where the winery is and he still lives down the road. He used to come in and ask why they didn’t have a red wine. So they made one and named it after him. Tony still comes into the winery and gets a discount on his purchases.

There are a number of wines available and it was interesting the tasting menu listed them with their respective residual sugar (RS). Some of them were:

• Devonian White (white blend)
• 2012 Pinot Gris
• 2012 Dry Riesling
• 2012 Gewürztraminer
• 2012 Semi-dry Riesling
• 2012 Rosé of Cabernet Franc
• 2011 Pinot Noir
• Tony’s Red and now White and Blush
• 2012 Semi-Sweet Riesling
• 2012 Vignoles
• 2012 Sweet Dream (16.2% residual sugar)

Special tasting fees are set for additional wines:

• 2011 Tierce Riesling. This is a wine which was made from the consolidated effort of the winemakers at Anthony Road Wine Company, Fox Run Vineyards, and Red Newt Cellars.
• 2008 Martini-Reinhardt Riesling Trockenbeeren. Residual sugar of 23.0% and $100 for a 375 ml bottle. They are the only United States winery to win a competition in France for this wine.
• 2008 Martini-Reinhardt Vignoles Trockenbeeren. Residual sugar of 26.5%

The winery produces 15,000 cases of wine a year.

While I was enjoying my tasting, Gloria was walking around the extensive gift shop taking photos and ran into co-owner Ann Martini with whom she had a nice conversation. We also met Ann and John’s daughter Liz.

The gift shop has items such as clothing, wine accessories, locally made jellies, sauces and dipping sauces, and other unique gift items. The winery can create personalized labels for customers. Anthony Road Wine Company has a wine club called the Road Crew.