Thirsty Owl Wine Company Lot 99. Pinot Noir and Chancellor make magic!

Alright, it's been a busy couple of weeks!  I spent some time on vacation, went to Oswego Harborfest and wine country, saw some good old friends, and had a balmy old time.  Unfortunately for my valued readers, this means I haven't been able to write too many posts as of late.

Thirsty Owl Wine Company's Lot 99.
A fantastic blend of Chancellor and Pinot Noir grapes!

As I described in the previous post, we purchased many delicious wines while up by Cayuga Lake.  Today I'd like to tell you a little bit about Lot 99 from Thirsty Owl Wine Company.



There is one driveway leading to both the Cayuga Ridge winery and Thirsty Owl Wine Company.  To the left one has Cayuga Ridge winery, and to the right one can visit Thirsty Owl. The first night we were there, we had driven down from Oswego, so we didn't get to the Cayuga Lake region until about 2 in the afternoon. This left us with kind of a limited amount of time to check out the wineries on the first day. We made it as far down as Cayuga Ridge and then we headed back to the hotel.  Well actually we had a delicious Chinese meal first.  But then back to the hotel.

We didn't make that same mistake on the second day. It's important to note that nearly all the wineries close by around 5:30 or 6:00 PM, so if you want to hit as many as possible or you're just planning a nice long day, you should be sure that you start early in the morning. This is what we did on our second day staying in the area.

So now the first day we had driven down the driveway to get the Cayuga Ridge, and made the left. On the second day, we made that that critical right turn at the end of the driveway which led us to the Thirsty Owl Wine Company. Now I was very impressed with this winery. They have a number of delicious dry red wines including some that are made from the Chancellor grapes and some that are made from one of my favorite grapes, Pinot Noir.

As it turns out, thirsty owl makes a wine called Lot 99 which is made from Chancellor and Pinot Noir grapes! It sounds delicious on the surface, and let me tell you – it is! Let me read you a description of the wine from the label.

Lot 99 is a savory blend of Pinot Noir and Chancellor estate grown red grapes. The Pinot Noir are some of the Vinefera vines in the finger Lakes region. The name "Lot 99" comes from the original Revolutionary war grants given to Sgt. Florence Maroney, first Regiment, for his service during our war for independence. The lot encompasses the winery building and all of the thirsty owl vineyards. Enjoy this wine made from some of the oldest Pinot Noir and Chancellor vines in the region while becoming part of America's revolutionary history. Spicy plum, elegance with light oak and fine tannins.

These are some of the grape vines and grapes that you can see at Thirsty Owl Wine Company.  Neat!

Well, that just about sums it up - this wine is delicious!  To me personally, it tastes like it is primarily Chancellor with a smaller amount of Pinot Noir added in. I have no idea if this is the case or not, as I don't make the wine and I forgot to ask while I was at the winery. But that's my take on it. The taste is that of stone fruits such as plum cherries and other dark found it's best the best way I can describe it really. While it is clear from the taste that this wine has been oaked, the oak character definitely does not overshadow the subtle and delicate flavors of wine.

With respect to tannins this wine really is not that dry.  A lot of times people don't necessarily enjoy a red wine – well, certain people – because of the drying effect of the tannins.  While I personally enjoy the tannins, this wine has them in moderate quantity. The wine is not overly drying and it has a fantastic body to it.

This is the building Thirsty Owl houses themselves in.  It's nice inside - and they also have cafe and food!

Between me and the lady, we probably bought the better part of a case of wine from Thirsty Owl Wine Company.  I know that I got a few of the Lot 99 bottles of wine, and I know that I also got a Pinot Noir or two.  As a side note, the Pinot Noir that I got was the 2008 vintage.  They also had another 2010 vintage of the Pinot Noir - they called it their Pinot Noir reserve and let me tell you, it was excellent. It also costs a bit more than the 2008 Pinot Noir, and I figured that for my tastes, the 2008 Pinot Noir would suffice.

This bottle will be consumed soon.

I was very impressed by many of the wines from Thirsty Owl Winery and intend to go back at my  nearest convenience :)  I would recommend that if you're ever in the finger lakes region, that you cruise on down the west side of Cayuga Lake and stop by Thirsty Owl -these guys make some fantastic red wine that you would be remiss not to try!

Remember friends, if you're ever in the area and would like to stop by and drink a bottle of any of these delicious wines with me, fell free - there certainly is plenty of it and something as delicious as this should be shared with all!

Thank you for reading.






















Cheers!