It’s autumn in Finger Lakes Wine Country! It’s our second to last weekend open for the season. Come visit us!

Wood Fired Pizza

BBQ Pizza – We start this pie with a slather of Chef Lerman’s Black-Strap Yankee Bar-B-Q Sauce, add some cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and then give it a few slices of sweet sausage from Autumn’s Harvest Farm in Romulus, NY. Come get it! [$12.00]

Autumn Harvest – This veggie pizza starts with generous dollops of everything good including Lively Run chevre, oven roasted squash puree, and if dollops of caramelized onion are possible well then there you go. Now for the best part – it’s finished with an apple cider reduction from local apples (boiled down by MJ herself). [$12.00]

Wine

Try the Cayuga Ridge Estate Riesling (which recently won Germany’s Best Riesling of the New World 2010 award) or your favorite red or white.

By the glass [$6.00]

Other Goodies

Indulge in a homemade treat from Loon Cliff Specialities!

Rustic. Wood Fired. Local. Arguably The Best Pizza On The Cayuga Wine Trail and In The Finger Lakes Region.

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We are sorry for the late heads up but… due to ongoing heat-wave that the Finger Lakes is experiencing, we are going to be CLOSED on Saturday, July 23rd. However, assuming cooler temps, we intend to be OPEN on Sunday, July 24th.

If you were planning on visiting us on Saturday July 23rd (or if you visited us without seeing this notification), please send us an email using the online submission form on our Contact page for a “rain check.” Said another way, we promise to make your intended visit worthwhile.

Stay hydrated. Be cool. See you on Sunday, July, 24th.

Earlier today, Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery announced its Wine CSA/Winemaking Program for the 2011 season.

A great model of “engaged” community supported agriculture, we (The Copper Oven) have participated in the program every year since 2008.

The cool thing about the program is that you literally start the first Saturday workshop with being assigned 10 of your own vines and then throughout growing season you learn what you need to know in order to turn those vines into good fruit.

When the 2008 program started, there was 6 inches of snow on the ground and after some instruction we were each handed a pair of pruning shears and told, “Now go prune your vines.”

Thinking back to the expression on Laura Falk’s face when we heard those words says it all. (Fast forward to the 0:39 second mark of the following YouTube clip to see what we are talking about.)

Like Laura (who owns and runs Experience The Finger Lakes wine touring company), you initially kind of freakout because of all the “what ifs” but then with some doing and some questions answered you find yourself knee deep in cuttings and with a handful of pruned vines that actually look like somebody besides you did the work.

After that comes tying, shoot positioning, suckering, vineyard floor maintenance, etc. Soon you get to feeling a personal connection to your vines.

We live across the street from the winery and are in walking distance from the vines that we tend, but what is cool is seeing program members mid-week, their cars pulled along side the road near the vineyard, stopping by to check on their vines throughout the season.

To supplement an otherwise long growing season, the program includes related activities such as vine planting, barrel tastings (which gives the memorable experience of tasting a varietal in an unfinished state vs. when its ready for drinking), etc.

Our favorite supplement to the program is the blending workshop. (Check the 0:27 second mark in the following YouTube clip for more.) Aside from feeling a little bit like a mad scientist, it’s surprising what you learn in the blending process (not to be given away in this blog post).

By harvest, program participants have two options: 1) come pick your grapes and bring them home to make wine with them in your basement, or 2) pay a small cellaring fee to Cayuga Ridge and they do the work for you.

Either way, in addition to a season’s worth of hands-on instruction you come away with two cases of wine that you grew yourself.

If you’re interested in learning more, click here to send an email to Tom and Susie Challen or call them at 607-869-5158.

For reference purposes, we’ve included a copy of the sign up sheet below. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s program.