So the family and I had a great time, despite the cold, camping this weekend.
I did a Whrrl story about our first day touring the wineries-so go take a look, you’ll feel as if you were there with us!
I’m not going to kid you-we spent several hundred dollars on wine, and got almost 5 full cases. In case you were wondering, we aren’t heavy drinkers or anything-the last time we bought that much it lasted a couple of years.
We did do several things that were frugal on this trip:
#1-We camped with our camper trailer at a State Park. This was much less expensive than a hotel.
#2-Because we were camping, we cooked our own food. We did not buy a single meal out for the entire 4 day weekend. Not only that, but we brought snacks with us to keep the kiddos occupied. Having looked at the tourist aimed prices at the wineries that did have eating establishments, well, we saved a ton.
#3-Because we were camping we could bring our puppy with us and not have to board her somewhere. Again-big savings.
To really have made this a much less expensive vacation we could have simply done the tastings and not bought the wine. At each winery the tastings ran anywhere from $1 to $3 and you typically sampled between 5 and 8 different wines.
Yankee Bill and I bought wine, but we didn’t crack a single bottle-it all stayed corked to be brought home. So technically we would have had the same fun if we had tasted and not bought at all! It was the act of tasting, comparing notes, thinking about what characteristics we enjoyed in each wine. . . even seeing the various locations and admiring all the labels. Those were what made the vacation.
If money had been tight we could simply have written down the names of the wines we had enjoyed and then bought them, a bottle at a time, at our local wine stores as we wanted them.
Have any of you ever been wine tasting? Do you have any frugal tips?
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Wow! You were right in my neck of the woods! Hazlett is a fun winery…we usually save it for last. If you come again, you should check out Swedish Hill Winery. It is on Cayuga Lake but not far from Sampson. They have really good wine. You took some great pictures. Autumn is beautiful in the Finger Lakes!
In our neck of the woods also – we were camping over the weekend at the Finger Lakes National Forest (tent camping) and drive by Hazlett on the way there Sat afternoon and on way back on Monday too. 🙂 Haven’t looked at your whirl but love to read about things locally here. Sampson’s a nice park! 🙂 You should check out the FLNF though if you like roughing it a bit more, and like being out in the middle of the woods and solitude… and even closer to a lot of the wineries. Wine’s not our gig but we certainly saw all the “winos” out in force as we were trying to get to camping lol…
Actually we went to Swedish Hill on Sunday. We did two days of wine tours, I just didn’t do a whrrl story the second day. . .
You were in my neighborhood as well! I enjoy the Red Cat but had never heard the chant.
My favorite winery is Glenora, but will definitely check out Hazlitt after seeing your whirl.
I’ve been to many wine tastings, but all on the West Coast, and I can tell you you wouldn’t even get to sniff the cork for $1 to $3. Even at the $5 and up – usually UP – they charge here, though, it’s worth it because you can figure out what you like before you buy.
I don’t have any particular frugal tips – we usually buy at the winery, too, because it’s easier to get it on the spot than to try to chase all over town when you get home and hope you can find it. Many times out here, it’s actually cheaper at the winery, especially if it’s a small winery or you run into a sale. I bought most of my wedding champagne using that system.
Which lake were you on? We camp near Seneca Lake and have done the winery tours. If you are on Seneca, there is an Un-Cork New York promo. One winery we like sells a glass along with each tasting. That’s how we stock our trailer with wine glasses!
We also don’t stock up on produce before we head out. There are lots of great farm stands in all of the lake regions. I also use Google Earth to help spec out day trips.