Mac O.
Yelp
Nothing has changed about Fridays Creek since shawn g. FTR'ed them back in 2009, except there's now a $5 tasting fee, and you can only select six of their 14 wines for sampling. When the six of us expressed our shock at 1) not being able to sample all the wines; and 2) having to pick six on our own, the girl working the counter said we could try all 14 for $10, which we opted to do. Wish we'd just stuck with six.
I couldn't describe the wines better than shawn g. did, so I'm gonna plagiarize in the hopes that he subscribes to the old adage "Imitation is the highest form of flattery": Fridays Creeks wines are "too fruit forward, sweet, and acidic." Done and done. *Every* wine we tasted was slightly sweet, semi-sweet, or really sweet. The '08 Traminette smelled a bit like OFF and tasted like eating flowers. The Patio White tasted like grape juice, and the '08 Vidal Blanc like tropical punch. Even the '08 Merlot, '08 Syrah, '08 Old Vine Zinfandel, and '08 Cabernet Sauvignon were sweet and thin, lacking any of the robustness one typically expects from those varietals. I did like the '09 Rubilee, made from a GR 7 Hybrid grape out of Cornell University, a drier '08 Chambourcin, and -- surprisingly -- the Plum wine, since it was more tart than sweet. And so many of the wines are made from juices imported from New York and California...it feels kind of like cheating.
The tasting room itself is nice, with an old, barn-like feel true to its original purpose. But my favorite part about the whole tasting experience was browsing the art in the upstairs loft, with pieces created by area artists. Watercolors of ripe tomatoes or rusted-out tractors, oil paintings of ducks or lily pads, black-and-white photo triptychs of farm scenes, colorful weavings, ceramic owls, stone jewelry. A great idea for wineries and local artists to partner up. Instead of purchasing any wines, we bought a ceramic tile featuring a small duck. Win!