Liz T.
Yelp
This was one of my favorite wineries during my recent trip, for several reasons: the wines were very good, the variety of wines was very good, the service was very good, they are unpretentious, they grow their own grapes, and they are environmentally friendly.
Red Tail Ridge is famous as the first Leed-Certified green winery in New York.
I usually think of terms such as "environmentally friendly" as being more of a gimmick than anything else. Without adhering to set standards, many places pride themselves on being "green" when they are anything but. Not at Red Tail though. They have gone through quite a bit of work to earn a Leed silver certification (you can find out more on their website), and they have rejected the standard "Finger Lakes Winery" look and attitude to accomplish it.
Despite their environmental commitment, the crew at Red Tail were completely unpretentious. They have a poster of the Post Standard magazine article about them--and that's about it. If you want to talk to them about eco-conciousness, they love to talk, but they won't preach to you. Mostly, they just love to talk about the wines.
And speaking of the wines, we really enjoyed them all. Red Tail excelled at several things most Finger Lakes wineries don't: excellent reds, and excellent dry and semi-dry wines, in addition to the excellent sweet and semi-sweet whites which are more prevalent throughout the region. They really did a good job of nailing the latest "trend" wine for the region: the dry Riesling. It's still not my favorite wine (I prefer the sweet ones), but this was the best one I sampled. All their wines are limited inventory, and you could tell that the focus was quality over quantity.
By far out favorite was the Dry Rose. I have heard about the growing trend towards dry blushes and roses for several years now, but had yet to be impressed by one. This one impressed me. The flavors were very complex, with fruit notes up front, and a nice crispness at the end. It also paired well with the pork we had over the grill back at our campsite the next night. Be careful not to over-chill it (temperature is hard to regulate while camping), as over-chilling removes some of the complexity of the flavor.
Lastly, I liked that they grew their own grapes. While this used to be a given for wineries, the trend now in the Finger Lakes region is to order custom blends of wine from the few places that do grow their own. This isn't bad, in and of itself, but when you find a place that grows its own, the quality difference really shows.
