August 11, 2025 Breakfast - Blueberry Muffins and tea and coffee. Lunch - Bully Hill Winery, Dinner - Nickel’s BBQ at Plum Point Lodge

August 11, 2025 Breakfast - Blueberry Muffins and tea and coffee. Lunch - Bully Hill Winery,  Dinner - Nickel’s BBQ at Plum Point Lodge

Today was a great day. We tasted at four wineries, ate a good lunch, and sailed on a racing sailboat.

It started at 9:00 after a shower and dressing with coffee for Suzette and tea for me and two blueberry muffins.

At 10:00 we drove to Domaine LeSeurre winery on Lake Keuka where  we tasted six wines and loved the rose and bought a bottle. The lady pouring was incredibly knowledgeable having poured at wineries for over thirty years.

She told us what wine to order at Bully Hill Winery where we were going for lunch and recommended MacGregor a mile up the road, so we drove back to MacGregor and tasted five wines. MacGregor specializes in the Saperavi grape brought to the area by Konstantin Frank many years ago. We liked their 2018 premium Saperavi rose of cab Franc and theI cab franc rose and bought a bottle of each.

We then drove through Hammondsport and up a long hill to Bully Hill winery and Restaurant to eat lunch. We each ordered a daily special, Suzette ordered the sautéed scallops and a sautéed crab cake with roasted potatoes, fermented cucumbers, and salad, served with a basil mayonnaise.

I ordered the chicken and basil salad with strawberries and a large croissant.  

We ordered the Chardonnay and Riesling blend fusion wine.

Lunch was served quickly and was delicious and we finished a couple minutes after 1:00 so we drove to Heron Hill, a neighboring winery.  

The wine at Heron Hill was not to our liking so we drove to the harbor at Watkins Glen and arrived at 3:05 for our 3:30 departure on a two hour cruise on the True Love sailboat that was a racing schooner built 100 years ago that has sailed around most of the Western Hemisphere.

We enjoyed our two hour sailing tacking from one side to the other side of the lake.

When we finished sailing at around 6:00 we discussed dinner and Suzette communicated with Elaine and we decided that there were 6 of us at Plum Point Lodge, Charlie and Sarah had joined Billy and Elaine, and no plan for dinner. 

We made a plan. We drove 5 blocks down Franklin Street to Nickel’s Pit BBQ and ordered two 1/2 chicken dinner, 1 lb. of brisket, 1 slab of pork ribs and 4 sides of Cole slaw and 2 sides baked beans.

When we arrived we said hello and when we offered dinner we all gathered around a picnic table near the shore and ate BBQ for dinner.

Then they took a walk and we messed with the air conditioner that does not work and I read until 8:30 when we sat by the fire pit for an hour and then went to the room to read and blog.

It was a wonderful day and I discovered while blogging that sailing n the True Live was the top rated outdoor activity in Watkins Glen.

And I thought it was drinking wine.

Bon Appetit