With Valentine's Day falling mid-week this year, we will be celebrating LOVE the weekend before and the weekend afterwards! We have teamed together with the Finger Lakes Cookie Company (they have the BEST COOKIES EVER!) to bring you a perfectly paired wine and cookie flight.  The wine and cookie flight includes:

1. Pink sugar dusted cheesecake cookie paired with Pebble Beach Blush 
2. Chocolate crinkle peanut butter chip cookie paired with Max Black 
3. Dark chocolate raspberry cookie paired with Dockside

Wine and cookie flights are $12 per person and reservations are not required.  Flights will be available Friday through Sunday February 09-11th and 16-18th, but you've gotta get here before the cookies are all gone...

If you are in town visiting family for Christmas and are looking for something to do this evening, feel free to join us for our candlelit five-station wine and hors d'oeuvres pairing event from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm!  The following pairings (with recipes) will be featured tonight:
Sweet & Sour Meatballs paired with Deer Run Traminette 
Brie Pastry Bites paired with Deer Run Chardonnay 
Sausage Cheddar bites paired with Alpinismo
Cherry Cheesecake Dip paired with Conesus Red
Finger Lakes Cookie Co & Black Button Distilling will be joining us and sampling some of their favorites as well!  
If you wish to join us for tonight's Candlelight Night, click here to make your reservation.

My apologies for not getting last week's recipes out on the web on time.  We featured the following recipes during our Candlelight Night event on 12/14/17:
Crab ball appetizer paired with  Dry Riesling 
Sweet & spicy wings paired with Via Ferrata
Skirt steak skewers paired with Runway Red 
Rosemary cheese spread with fig preserves paired with Vignoles

Merry Christmas!!

This evening we will feature the following menu items: 
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Spicy Thai Pumpkin Soup paired with Vignoles (we used canned pumpkin & sweet potato puree in place of fresh pumpkin)
Sliced Beef on Pumpernickle Crostini paired with Runway Red
Jalapeno Corn Dip paired with Ciclismo
Attraberry Jam & Cream Crescents paired with Pebble Beach Blush

If you enjoy a recipe and wine pairing, we hope it makes it to your home for your next gathering! 

This past Saturday, we welcomed local artisans selling their goods just in time for the Holiday season.  We enjoyed a great turn out and offered light food and wine pairings for guests to enjoy while they shopped.  Special thanks to Vince & Lore DiSalvo for their offering of the marscapone-berry treats which were as delicious as they were beautiful!  One favorite of the crowd was the three cheese artichoke dip and, as promised, here is the recipe:

8 oz. block of cream cheese softened
1 block of Yancey's Fancy Bergenost Cheese shredded
1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
1 jar of marinated artichokes, drained and coarsely chopped 
3/4 cup of sour cream
3/4 cup of mayonnaise 
4 scallions chopped 
salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Combine ingredients into a crock pot and put on high until warmed through and cheese has melted.  Serve with crostini or tortilla chips along with Deer Run Riesling!

Last night, we welcomed a great crowd of folks and enjoyed the food, wine and the company above all!  The star appetizer of last night's event was the smoked gouda dip pairing served with Deer Run's Traminette; this could be a great addition to your next get together this Holiday season. Below are the recipes and wine pairings. All of the recipes were found online and I have provided links to the sites below:

1. Cranberry & Blue Cheese stuffed Pork Tenderloin paired with Alpinismo (I omitted the pecans, just in case anyone had a nut allergy) 
2. Hot Smoked Gouda Bacon dip served with Crostini and paired with Traminette  
3. Kale & Mushroom Ricotta Pinwheels paired with Riesling.  I followed the recipe here and instead of using toast, I spread the filling onto a sheet of puff pastry and rolled it up and sliced into pinwheels.  I topped the pinwheels with Parmesan cheese and baked them in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes until golden brown.  
4. Creamy Leek and Potato Soup paired with Chardonnay
5. Lavender Field's Lavender Brownies and Peanut Butter Blondies paired with Max Black (if you enjoyed the desserts, the mixes are for sale in our gift shop)

Thank you to all who came out, I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we enjoy hosting these events!  We hope to see you again soon; Happy Holidays!!  Wish to join us for one of our upcoming Candlelight Night events? Click here to make your reservations!
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Deer Run Winery Draws Community To The Shores Of Conesus Lake As Father And Son Turn Hobby Into Handcrafted Wines And Engaging Events!

VINTNER'S DINNER THIS SAT. 11/11/17
This year marks our 11th annual Vintner's Dinner.  We hold this intimate five-course wine pairing dinner each year to showcase our local caterers and restaurants along with our very best wines.  Currently, we have spots left for our Vintner's Dinner this Saturday beginning at 6:30 pm.  If you are interested in making a reservation, please visit our website.  This year we will indulge in the creations from Partyman Catering. View the menu below:
Hors d'oeuvres:  Mediterranean appetizer platters served with 2016 Chardonnay
Soup: Roasted red pepper soup with basil sour cream paired with 2016 Dry Riesling 
Salad:  Greek style salad topped with feta cheese paired with 2015 Vignoles
Entree:  Chicken kebobs with seasonal vegetables over a bed of couscous finished with tzatziki sauce paired with Alpinismo
Dessert:  Finger Lakes Cookie Company Max Black chocolate crinkle cookie served with vanilla ice cream topped with a Max Black wine reduction sauce paired with Dockside

At the Vintner's Dinner we will re-introduce two of our favorite wines: the 2016 Dry Riesling and our winter blend, Alpinismo. The 2016 Dry Riesling was pulled from the shelves in our tasting room two months ago because it was moving quickly and we did not want it to sell out before being able to showcase the vintage at our Vintner's Dinner.  The 2016 Dry Riesling will be re-released at the dinner on Saturday evening and will be featured as the wine pairing with the soup course.  Alpinismo, our semi-dry red winter blend of Noiret and Frontenac, will be also be released at the dinner and is the featured wine paired with the main course.   Guests of our Vintner's Dinner will be the first to be able to purchase these two wines, which are both available in limited quantities.  We look forward to the dinner this Saturday and to seeing all of those who will be joining us! 
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HARVEST IS CALMING DOWN
This year we are making a record amount of wine at Deer Run.  My husband and winemaker, Scott along with his Father, George, have been pouring over chemical additions and spreadsheets for the past two months and things are finally beginning to settle down in the tank room.  We are short on tank space, with each of our 24 wine tanks, three juice cubes and five grape lugs filled with juice and fermenting grape must at the moment.  Scott is scratching his head a bit about how to proceed with his blending, but no worries, he is quite creative and I am sure will think of something!  
The need to bump up production is a direct reflection of wine sales at local liquor stores and events here at Deer Run Winery.   The 2017 Summer Concert Series brought us record attended concerts with over 1,000 attendees at a few of the concerts.  We even had one concert which was delayed due to wicked thunderstorms with high winds that swept over the winery and we watched from the front porch as dedicated concert goers pulled into our parking lot waiting patiently in their cars with windshield wipers on high for the storm to pass!  We have a great community and are proud to call Livingston County, New York home and will continue to do the best we can to bring you hand-crafted, affordable wines.
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Below is a meme that Scott used as his Facebook profile picture, just to give you an idea of what its like for a winemaker at this time of year.   

There are many long hours spent in a tank room for winemakers in the fall, harvesting, crushing and de-stemming the picked grapes, overseeing dozens of ferments, making sure tanks don't overflow and wine doesn't overheat, all so that in the end we can enjoy a nice bottle of wine without ever realizing the amount of hard work that went into making your glass of wine.  Cheers to all of the winemakers (and brewers) who make the world a better place for the rest of us!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Candlelight Nights Thursdays 11/30, 12/07, 12/14, 12/21/2017  6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Five hors d'oeuvres and wine pairing stations held at Deer Run after hours surrounded by candlelight. 
Holiday Sip & Shop Sat. 12/02/17 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm Multiple local artisans will join us to bring you an afternoon of shopping for one-of-a-kind gifts while sipping on your favorite Deer Run wine.  Light food and wine pairings will be served.  
Conesus Lake Garden Club Christmas Sale Sat. 12/09/2017 9:00 am - Support the ladies who make our public areas beautiful!  Live evergreen wreaths, kissing balls, table centerpieces and more available for sale at Deer Run beginning at 9:00 am until they're gone! 

The History of the Property currently known as 3772 West Lake Rd

Farmer Tom Hall resided on the property currently occupied by Deer Run Winery from 1899 – 1920.  Tom purchased a 60-acre parcel of farmland from a wealthy businessman who originally obtained the land by burning all vegetation to force the Indigenous people living here to seek land elsewhere. Those who fought to preserve their homeland for the land paid with their lives. 

Throughout the years that the Hall family lived here they were plagued with tragedy.  Tom and his wife Sarah were a happily married couple expecting their first child due to arrive in the Spring of 1901.  Sarah had a troublesome pregnancy and was bedridden for almost the whole of her last trimester.  She labored heavily for over 13 hours and birthed a beautiful baby girl, which Tom and Sarah chose to name Millie, short for Mildred.  Over the next three days Sarah battled a high fever and remained delirious and confined to her bed.  Three days after the birth of her beautiful baby girl, Sarah succumbed to an infection which her weakened body was unable to fight off. 

Tom was overwhelmed with the loss of Sarah and with the new responsibility of raising a baby girl without a mother to care for her.  Farmer Tom fed Millie cow and goat milk, which she fussed over at first, but when her ravenous hunger got the best of her, she sucked on the corner of a homemade leather satchel.  As she grew, Tom noticed Millie carried her Mother’s confidence and had benefited from her Mother’s beauty as well.  Millie grew tall and lanky with long wavy blonde hair and large hazel eyes and pencil thin lips that curved upwards at the corner of her mouth.
 
Meanwhile in Dansville, in 1914, the Jackson Sanatorium fell on hard times and the owner was forced to file bankruptcy.  The building was then used as a psychiatric facility to house WWI veterans struggling to return to society after enduring the atrocities of the war.  One of the soldiers staying at the facility was known for his queerness.  Referred to among the staff as “Funny Francis”, Private Francis Jankowski, teetered precariously between fits of immense anger and bouts of mania.  When feeling elated, Francis painted his face and performed for the patients and staff, juggling and blowing up a red balloon and allowing it to soar across the room as it deflated.  Francis had a strange affinity with clowns, he had fallen in love with the colorful performers when he first experienced the P.T. Barnum & Bailey Circus which traveled through his native home of Warsaw, NY, when he was just 8 years old.  His love grew into an obsession; constantly vying for the attention of friends and family.  Francis’ father would strike him when Francis asked him to watch him perform.  He would yell at Francis, calling him a pansy and queer.  “Straighten up and be a man” he would say; which Francis was forced to do as soon as the draft went into effect.  Though Francis was happy to be leaving his Father’s farm and iron fist, he had not a clue of the horrors of war that he would soon face.  Young men around him moaning and crying for their mothers as they took their last breath.  Francis turned to his safe haven: his imagination. Francis dreamed he was performing under the big top in front of cheering, smiling crowds and happy families.  Most of the soldiers mocked him, but a few appreciated the small chance at entertainment among such despair.

Francis found that he was a good soldier, a natural high swelled within him when fear might take over most men.  However, one day a bomb hit his barracks killing half of the men instantly, body parts spewed in every direction.  Francis was one of the more fortunate men suffering from a broken jaw from debris which slammed Francis in the face.  A large piece of shrapnel also caught Francis in his left eye, chipping his eye socket and causing him to lose his sight in the eye.  He was shipped back to the U.S. after his recovery and found himself living at the Jackson Sanatorium in Dansville riddled with flashbacks and bitterness. Patients in the Sanatorium quickly learned to appease Francis and pay him their attention when he began his performances because it was easier than facing his rage.  The Jackson Sanatorium was forced to close completely just three weeks after Frances was admitted and he was left homeless.  Francis traveled North along Old West Lake Rd and happened to meet a smiley 16-year old blonde girl who was eager to see the red balloon which Francis carried with him as he walked.  Millie cheered for Francis as he placed a red rubber ball on his nose and began to juggle three stones he picked up from off the ground.   Farmer Tom noticed the man in the distance talking to his daughter and approached them both.  Francis saluted the Farmer and introduced himself as Private Francis Jankowski, pulling the rubber nose from off his face.  Farmer Tom shook the young man’s hand and thanked him for his service.  The two quickly fell into conversation about the war and Francis’ upbringing on a farm.  Soon after Farmer Tom offered Francis room and board in exchange for his help as a farmhand.

Frances assisted with the milking of the cow herd and immensely enjoyed the company of Millie throughout his days on the Hall Farm.  After a few weeks of working beside young Millie, who doted on the attention of Frances, feelings of lust overcame Francis.  He grabbed Millie in the barn and kissed her roughly.  Frightened, Millie ran to her Father crying telling him that Francis had pushed himself on her.  The Farmer confronted Francis who admitted to his love for the young girl.  Farmer Tom made the decision that Francis had to pack his belongings and leave the farm immediately. 

Angry with the Farmer’s hasty words, Francis went into the home upstairs to his 2nd floor room which was directly across the hall from young Millie’s.  Her door was ajar and he could see her sitting on her bed surrounded by her favorite dolls.  She was talking to them and having the dollies act out parts in a play that spun from Millie’s imagination.  His anger overwhelmed him, he walked back downstairs to the kitchen and in his blind rage, grabbed a knife from off the wooden slab.  He marched up the stairs, breathing heavily, and entered Millie’s room.  As soon as he entered, he closed the door behind him and Millie began to scream.  But as soon as her screams rang out for help, they were immediately silenced by the knife plunging into her chest and across her arms, as she defended herself in vain.  Farmer Tom’s heart dropped at the cry from his daughter unlike any he had ever heard before and he grabbed a corn husk which hung on a wall in the barn.  He ran from the field to the house up the stairs and into his daughter’s room where Francis was hunched over his daughter’s bed, shiny, scarlet red droplets glistened in the setting sunlight streaming through Millie’s windows and Tom noticed blood streaming down the face of one of Millie’s favorite dolls. 

A fight response took over in Farmer Tom and he lunged forward at Frances with his weapon and made contact with his right shoulder.  Francis spun around and attacked the Farmer with a strength that was a close match to his own, but many years of farming made Tom a hard man and his adrenaline propelled him with an inhuman power.  In the struggle Farmer Tom’s face was sliced deep with the knife, but the blow to Francis’ back with the long, curved metal farm tool proved to be fatal.  Francis fell to the floor gasping for breath, taking heavy deep breaths before giving way to slower softer breathing and he died on the floor of Millie’s room next to the beautiful blonde girl that both men cherished so much. 

Farmer Tom dragged Francis’ lifeless body down the stairs and placed him to the right of the front steps.  He then carefully tended to his daughter’s body.  He held her in his arms and wept loudly over her body, holding her in his arms and rocking back and forth, he cursed God for taking his wife and now his only child from him.  In the meantime, the milk man making his rounds, stopped at the home and upon seeing the grizzly scene quickly left to get the town sheriff.  Shortly, neighbors and town people were making their way to the home of Farmer Tom.  The Sheriff went into the quiet home only to be greeted by the trail of blood leading to the upstairs bedroom of Mildred Hall.  Once they opened the doors the found Farmer Tom lying in bed with what seems to be a small blonde female, but so badly mangled, her face could not be made out. 

Farmer Tom Hall was arrested and once he gave his account of the story and the records of Francis Jankowski were checked and verified, Farmer Tom was found not guilty and released.  The man returned to his home which had been cleaned by a few of the local neighboring women who took pity on Tom and the misfortune that had befallen his family.  Tom noted how very alone he was in the world as he looked in the crackled mirror above the fireplace and focused on his hideous scars, scars that reminded him of the night he lost his beloved daughter.  He replayed the events over and over in his head, questioning his actions and how he could have handled the situation differently.  He hated himself for allowing Jankowski to go back in to the home to collect his belongings.  His misery and guilt overwhelmed him.  He fashioned himself a mask made from a potato sack to prevent him from having to face his scars.  Farmer Tom became somewhat of a town hermit and it was clear he did not want visitors as he chased off neighbors who brought him dinner and tried to offer condolences.  He growled at children who came to his house to verify the rumors of the Farmer gone mad in their town, terrifying them with the sight of the masked man who hid away in his home, desolate and overgrown with weeds.  Some neighbors murmured of seeing the young Millie in the 2nd story bedroom window which caused greater intrigue among the youth.  Local children threw rocks at the home in an attempt to lure the mad hermit from his sanctuary.  At times it worked and a masked Farmer Tom would chase the children with the very corn husk that he used to land a fatal blow to Jankowski’s back. 

​On the third anniversary of Millie’s Death in 1920, a desperate, broken Farmer Tom, walked into his field and looked over his land.  The land that once held so much promise and hope for him, now held nothing but inevitable haunting memories.  He climbed a tree on the south end of his property and tied a rope, securing it well to the thick branch and fastening a noose at the opposite end.  Farmer Tom slipped the noose from his neck and sat on the tree branch in silence as the sun set over his farm.  He took in the beauty of the land, its unharvested wheat and thought how the grain gleamed so golden in the sun, just like the hair of his former wife and daughter who were both taken away.  He pushed himself from the branch. 

Within a few days, local boys found the mad Farmer and alerted their parents, the land fell in to the possession of the town bank and was parceled off and sold into smaller 20 acre lots.  Our lot contains the remains of the Hall family and 2017 marks the 100-year anniversary of the death of Mildred Hall and Frances Jankowski.  Those who attend the WinEerie Nights will have the chance to visit the Hall family cemetery located in the back of our property and pay your respects to the family whose time here on this property was cut far too short.

We are proud and humbled to announce that Deer Run Winery was named Livingston County's Small Business of the Year!  The annual event, put on by Livingston County's Chamber of Commerce, is a way to recognize outstanding businesses within the county.  The Chamber polls local residents for nominees in different categories and we were honored to be nominated, for the second year in a row, for Small Business of the Year.  Wednesday evening, we were accompanied by other nominees and locals at the block party held on Millennium Drive in Geneseo.  

Awards were given for the following categories: 
​Large Business of the Year, 2017 winner Genesee Valley Motors
Small Business of the Year, 2017 winner Deer Run Winery
Most Promising New Enterprise, 2017 winner Dublin Corners Farm Brewery
Downtown Business of the Year - 2017 winner Tony's Pizzeria

Congratulations to all businesses who were nominated and thank you to those of you who took your time to nominate us and select Deer Run Winery as Livingston County's 2017 Small Business of the Year.  We are thrilled to be a part of this outstanding community and will continue to work hard to be a premier destination for visitors and locals alike!