Each year at this time, to celebrate our grape harvest with the community, we host an annual Harvest Festival!  Taking place this Sunday October 06, 2019 from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Harvest Festival is our family friendly day for everyone to come out and visit the grape farm!  We welcome children and grandchildren to dress up in costume and we will have face-painting, hayrides through the vineyard, a bounce house (weather permitting), children's crafts, grape stomp, live music from Travis Prinzi, and food from Wild Hog'z BBQ and shaved ice from Snowie of NY.  All are welcome and Harvest Festival at Deer Run Winery will happen rain or shine - let's hope it shines!  

Special Offer:  Pre-order your meal and drink combo in advance and save $5.00 on your advance purchase! 
Your Oktoberfest meal and drink combo will include:

• Your choice of either Red Osier Beef on Weck or German Bratwurst
  
• German potato salad
  
• your choice of either an Oktoberfest beer or glass of Deer Run wine

When pre-ordered the above is just $12 per person.  Your reservation will be available at the Red Osier Concession line the day of the event and will be listed under the name on the order.  

For a few years now I’ve been interested in experimenting with new products from grapes or wine.  I had originally thought about a brandy using some wines we had in our tanks but I didn’t want to age it in oak.  After some research and sampling a few bottles of different clear brandies and grappas, I had a direction.  I spoke with Jason Barret, owner and head distiller of Black Button but he is growing so fast his production schedule was a year or 2 out.  He recommended Collin McConville, head distiller at Apple Country Spirits.  Collin and I spoke at length, and we decided on distilling the wine into an immature brandy.

Immature brandy is just what it sounds like, it is not aged in oak casks so it does not have the depth of flavor from the ageing.  It is much lighter, more floral and has more character from the grapes and wine than it’s older cousin, traditional brandy.  As such, it is a fantastic vehicle for cocktails, lending a different flavor base to build from.  The floral and fruit characteristics make for refreshing new takes on classics, like a brandy and tonic, brandy and soda or brandy and ginger.  Even the Old Fashioned with our immature brandy in place of the whiskey makes a great cocktail!

During our initial conversations Collin had spoke very highly of vodka made from wine.  I thought about it and decided that it might be a good way to use experimental wines.  Second wines seemed to be a good vehicle to experiment with.  Re-using a partially spent raw material, grape must or skins that would end up as compost anyways.  We used some stronger yeasts, measured how well the yeasts performed in very difficult conditions such as low temps, low nutrients, higher pH etc. and how well we could adjust these conditions to better the performance of the yeasts.  At the conclusion of the different ferments we were surprised at the rough wines.  Some were very palatable, while others had nuances of the wines made from the same grapes previously, albeit much weaker.

We trucked the different wines up to Apple Country Spirits and in December we distilled the immature brandy, and then in February we distilled the vodka.  Collin had already distilled the vodka base once so the second distillation in February was the final.  After much back and forth with the TTB (the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) we received label approval and bottled the spirits this summer.
 
Cheers,
Scott Kuyon
Winemaker 
Deer Run Winery 

One of our very favorite events at Deer Run Winery is our annual Picnic in the Vineyard.  Dinner service and seating among the vines as the sun sets over the vineyard is quite a magical experience that you won't want to miss! This year is no exception as we have a delicious menu planned and perfectly paired with our award-winning wines.  The meal and dinner service will be provided by Partyman Catering of Avon, N.Y., an A.C.E. awarded caterer!   This year's menu will feature:
Appetizer: smoked salmon cucumber rolls with fresh dill paired with Traminette 
Soup: chilled corn soup paired with Corot Noir 
Salad: lemon basil orzo salad paired with Riesling 
Entree: tarragon chicken with Chardonnay cream sauce paired with Chardonnay
Dessert: Conesus red raspberry ice cream with fresh mint paired with Conesus Red 

​If you’re a wine lover like us, you find very few things more enjoyable than drinking a glass of wine outdoors in the summertime.  There’s something special about it: the condensation on your glass, the cool sweet, refreshing flavor of the bottle of Conesus White you just cracked open, the relaxation you feel as the wine buzz kicks in and sun shines on your face. There’s just something truly perfect about sipping on a glass of wine outside in the summertime.

We could go on forever about why we love our Thursday Night Summer concert series so much and why other’s are digging it too, but if we had to name a few things, it would look something like this:

For starters, you can not only drink wine outside, but you come to the winery and enjoy our wine on the lawn just yards from the vineyard where it was grown.  You can bring your family, friends, and chairs all to one place, where you don’t have to cook or be responsible for entertaining.  This experience is all about being present in the moment!

Don’t get us started on the tunes… Concert goers jam to the sweet music of local favorites like The Travis Prinzi Band or Noble Vibes, instead of hitting play on a wireless speaker.

We also have some of the best food vendors in the area hanging out serving up your favorites including Cheesed n Confused, 3 Legged Pig BBQ, and our 2019 Concert Series sponsor, Red Osier.

Basically, we could go on and on about all of the things we do for this series every Thursday evening, but music at Deer Run Winery is so much more than promoting our wines. The flavors and services our partners and bands help bring to you is an experience that is unique and so important for our community (and Rochester area) to take part in. These sorts of things don’t continue unless we support them!

Check out the schedule at: https://www.deerrunwinery.com/upcoming-events.html

There are just seven concerts remaining in the 2019 Thursday Night Summer Concert season, we hope you come see us! Don't forget to tag us in any and all of your concert photos #deerrunwinery #drwsummerconcert

Letchworth State Park is a magical place and a nature-lover's wonderland right in our backyard. Named the #1 state park to visit in the nation, it has lived up to its title and welcomes close to one million visitors each year. For those who want to explore outside the park, we have a few suggestions that may coincide with your visit:
Thursday Night Summer Concerts
June 06, 2019 - September 05, 2019
Beginning at 6:00 pm, enjoy free parking and free music on the lawn.  Deer Run Winery offers wine, wine slushies, beer and more for sale to wet your whistle and we are joined by two or more food vendors so you don't have to worry about dinner!  Bring a chair!
Finger Lakes West Dine & Drinks Tours
Sundays June 30, July 28, August 11, 2019
Deer Run Winery has partnered up with many of our local food and beverage producers to bring you a culinary craft tour featuring businesses around Conesus Lake.  This tour includes transportation on an air-conditioned tour bus and features food and drinks at (4) stops around the lake.  
FLX West Dine & Drinks Fest!
Saturday July 06, 2019 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
A NY craft food and beverage tasting event held at Deer Run Winery under a huge high peak tent on the front lawn.  Featuring live music by Midlife Crisis, attendees will receive a keepsake logo wine tasting glass and admission to the tasting tent featuring 20 NY craft food and beverage producers.  Many will have their products for sale, so if you try something you love, you can buy it to take home with you!  
​Picnic in the Vineyard
Saturday August 24, 2019 6:30 pm 
Personally this is my very favorite event held at Deer Run!  This features dinner served by Partyman Catering outside in the vineyard and it is such a memorable and magical event, you do not want to miss this if your vacation dates correspond and line up with this event.
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These are just a few fun things for you to do while visiting & enjoying our beautiful region!  Summertime fun abounds in Western New York as residents are serious about having fun and packing as much activity into the summer calendar as possible!  We hope to see you at one or more of our events listed above or feel free to stop by our tasting room for a wine sampling and take home some of the finest Finger Lakes wine around!

This past Saturday we had a good turnout for our annual Cinco de Maxo event and as promised here are the recipes we featured for our pairings:

Mexican Chicken Pinwheels paired with our Dry Riesling
Hot Bean Dip paired with Runway Red
Queso Dip paired with Vignoles
Mexican Brownies paired with Max Black.  Please note that for the brownies, I used a Ghirardelli Brownie Mix and only added 1 egg following the box mix instructions which makes for a fudgier brownie, which is the way I like it!  Also, I substituted the water needed with Max Black.  

The Max Mexicana Sangria was made following this recipe and we used Max Black as the red wine base.  

I am also going to re-mention a recipe shared with me a few years ago which I posted on the blog back in 2017. Dori's Chicken French made with our Vignoles.  This is a delicious recipe that I mentioned to guests at the tasting bar who were interested in the recipe.  Feel free to comment on the pairings and if there is ever a recipe that we sampled here that you wish us to share, feel free to contact us at winery@deerrunwinery.com.  We love to hear from our customers!