Shalestone Vineyards

We visit FLX wineries regularly, but haven’t been to Shalestone yet. But we will be. Just drank a bottle of their 2012 Pinot Noir that friends gave us — Wow! Wow!

Not open for tasting? 3:00 busiest Saturday of the year (October 11) We were really looking forward to trying these reds, VERY disappointed..

In the words of Danielle, Shalestone is a darling «hippie pagoda.» It’s a little hut reminiscent of a cottage in the countryside with a flourishing garden out front. When you walk inside you’re in the tasting room with the bar to the right and the bottles for sale to the left. The space is very cabin-​like and smells like freshly cut wood. It reminded me of my Colorado vacations as a kid.
*This is a red-​only winery*
They offer a solid selection, featuring 5 pre-​selected tastings for $ 3 and a $ 1 per pour for some fancier options.
Each sip was better than the next, but among the options there nothing jumped at me enough to provoke me to buy a bottle. Although, thinking back after doing I would buy each and every one that I tried. They were unique and each one was better than the next — the tasting offered a nice evolution of the wines produced there. I liked the unpretentious vibe of the place — the owner doesn’t provide «wine-​speak» explanations, rather suggests you pick out the aspects of the wine you like on your own and explain them as a «cold shower» or «crescent wrench» of wines. A little chuckle.
Among the $ 1 per glass tasting menu, the Synergy is a sip worth tasting. The bottle price point a touch higher, but worth it ($ 30). Really well-​rounded flavor.
If we stopped here first I would fully have purchased that $ 30 bottle of Synergy, but I didn’t and I might be regretting it as I write this. Next time I’ll start here and get a sample of every one on the list — in the end that’d be under $ 10.

Visited today with my family. The owner is quirky to be sure. He is serious about his wine and little patience for those who’s only goal n wine tarting tours is to get drunk. The Fingers Lakes do not produce very good red wines. However, Shalestone’s passion is to produce excellent reds. And they do. If you like red wine, I strongly suggest you visit. Engage Rob in discussions and let him know you are serious about wine And you will have a great visit and taste so e wonderful wines.

We tasted a ton of wineries at Seneca Lake on our trip, and Shalestone was by far our favorite. We are heavy red drinkers, so it was a nice escape from the rieslings and whites found elsewhere on the lake. We took home more wine from this place than any other, if that says anything.
As far as the staff goes, there were two people working while we were there. We spent most of our time talking to a nice young lady from Texas, who was very friendly and personable. She was great. We briefly talked to the winemaker’s son, the other person working at the time. He seemed a bit standoffish and aloof — I was asking him some questions about the wine and he really didn’t seem interested in answering. Maybe he just didn’t like me, hey, he wouldn’t be the first.
Either way, if you’re a red wine drinker on the finger lakes, you’ve gotta check out Shalestone.

Omg. If you are a red wine fan, come here! It is amazing! They only do reds and their tasting room is open only on Fridays in October. Plan you trip around their hours!

I know why some of the other reviews are poor. Yes, the female owner is snotty. Really, really snotty (that is me being nice). However, we were mostly poured by a younger girl who was more on the friendly side. While they are snooty, their policy of no groups of 8 or more are warranted, the shop/​tasting room simply cannot fit a group that big. They catered to older people and clearly frowned upon us 30 year olds (even though the older guy next to us was wildly drunk).
The reason that the rating is so high is the wine. This is good wine. In terms of just the quality of the wine, it was the hands down the favorite of the group.
I would go again, and do recommend the wine, but do be prepared for the ice queen to be there.

Red lovers only! No whites here. I enjoyed the fuller body that they are able to get out of their locally grown red grapes. Really liked their Cab Franc and Pinot Noir.

Same as the last reviewer, I also brought a group of 8 and had 2^nd thoughts when seeing their sign about groups of 8+ are discouraged. However, it wasn’t too crowded and the owner (Rob) didn’t make a stink about it, so we proceeded to the tasting counter.
Looking back, I wished we were turned away. I think it was no more than 3 minutes into the tasting before Rob starting bashing the west side Seneca Lake wineries and yapping about how they’re not innovative enough. Shortly after that, he made a few remarks that condoned «responsible» drunk driving, which highly offended a member of my group who suffered a family loss due to drunk driving. Instead of apologizing, Rob felt compelled to call my friend «oversensitive» and proceeded to keep running his mouth. We walked out shortly afterwards and have no plans to ever return.

Rob Thomas, the wine maker is unpretentious, smart, and loves wine. Part of the young regenerative group of wine makers that is coming into the Finger Lakes and invigorating it as a wine region. We went to Shalestoen on a recommendation from another winery (Shannon Brock at Silver Thread) and were not disappointed. Rob was funny and charming. What some people call snobbery is really just engagement with his craft. Rob accused us of being pretentious, which we are. Then we laughed about it. Then we bought two wines and he comped us two tastings. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Rob has this thing called a personality. I know it’s rare, but it actually makes life interesting.
The wine trails — Shalestone is on Seneca Lake– function on two levels. On one hand you have the seniors on buses dressed in baggy shorts and black socks looking for sweet Concord grape wines. Then you have the giggling rowdy sorority sisters and fraternity brothers in limos getting drunk, shouting out rap lyrics, looking for sweet Concord grape wines. These are the people who complain about this winery.
This is a real winery. This guy learned to make wine in Burgundy. The wines are fruit forward and balanced, which is hard to do in such a northerly climate. Go buy some wine at Shalestone. This guy is a star.

Quirky little winery with a Hobbit vibe and fabulous reds. The Cab Franc reserve is on par with high end producers in Napa and the laid back staff will remind you a lot of little vineyards in Sonoma.

My girlfriends and I were taking a wine tour to celebrate absolutely nothing and loving life and each other’s company. We walked into Shalestone happy and laughing, excited to try a winery we had never been to. We were not drunk let me assure you as it was only the second winery we had been to. We were standing near the door waiting for our turn as the tasting counter was full, when a man walked over and said to me «this is a serious winery with serious wines and if you are interested in that then we would love to serve you, but if your just going to be a bunch of giggling girls then you should leave.» We left. Although I really wish I had stayed to tell him what a complete asshole he was. I’ve been to wineries in Napa and France among many other regions and never experienced such snobbery. Don’t go to Shalestone.

We absolutely loved these wines. The owner was a touch cocky, but the wine certainly made up for it. The bottles are a bit pricey, but that’s what you pay for GREAT dry red wines. The only carry reds, and it sits on a small hill, overlooking Seneca Lake. There were about 5 to taste, and he had 3 or 4 reserves for sale. Highly recommended if you love dry reds, which isn’t easy to find in upstate.

We love the Beyond Rose, made from Pinot Noir grapes. We had this first at Dano’s and quickly shot over to the winery for a few bottles to take home. Not cheap at $ 17 but delicious.

This was an amazing find during our Labor Day Finger Lakes wine tasting trip. The only winery to do reds-​only, the small producer’s options were all bursting with flavor. Although they were a bit crowded during our visit, it was wonderful see the wine maker behind the tasting bar sharing his thoughts and insight (staff is super friendly and willing to answer all questions; no pretentious attitudes here.)
A favorite: the Lemberghini. Price point is moderate (about $ 13.00 to $ 15.00) and the taste is bold enough to stand up to homemade meat sauce, but can also be enjoyed on its own as a pre-​dinner sip. We stocked up and are already trying to plan a return trip!