Swedish Hill Winery

15 percent off your purchase when you purchase a case! They also featured buy two get one free sales as well on select bottles of wine.
This trip I was sure to pick up a bottle of their newest wine the Mooscato. I was surprised to see that the place closes at 5 daily. They really need to move this joint into the middle of town like their sister winery Goose Watch. This place features some of my favorite wines and I could imagine their business doubling just by moving to a more accessible area.
I was sad to see though that they did not have the doobie wine slushies or the cool new shirts they have on their site. You can order the shirts though on their site and the slushies are to come to the Lake Placid store in the future.
The employee’s here are the best too. Couldn’t imagine a more pleasant staff!

Such a sweet wine tasting spot. 5 bucks gets you a taste of 6 wines. We walked out with a bottle of Cayuga white for 10 bucks and plan to open it on thanksgiving. Two free glasses and then follow up at another winery with a $ 2 tasting? steal.

Great variety of wines and great prices! They have a great sparkling dry wine called Natural that we bought as well as the Blue Waters Chardonnay. Very knowledgeable staff as well!

As we were making our way to the Lake Placid Horse Show we drove right by what I like to refer to as a pop up shop, a satellite business in a well traveled, read touristy, area that offers a targeted collection of their products. Swedish Hill Winery is no exception to this increasing practice. They are right in the shadow of the Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex.
The actual winery is actually located in about 250 miles southwest of LP in Romulus NY which is in the Finger Lakes region where owners the Petersons have been crushing grapes since the mid 80s and apparently winning lots of awards since such as the New York Governor’s Cup (we have had so many governors lately…) three times. So when we spied them after a long trip upstate we thought what a great way to relax, do a little tasting, and grab a bottle or two to bring back to our lovely cabin. For later.
For $ 5 we could choose 6 from 14 whites and 7 reds. Since I am not big on whites, except for Pinot Grigio for my risotto and consumption during the stirring of, I thought it was a good opportunity to expand my horizons so I opted in the first round for their Viking White ($ 9 p/​b and a RS of 1.0%), a crisp and clean Pinot Grigio like blend (so much for the best laid plans), a Vidal Blanc Semi Dry ($ 12 p/​b and a RS 2.8%) with hints of citrus and peaches and winner of 7 Gold Medals (like the Michael Phelps of wine I suppose) from ’09 and the wonderfully named Doobie Blues Semi Sweet ($ 10 p/​b and a RS of 5%) which is similar to a sweet Riesling and named in honor of their pet miniature donkey. Gotta love that! Who would not love a little ass? I was surprised that I actually liked the whites as much as I did. I was expecting oaky Chardonnay at every turn and nary a hint of it was to be found. We ended up putting aside a bottle of the Vidal Blanc to take with us.
As for the reds, the first up was a dry Viking Red ($ 9 p/​b), which was my least favorite, which is surprising with its slight black peppery aromas and Shiraz-​like style. I love me some black pepper! Perhaps coming off the sweet whites did not do it any favors. Next was the Doobies Jack Ass Red («The Jackass everyone loves to party with!») which was fruity and sweet with a RS of 7.5%! BY this time, cheap date that I am, I was feeling minimal pain and was in good spirits. Lastly in my tasting round was an homage to many a Pesach dinner, their Country Concord ($ 8.5 p/​b and a RS of of 2%) which was «like Welch’s with a kick!» Take that Alton!
Overall it was a fun experience and great chance to broaden my usually red-​centric proclivities. My husband liked the Vingole Late Harvest, a dessert wine at $ 23 off his tastings card. We polished that off later that night over dessert brought in from a delightful little café located near our lodge. The gentleman who ran our tasting was funny, friendly and knew exactly what he was doing. He helped to make the experience so memorable.
We have managed to also polish off that first bottle of Vidal Blanc back at home with our souvenir glasses recalling our fun hour or so spent at their shop. And we certainly look forward to revisiting them again on our next foray to Lake Placid. :)))
I don’t think I ever knew what he looked like.

Ya know, New York State has nothing on California when it comes to domestic wines. I’m just stating the obvious. Sure, they’ve got a respectable operation going on and it’s fun to check out the wineries and tastings offered if you just so happen to be passing by (no kidding! I «just so happened to be passing by» Swedish Hill when in Lake Placid this past December. What the hell was I doing in Lake Placid? Story for another time). In fact, we were «just passing by» after a tasting at another winery, located on the Lake. Swedish Hill is off the beaten path a bit. Do try and find it, as it was a pretty cool experience.
When I was little, my parents and grandparents bought a wine making kit. Why anyone would even bother if they didn’t have a vineyard, is beyond me. Keep in mind, my grandparents are from Italy and were probably desperate to be getting in on the wine making action. Who knows. I of course tasted their attempts at wine making and I’ll never forget that taste of sweet concord grapes with a little something extra (mmmm fermentation! So delish to a 6 year old).
Not shockingly, I haven’t had concord grape wine again… until my trip to Swedish Hill Winery, in fact! And although my partner in crime almost threw up at the very taste of it, I bought a bottle to take home. No worries, they don’t only have sweet wines. Do a tasting! The guy working there is really nice and we chatted for close to an hour about Lake Placid and domestic wines. And I can’t remember one single detail beyond that, as the tasting is technically supposed to be 8 wines, but he had us try about 11 and gave us a free cup of glüwine «for the road.»
With one for the road, we were out of there, images of barefoot Lucy and Ethel jumping around on grapes (that were probably *not* concord) dancing in my head.