Who says you cant have a meet in the winter??

What winter beater? This car loves the snow.

Winter for us in Upstate New York and the North-East is a time when the S is typically hibernating in a nice warm garage with tires inflated and a full cosmetic wash and wax. A time when most of us spend more time on the forum complaining about old man winter and long for the arrival of spring. Now that Punxsutawney Phil (the adorable groundhog) climbed out of his hole and saw his shadow, we are condemned to endure a longer winter. Nonetheless the attitutde of some of our Upstater’s seems to have been “Kill Phil“ and lets go on a drive.

Following in the tradition of our B&B (Breakfast & Beer) meets, our fearless leader Triple-H came up with the idea of the first ever V&V (Vittles & Vino). Just like our Breakfast & Beer meets include gathering early for breakfast and then a spirited group drive on local roads to several micro breweries to indulge in tasting beer, this meet was set-up to include breakfast and then a drive in our winter-beaters to some of the finest vineyards in Upstate’s Finger Lakes area. This would give participants an opportunity to break the winter blues by meeting up with fellow enthusiasts, and have fun in a winter beater driving the awesome roads in the Finger Lakes area. The wine tasting at the source, an added bonus and the perfect excuse to get your significant other to go as well .

The meet was planned by Triple-H & EricN who pre-drove the route to ensure that all destinations could be covered in a day of driving. This also involved making sure that the rendezvous point for the morning served the best breakfast as a hungry group would not be able to make it through the day.

drool....great excuse to go on a drive

Per Triple-H’s pre-drive note “LUNCH NOTE: Nothing is planned so eat a big breakfast and/or bring yourself a snack. The options for lunch are very limited and I do not want to plan on some fancy long winded lunch at one of the wineries. If we all decide we are hungry and are done vineyard hoping, I’ll direct the group up to Canandaigua and we can eat at the MacGregor’s there.”

Definitely not Breakfast at Tiffany's, only better 🙂

The day began as early as 6:00 AM for some that drove the furthest to ensure they got to the fine Chat-A-Whyle Restaurant in Bath, NY. The group gathered here for some delicious breakfast as you can see and caught up with each other before embarking on their 150 plus miles drive to the vineyards.

The vineyards visted by this group were:
– Chateau Renaissance Wine Cellars
– Bully Hill Vineyards
– Keuka Lake Vineyards
– Heron Hill Vineyards
– Hunt Country Vineyards

Say (wine and) cheese!!

A great time was had by all and as is evident by the comments on the thread, wallets were emptied and trunks were packed with fine wine as mementoes of this trip. The meet achieved its goals of getting people out in the midst of winter to have fun and revitalized the community during what is typically an “off-season”. In the words of some of the paticipants:

“The whole day was the best part, getting out of the house, seeing friends and catching up with them, seeing the wives and girlfriends all come out to partake and enjoy the day, enjoying a good breakfast, tasting fine wines, learning new things about wine, stopping into the new brewery, playing on the roads, enjoying beautiful scenery, pumping some cash into the local community during their slow season, coming home with some incredible wines and a couple growlers, and sitting down at the end of the day to a very special drink, feasting on the satisfaction that I had created and pulled together yet another Upstate event that was enjoyed by all.”

“Best part for me? The whole thing! Had a great breakfast, it was great to see everyone again, and I came home with some top-notch wines (and a decidedly empty wallet)”

Group huddle at Keuka Lake Vineyards

Seeing that we are in the habit of labeling drives as BnB’s and VnV’s I wonder if our next drive will be a KnK (Kebabs & Karting). I guess anything goes so long as it’s not an M&M (murder & mayhem)

Images courtesy of S2ki member Diskoe

NOTE: S2KI welcomes the opinions of its members on the S2000 and on all topics related to the S. Should you feel the creative urge to pen a few words then by all means do so and PM Energetic, Aashish2 or Onehots2k OR send us links to what you would like us to write about and we will feature you (or your community) on the S2KI Home Page.