West Hudson River Valley & Bethel Woods

Since joining theaterextras Phil and I have been seeing a lot off-the-beaten-path concerts and shows. Well, it just so happened that, The Manhattan Transfer, a group he sang with as a young lad, was going to be playing at the Bethel Woods Center about an hour and a half upstate. Well he got 4 tickets to the event and since we were going to be up there anyway, decided it might be fun to get a little taste of the Hudson River Valley Wine scene. Yes, for all of you who weren't aware, not only are there over 30 wineries out on Long Island, there are also over 40 just up the river about the same driving distance away! It is quite scenic, and starts just a little north of Bear Mountain. It makes a great day trip from the city, and we highly recommend it. The trail is not quite as compact as the Long Island scene, but it does make for a scenic drive. On the western shore, the Shawangunk Wine Trail is the main route, and it lists about 10-12 wineries on the trail. In truth though, there are probably 15-20 more wineries in the area that are considered associate members, they just don't get to be listed on the formal trail. That all adds up to plenty to see and taste! The uncorknewyork.com website lists most of them.

Thomas and Chris were the first to sign on, although poor Thomas didn't quite know what he was getting into with the Manhattan Transfer... me thinks they weren't exactly his cup o' tea! Ohwell! We drove up the Hudson and picked up our friend Chris in his hometown of Cornwall, just north of West Point. From there we made our first stop at a local winery his family recommended, the Palaia Vineyards . It turned out, he knew some of the people working there from growing up in the area, so it was very fun and casual. We had a great time tasting almost their entire list, and a lot of it was quite tasty. The tasting room is a large rustic old farm house that has a quaint little stage on the grounds out back that they use for weekend and evening entertainment. It is definitely worth a stop. After our first generous tasting, we decided to drive up to New Paltz for lunch. This is actually a nice little town, and home to one of the larger SUNY schools. This fact has helped keep the downtown fairly vibrant (relatively speaking) with a clear artsy / college-town feel, replete with a colorful variety of shops and restaurants along the main drag through town. We stopped at the Gilded Otter Brew House for a delicious late afternoon lunch before heading out to a few more wineries. The clock was ticking on our day though, so we only had time to squeeze in two more stops before heading out to the concert. The first was the Whitecliff Vineyard. The scenery here was very nice, with some of the rocky cliffs of the Shawangunk Mountains overlooking the grounds of the vineyard. We enjoyed several tastings and found the wines to be pretty good. By the time we wrapped up with Whitecliff, we had about 20 minutes before the area wine tastings would be closing so we raced further down the road heading to get back to route 17. Along the way, we passed the Brimstone Hill Vineyard and pulled in quickly to beat the clock! Compared to places we've been before, this was definitely an anticlimactic way to finish. Yes, the poor Brimstone Hill definitely looked like it may have lived through a little fire and brimstone... barely! The pictures on their website are a little deceiving, and make it look very nice, although I suspect those pictures may have been taken back in the glory days. When we pulled up, we found the paint on the main building was worn and chipping, with the sign so faded by the sun it was hard to read clearly. The vineyards running up to the roadside were overgrown with weeds and empty crates and rusting farm equipment littered the field. A weathered linoleum covered staircase lead you up to the main tasting room which was equally drab. Pale tan/yellow linoleum flooring clung unevenly to the floor, buckling slightly as it met with the wood paneling on the walls. Faded posters of more famous French Wineries clung to the walls desperately, their corner holds failing and slowly rolling over on themselves. At the far corner was the small wood tasting bar, with an older man looking rather forlorn standing behind it. As he flipped over small scuffed tasting glasses, he mentioned he'd picked up in France many years prior, you could get a sense that he longed to have had the chance to work at one of the places he had placed on the walls around us. The wines were average, but we appreciated his efforts, and took a bottle home anyway!

After Brimstone, we high-tailed it out of there and drove the remaining half hour or so to Bethel Woods. We got there just before sunset with plenty of time to spare. The Hudson Valley Philharmonic was set to open the show anyway, so there was no hurry. We attempted to bring in a bottle of wine, and learned that had we hid it in a blanket we could have gotten it in with no problem. As it was, we had it in a camera bag which they promptly searched and politely asked we put back in the car. The grounds of the place are beautiful, and something we definitely recommend for a day trip out of town.

Both halves of the concert were fun, but given the fact that it was Sunday night, we decided after an hour of the MT, it was time to go. Unfortunately, we asked one of the folks directing traffic what the easiest was back to the highway was, and he sent us a little off course... Okay, in truth, he sent us so far out into the wild that there was nary a light to be seen but the stars above. After about 20 minutes of absolute darkness and a seemingly endless winding narrow road through the forest, my passengers started to get a little nervous. I think visions of their scariest horror film memories were creeping into their minds... so a decision was made to open one of the screw top wines, and the nervous ones sipped their way to serenity!

We eventually saw signs of life in the distance, and after what seemed like an hour of uncertainty, we were on 17 headed back to the city... All in all, a fun day indeed!