The good news was that the large comfortable bus that took almost 50 people to visit the Lehigh Valley Wine Region of Pennsylvania was on time. The bad news was that Route 78 in Pennsylvania became closed due to a police investigation. Luckily our guide Andrew used a GPS system and was able to get the bus driver around the closure. Unfortunately, it took well over an hour to accomplish that. Management made a decision to skip one of the three wineries and spend more time at the first stop, including additional wines tasted and a tour of the winery facilities. Almost all the participants bought their tickets through Groupon or Living Social and paid under $100 for the trip. Sourced Adventures told me that one can go to their site and use the code RONK and they will match the $89 price from other sites. Thanks for the compliment! Included were all the wines tasted, a catered lunch by Perfect Picnic (www.perfectpicnic.com) and a cheese and chocolate wine pairing as well as transportation. Many of the participants knew each other and the bus and tastings were quite lively and animated. Andrew was a great leader and kept everything on time. I would offer one suggestion: stay with the two wineries and see if you can add either a craft brewery or craft distillery to the trip.Now in their second year, Sourced Adventures has rapidly made a name for itself in New York's adventure community. Mainly catering to locals, they work to get people out of the city on meaningful and fun escapes for day and weekend trips. While some companies focus on smaller tour size, Sourced Adventure makes it their mission to make their day trips affordable. Their goal is to make the outdoors accessible to people living the urban lifestyle. In the warmer months they run day trips that go rafting, kayaking and do wine tours. Come wintertime, they transition to the slopes and take people on skiing/snowboarding trips to the mountains of upstate New York and Vermont. For more information- http://SourcedAdventures.comThere are nine family-owned wineries nestled in the foothills of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania (a two hour drive from NYC on a good traffic day) that compose the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail. Farmland rich in slate and limestone with a moderate climate make for ideal growing conditions for grapes. The area has both traditional Vinifera grapes (Cabernet, Chardonnay), Native American varieties (Concord, Niagara) as well as Hybrid varieties (Vidal and Chambourcin). The Lehigh Valley was designated an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 2008.www.lehighvalleywinetrail.comwww.discoverlehighvalley.comwww.pennsylvaniawine.comOur first stop was at Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery, established in 1974, where owners John & Jan Landis greeted us and gave everyone a choice of wine style, Dry or sweet. I thought this was a great idea. I chose the sweet wines since I was familiar with most of the dry wine varietals. I chose the Riesling (off-dry), Autumn Gold (Vidal), Niagara (native-American), Chambourcin (French-American hybrid), Summertime Red (sangria-style sweet) and Cherry DiVyne (paired with dark chocolate). Another difference was that there was only a $5 charge for the tasting for non-members of our group. Most of the wineries that I have visited charged as much as $40 a person.What I did notice was our group bought lots of wine to take home on the bus. After the tasting we toured the winery that is housed in a 19th century Swiss bank barn. The tasting room overlooks the 25 acres of vines and we ate our picnic lunch at tables just outside the winery building. Most of their wines are under $15 retail. Total production is around 9,500 cases. www.vynecrest.comWe had time to relax before driving about 15 minutes to our other winery- Weathered Vineyards. Owner/winemaker Richard Woodley is a meteorologist and environmental engineer, hence the winery name. His wife Dana is a nurse by day. Richard brings a scientific mind to the grape growing and wine making process wanting to know how it all works. Richard told us after planting the vines they next built the winery and then their home. Now I understand their priorities.In the spring of 2013 four varieties or 2500 vines were hand planted on three acres at Weathered Vineyards. The four varieties included Cirrus (Cayuga and Riesling hybrid), Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Winter 2013/2014 was very hard on the Sauvignon Blanc and they chose to replace it with a hardier Chardonnay. Total production is around 1,000 cases. www.weatheredvineyards.comNo problems with traffic so we were back in NYC in two hours. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, myself included.
