The Three Brothers Wineries and Estates are located at 623 Lerch Rd Geneva, NY.  It is just a short distance off of NY Rte 96A South at the north end of Seneca Lake.  This winery is a collection of three distinctly different wineries (Passion Feet, Stony Lonesome and Bagg Dare) and a brewery (War Horse).  We arrived at the property just a day after the conclusion of Winestock, a wine and music festival that had run through the weekend.  Three Brothers was the only winery that we visited twice and is a perfect example of the saying “What a difference a day makes”.  The first day we visited we were served in the tasting room of the Stony Lonesome Winery by a very well versed young man named Alex.  Alex poured our selections and recited the characteristics of each flawlessly and with a friendly ease.  That day we would purchase two Riesling:  Degree 1 Medium Dry 2010 and Degree 2 Medium Sweet 2010 along with a wine that I was unfamiliar with Estate  Reserve Grüner Veltliner 2011.  I could have easily have picked up their Barbera, the first to be produced in the Finger Lakes but the promise of the wines in my near future caused me to pass on it.  The next afternoon we decided to return to Three Brothers to pick up a bottle of their Pinot Noir and that Barbera that I had passed on the day before.  We entered the Stony Lonesome tasting room and stood around until we were finally approached by a small young woman.  We asked her several questions about their Pinot Noir and other red wines which she struggled to answer with her limited knowledge of the products.  Since the Pinot was to be a gift I asked if she could do me a favor and photo copy the wine list and its tasting notes.  She went into the other room only to return and say no and that it could be found on the website (I looked but couldn’t find it there).  I bought the 2009 Pinot Noir and forgot about the Barbera.

     The wines at Three Brothers Wineries and Estates were probably the best I tasted on this trip but the tasting room experience was surly the most sub-standard that I encountered.  The management of this business has to remember that making good wine is important but there is much more to a brand than just that.