Goose Watch Winery

One more stop during our tour of wineries in the Finger Lakes region of New York, along Cayuga Lake. Goose Watch is located just south of Knapp Winery, and right on the hill overlooking the lake.
Goose Watch Winery began production in 1997 thanks to the same family that owns the nearby Swedish Hill Winery. Nestled within one of the region’s only commercial chestnut groves, Goose Watch has 21 acres of land dedicated to vineyards of six different grape varieties. With an emphasis on the unusual, winemakers have succeeded in developing a selection of wine that is uncommonly found in the Finger Lakes, such as Viognier, Pinot Grigio, Traminette, Melody, Diamond, and Lemberger.
Goose Watch’s tasting room is in a beautifully restored century-​old barn that holds a large variety of unique and exclusive wines in addition to their sparkling wines, port, sherry, and ice wines. Goose Watch produces a large range of flavors varying from the popular whites such as Viognier, Riesling-​Gewürztraminer, and Traminette to red blends of Lemberger, Chambourcin and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Like other wineries in the region, you can sample a variety of their wines by selecting your ‘tastes’ from their menu. If you decide to buy a bottle or two of their wine, then you’ll receive a generous discount. What I enjoyed the most about this winery was the ability to sit out on their deck with a glass of wine, and enjoy the scenic beauty of Cayuga Lake while surrounded by vineyards, nut trees, and gardens.
We tried a new wine called Aromella which was developed by Cornell University at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. This wine boasts the flavors of a Moscato but is a semi-​dry white wine. We also liked their semi-​sweet Diamond white wine, a really fabulous Merlot Reserve, and an award-​winning Pinot Noir Brut Rose’.
This is a great winery to bring a picnic lunch, and sit out on one of their picnic tables while enjoying your wine.

I came here as a stop on the Annual Herb and Wine festival on the Cayuga Wine Trail with a group of 8 + 2 designated drivers.
This was one of my favorites out of the 8 wineries we visited on the trail. We were led to the upstairs area where they gave us 4 samples. The Renaissance Red + 3 for you to choose from. The people here were very friendly and I enjoyed all of the wines that I tasted. My friends and I ended up buying two bottles of Snow Goose (a peachy pineapple-​y white wine, that won a few awards. and it was on sale for 2 for $ 20) and the Red Fox (a sweet Red, ~$ 11 – 12). I enjoyed all the ones I sampled — I believe I had the Melody (Riesling?) one as well.
There’s a very pretty outdoor patio in the back that has a nice view of the lake.
The décor of the upstairs area wasn’t as nice as some of the other wineries we visited, but it also wasn’t the worst. I’d love a nicer atmosphere indoors where you’re drinking (mainly upstairs area). I just don’t remember it being anything special.

I found Goose Watch to be very meh. The wines were nothing to write home about– nothing was distinct or memorable, really. I had been excited to try their Diamond, but found it pretty plain.
Service was also terrible. Granted, we were there on Memorial Day, but they did not have enough staff on hand to serve everyone efficiently.
There are many other wineries I’d recommend in the area over this one.

I recently attended a chestnut festival at Goose Watch after seeing an add on the Cayuga Wine Trail website. I have to say my partner and I were let down. I envisioned a wonderful world of Chestnuts. It’s fair to say our expectations were most likely too high. A wonderful world of chestnuts? Perhaps not.
Having explored other wineries on nearby Seneca and Keuka Lake’s I’d say Goose Watch’s wines aren’t our favorites, and yet, they’re also not bad. Try them for yourself and see if you’re like them.
Their views are spectacular and parking is easy for the wine bus tour crowds.

Great views from their porch. I’m not a big fan of their wine.

My wife and I visited goose watch and loved there dry reds if you love dry reds head to goose watch one of if not the best dry reds on cayuga, great view of the lake from they’re front porch and our pourer was very friendly and fun loving had a great attitude

The folks at Swedish Hill called Goose Watch one of their «sister» wineries, and indeed, I felt just like I had walked into an extension, with the same atmosphere, friendliness, variety of wine, etc… but no Doobie. You need a Doobie, though I suppose some sort of goose would be more appropriate, yes?
As with the other wineries I visited around Cayuga Lake, I tend to focus on the wines which are unique to the wineries. I already knew I would find great Riesling and Gewürztraminer here. Unique and appealing here to me included their Diamond white, and their pink and red Moscato — it was just as refreshing finding non-​mass-​produced Moscato as sampling the wines.
And of course, the view is great, too.

I visited this place on Tuesday late afternoon. Property was beautiful, nice tasting room has a great view. I liked it. I was excited to try their wines.
Wine was decent but unfortunately my experience was bad because of the attitude of the person who works in the tasting room. She wasn’t hospitable at all. What we felt was ‘Just taste fast and get out’. I felt she really hated her job and looking down on us. Not only me, my husband and friends felt same way.
Winery itself is really nice, I thought wines were kinda good and I could walk away with more wine since I came up here to bring few cases of wine back home. But she showed just horrible attitude, didn’t want to spend much money there. And that was one of the worst wine tasting experienced I’ve ever had in finger-​lake region with in the last 3 years.

Goose Watch was a nice winery. Key points are:
1. They have a dock that you can just drive up to with your boat and then they will come pick you up with a 4wheeler vehicle.
2. All the people were very friendly
3. There was a back porch that you could look out over the grape vines and lake which was beautiful.
Have been twice already and would definitely go back again for tastings and purchasing wine.

The wines here are quite nice, with the highlight being the Goose Watch cream sherry. It’s so affordable and it really has a rich flavor with a creamy finish that doesn’t get stuck in the back of your throat at the end. We’ve been buying this sherry for a few years, and found it the best on cold winter nights when you don’t want to end the night with something as strong as whiskey. It will warm you up! The winery itself isn’t anything that special apart from the nice deck with the great view of the lake. It’s a popular one, often swamped by those infamous tour buses during peak season weekends.

Another busy spot — this winery is part of the Swedish Hill and Penguin Bay family and has the best wine of the three locations, IMHO. We were thinking about leaving the tasting room after not being acknowledged for nearly 15 minutes after arriving (plus the A/​C was broken inside and it was 89 degrees with unusual high humidity, for the Finger Lakes, outside). I’m glad we stayed because the wines were great, and well-​priced.
This is the only Finger Lakes winery I’m aware of that has two Virginia favorites: Viognier and Chambourcin. The former is understandable, as that varietal doesn’t fare too well in soil and climate north of Maryland. The latter is unusual as Chambourcin is a hybrid created at nearby Cornell University… maybe other Finger Lakes wineries will get on board with the easy-​to-​drink «red wine for white wine fans» Chambourcin.
The other favorite was the Pinot Grigio, dry and crisp with a hint of pineapple. Nice view of the Cayuga Lake from the grounds — lots of room to spread your wings on their property.

Ok I really only stopped this time to use the facilities but I’m legit! I really recommend going to their chestnut festival. If you have never had chestnuts; or like me only the kind your Italian family labors over. Go to this event, the last time I was there among many options there was: chestnut soup, chestnut ice cream, chestnut muffins etc.

Ok wine and not so nice help.

Nice small wine tasting area. Guy who helped us was very nice. The porch and view of lake is pretty awesome.

By far one of my favorite wineries on the cayuga wine trail! I usually buy a mix case from them ~ especially the bartlett pear, spumante champagne and strawberry splendor plus a couple of others too. They have a great varietal collection. And the best part is that you can pretty much sample them all~unlike napa valley where you could only sample a couple for $ 15-​$ 20.
Yes it can get rowdy here and you do have lots of college students there during the weekends especially~ that also comes in consideration that most have been drinking on the trail up =P…i’ve gone a good amount of times with friends
Though the views are not as amazing as Napa Valley… this is as good as it gets on the East coast =) drink up! You won’t be disappointed and it’s quieter during the week days of course.

Do you hate fun? If you do, then you may like Goose Watch.
Let me start with the positive. Overall, the wines are quite good! They have a wide range of options and do a great job experimenting with hybrid varietals from Cornell University. The prices are also in line with the other Finger Lakes wineries, so it’s not a rip off.
However, if you are going on a wine tour, Goose Watch is not worth your time. Despite the picturesque location, the attendants in the tasting room are not helpful and look down on guests. Without any justification, they always assume that guests are reckless, drunk and don’t care about wine. I understand the risks of owning a winery (especially one that gets lots of visits from Ithaca colleges), but this overly cautious attitude should not be extended to all guests. I had the same service and attitude on a Cornell wine tour as I did when visiting with my mom and dad!