Another weekend, another bachelorette party for this girl. I’ve been told I’m “at that age” where everyone gets married. And I’m starting to wonder how much longer this particular age will last – there were six wedding invites this season. But, as one of my favorite Facebook groups says, “Everyone is getting married, and I’m getting drunk.”
And so we did this weekend at two fine wineries in the New Paltz area.
My group, of more than a dozen girls and the token awesome gay friend, were picked up in a white stretch escalade limo at the Hampton Inn around noon. And that’s when we all started drinking.
Starting in the limo, there was chocolate wine, moscatto, Yellow Tail white, white zin. And then we arrived at the new Robibero Winery. One of the proprietors of the winery, which just opened in February, served our entire group. She explained how their grapes were actually harvested in Hudson. They had the cutest little puppy prancing around the quaint building.
There were about seven wines (that I remember) with three red, three white, and a dessert. And I enjoyed most of them- which is rare for me since I’m kind of picky. They provided crackers and nuts to cleanse the palate.
There were very comfortable leather couches, which my roommate took a nap on, and there was also a beautiful deck which overlooked some of their grape vines.
The total came to a very reasonable $6.
We then went to the popular Whitecliff Winery which has a beautiful view of a white escarpment. We passed dozens of rows of grapes and could sit right near them in Adirondack chairs as we sampled the wine from our friendly helper Jonathan.
I kind of lost track of how many wines we tried, but I – along with some of my friends – were not very impressed. It could have been that we had heard a lot about the winery and it did not quite live up to expectations. It was still a nice experience and the view was probably worth the $11 charge, for wine and the sample glass.
I was a bit hung over by 5:30 p.m. and dinner was at 6 p.m. at Torches on the Hudson in Newburgh. This was an elegant restaurant and we were sat right near the huge aquarium with many colorful fishes that we ended up naming – things like Sonny and Cher – by the end of dinner.
The prices here were reasonable, the selection was diverse (with anything from lobster to pulled pork sandwiches) and the ambiance was romantic. And I loved the view of the Hudson River.
There was even a wedding party going on not far from our table. I guess it’s “that age” for at least a couple other people too.