Day-Drinking with the Parents: A day on Long Island

Last week my parents and I took a day to head 2 hours out on Long Island to explore their wineries. With my dad as the DD for the day, we were ready to sample some wines, and pig out on our packed picnic of meat, cheese, bread and chips for the day! If you had told me years ago that I'd spend a day day-drinking with my parents...well I wouldn't have believed you. And yet...here we were...

Our first stop was Bedell Cellars Winery, a cute little place. We were hungry when we got there, so we snacked on some cheese and bread in the back of the car (we later realized we should have gone to their nice outdoor patio!)

Bedell's wines tended to be drier than my mom and I like, so we didn't fall in love with any of these wines, but we enjoyed ourselves non-the-less. Plus, we were just getting started. They did have some neat sitting areas overlooking the barrel rooms.

Our next stop was right down the street at Raphael, this was our favorite winery of the day. If you look closely, you can see my mom and dad here:

The entrance was so beautiful, inviting, and very Tuscan. We walked into a gorgeous space with hanging chandeliers which immediately caught our attention. Off of the main room, they had private party spaces and a gift shop.

My mom and I loooved the woman who helped us out...Carol? Cathy? Luann?? Obviously, at this point we had sampled 8 wines, sooo I don't remember what the heck her names was!

We sat out on their back patio for at least 45 minutes eating more of our packed salami, cheese and bread and drinking a bottle of their 2011 White La Tavola! you can certainly see the flushed look of wine-drinking on my cheeks here! (also: why is my dress so SHEER??!)

Our next stop was Duck Walk Vineyards where our good friends, Chris and Corinne, will be getting married next year! I've been to a Duck Walk winery before, but not this one. One of my all-time favorite wines is their boysenberry dessert wine and I couldn't help but buy a bottle before leaving! It's sooooo good!

 Our lady-helper. We each bought two bottles of wine here: Boysenberry, and one of their reds.

Cute Fishy!!

Our last stop of the day was Sparkling Pointe - the place where our friends, Chris and Corinne, got engaged! They serve only sparkling wine, which wasn't really my mom's thing...but I highly enjoyed closing out our day with some bubbly...or champs (pronounced "Shamps"), if you will. I also enjoyed the set-up here, sitting out on the grass directly next to the grape vines! I'm so one with nature! ;)

It was at this point that Mom and I started to get goofy...I mean, this was our 4th winery of the day...

On the way out of town, we stopped at a farmer's market for some fresh produce to make for dinner the next night.

We ate dinner at a place called Dark Horse Restaurant in Riverhead, where I had a lobster roll, my dad got a kobe beef burger and mom ordered stew.

I didn't feel so great the next day..which kinda sucked., but it was worth it for a day of spending time (and drinking) with the Parentals!!