Toast Classic with Finger Lakes wine

Finger Lakes wines help celebrate the day at the LPGA.

Two wineries, Pleasant Valley Wine Company of Hammondsport and Glenora Wine Cellars of Dundee, will be at the tournament, offering wines for sale by the glass.

"This is the 25th year of the tournament and they are recognizing that they are in the middle of wine country," says Gene Pierce, president of Glenora. "It is really great for both of us. It provides a uniqueness for the tournament and visibility for wine country."

Glenora is providing four wine varieties, including three white wines and one red wine. They are Riesling, pinot blanc, Cayuga and merlot.

Pleasant Valley is providing a different variety of wines, including a sparkling one. They will be offering Great Western Chardonnay Champagne, Autumn Frost Peach Chardonnay, Pleasant Valley Rose of Isabella and Pleasant Valley Dry Red.

"We've been a longtime supporter of the LPGA," says Mike Doyle, owner of Pleasant Valley. The winery has provided wines for dinners and gift baskets during tournaments in past years.

Doyle calls the tournament "a great community effort," referring to the number of volunteers who pitch in to make the tournament a success. The proceeds from the tournament benefit area hospitals.

These wineries have other happenings going on during LPGA week. At Knapp Winery (sister winery to Glenora) in Romulus, there is a special tasting tonight to introduce its new wine, Serenity.

It is a non-vintage blend of cabernet franc, rougheon and baco noir. Two peaceful looking swans adorn the label. The media promotion even provided a feather in the letter. The wine will be available to the public on June 6. Mike has been busy expanding the retail market for his Pleasant Valley wines. Seneca Harbor Wine Center in Watkins Glen, is open weekends now and will go to a weeklong schedule for the summer.

Mike and his staff have also been busy just north of Hector on the east side of Seneca Lake. They are completing the conversion of a bed-and- breakfast into another winetasting center.

Overlooking more than 140 acres of chardonnay and Riesling vines, Caywood Vineyards provides an "absolutely smashing view of the lake," Mike says. I visited with him there last week, and even on a cloudy day the sight was breathtaking.

The converted bed-and- breakfast was originally an old barn and packing house. Mike and his crew used some of the huge redwood tanks and oak barrels from Pleasant Valley for the woodwork in the winetasting rooms.

Seneca Harbor Wine Center and Caywood Vineyards each have a different story to tell related to the wine country economy: one manufacturing, the other agricultural.

Try some Pleasant Valley or Glenora wines at the LPGA Corning Classic this week. The tent is between the fourth tee and fifth green.

Jeff Richards' wine column appears each Thursday on the Twin Tiers Life Food Page. For comments or questions, he can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail thewineguy