Valois vintner takes pretentiousness out of tasting room

Bagley's Poplar Ridge Vineyards in Valois bears a sign that reads "Wine without Bull." His wine tasting sheet explains that this has nothing to do with Bully Hill Vineyards, although he has fond memories of working there years ago.

JEFF RICHARDS/ Star-Gazette Dave Bagley samples some of his Bagley's Brut sparkling wine at his Poplar Ridge Winery in Valois

It has more to do with the pretentiousness and snobbery that can pervade the wine business. The atmosphere at Poplar Ridge is very casual. There is something down-home comfortable about having two chocolate Labs hanging out with you in the tasting room.

Dave, winemaker and owner, is also an accomplished woodworker. He and his brother, George, made a 30-foot-long bar in 1993 with redwood tanks they purchased from Taylor Wine Co. Both sides of the bar are trimmed with walnut wood found on the farm property. Biscuit joints were used to secure the redwood boards, glued side-by-side the whole length of the bar. Because of its winding shape, the bar is sometimes referred to as the yellow brick road.

Wildlife is another big part of Dave's life. He has contracted with local artist Norman Wells to create several wildlife designs for his wine bottles. Dave has eliminated the frustration of the labeler gumming up and not neatly affixing paper labels to his wine bottles. The wildlife drawings are incorporated into the designs he has silk-screened onto the wine bottles. The images that adorn the bottles range from a bear, used on the Cayuga wine, to various types of birds and flowers on others.

On the wall behind the tasting bar are antler racks adorned with medals from wine competitions. I somehow got the feeling that Dave does not take the medals too seriously. In fact, the cigar sticking out of the mouth of the mounted deer head leads me to believe that he feels most other people must be taking themselves too seriously. That little bit of rebel, little bit of "this is who I am," is woven into the fabric of the place.

Though he has not entered wine competitions in recent years, that does not mean that Dave is not passionate about making wine. I enjoyed the 2000 Cayuga white. It had good fruit flavor and citrus tones. So did his 2001 Vidal Blanc. The 2001 Ravat 51 was a very smooth-tasting, semi-sweet wine with hints of apricot.

Even though his sparkling wine is made in the Methode Champenoise, that is, following the method used in the Champagne district of France, Dave refers to his simply as Bagley's Brut. And he sells a lot of it by the glass, in a very long-stemmed flute that really shows off the constant stream of bubbles rising to the top.

The brut is made from Chardonnay and Riesling grapes. It is semi-dry with a slightly creamy taste and clean finish. It is just the right kind of wine to have while relaxing on the back deck in one of several rockers, watching the afternoon unfold above Seneca Lake.

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