Lakewood Vineyards — Attraction in Town of Reading

Lakewood was our favorite Seneca Lake stop this visit. It's in close proximity to Watkins Glen, and I would encourage you to stop in and pay them a visit. This is a third generation winery with some great history. Jordyn who took care of us (part of the family) is super knowledgeable, charming and wise beyond her years. She provided great insight and guided us to some fantastic wines.

Lakewood has a nice view of the lake from both inside and out. The vineyard is just off the deck as well. We were able to take advantage of an outdoor tasting. They added permanent heaters which is a nice touch. The price for tastings are reasonable, for what the area is charging. They do provide you with a wooden token, that you can use as a discount off a couple bottles of wine. Hardly anyone does that anymore and we appreciated as it's a nice touch.

UPDATE: We visited again (Aug 2023) and Lakewood remains our favorite winery in the region. Great family run location with knowledgeable staff, relaxed atmosphere and some great views. They did allow us to take the trail down to the gazebo with a glass of wine, which was an added bonus this trip. Catherine made our experience even better!

UPDATE: We hit a couple duds and had to stop somewhere that we know is consistently good. So we came back again. The staff was great (same as past visits). The $5 for samples with a token for $3 off a purchase of (2) or more bottles is great too. We would have bought bottles regardless. Especially their dry whites are amazing. Their Long Stem White is a great drinkable wine for anyone. Lakewood's Bubbly Candeo is delicious as well. You can even purchase in mini-split...

Visit: August 2020

[COVID-19 lower capacity] One of the few wineries in the area that took wine tasting reservations for a large party of 8. You have to enter the building to check-in, buy wine and cheese/small bites, but you can easily avoid that by having just 1 person in your party inside to pay. The first thing you see when you enter is HAND SANITIZER, which almost each guest used ✌🏻. Restrooms were also very clean and soap smelled so nice.

[GUESTS] Everyone was wearing a mask in the store, on the deck (except when tasting the wine). Everyone seemed respectful of the face mask NY state mandate.

[OUTDOOR] There were 4 picnic tables with umbrellas. The outdoor area also had 2-3 benches (fits 2 people) but not shaded.

[TASTING] Once your group is called for the tasting, you are seated on the deck. They take 4 parties at a time with 2 staff leading the tasting experience (1 staff per 2 groups). Flight A is a bit dry while Flight B is all sweet. Price is very reasonable and counts towards wine bottles purchase! Very nice compared to Napa Valley. As someone who prefers medium body reds like Malbec and Merlot but also semi-dry Riesling and a nice sweet wine, Flight B was ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️. I’ve never been to a winery where I liked all the wines I tasted (including Stellenbosch South Africa, Napa Valley, Barcelona, Long Island NYC, Virginia Wine County, Connecticut...)

[FOOD] Light bites from locally sourced venues, including Muranda Cheese. BYO food &...

Unfortunately this wasn't our favorite winery in the area for a couple of reasons. The seating layout wasn't ideal because there wasn't much space to enjoy a glass of wine, besides for two small couches inside and a few metal tables outside. The wine tasting counters seemed fine. Other than that, the main issue we had was with our dog. She's very well behaved and chill overall, but unfortunately, the premises had two dogs running around free and one kept coming up to our girl. We usually don't mind our dog socializing, but it wasn't clear if she had to be leashed at all times or could be unleashed. This made relaxing quite difficult, because it's not ideal to try and drink wine while you have another dog wanting to play with yours. We tried walking outside to get her away from the other dog, but he kept following and barking at her, making it difficult to enjoy the premises. When we asked if our dog could be unleashed as well, they made it sound like that was possible, but if anything at all happened it would be our dog's fault. Considering that our dog wasn't the one barking or going towards the other dog, we didn't feel safe doing so. We understand that the owner's dogs take precedence and as dog owners, we love seeing pups enjoying their best lives, but it just didn't make it an enjoyable experience for us as guests, as we were constantly worried about our dog activity. She typically can just lay near us and relax and this wasn't...