Pole G6, Then the Tasting Rooms Around Canandaigua Lake
A tasting day around Canandaigua Lake comes down to logistics: reservation-only rooms, one afternoon, and somebody who has to stay sober. Crush handles all three, and picks the wineries itself.
The tasting rooms on this route sit around the southern end of Canandaigua Lake: one on Seneca Point Road above the water, two in the village of Naples, one out on Route 64. Close enough together to do in a single afternoon. Far enough apart that somebody has to drive the whole loop, and whoever drives does not get to taste.
This tour makes that somebody an employee. A driver-guide picks everyone up from one parking lot, runs the loop, and brings the van back to the same lot at the end of the day.
Everyone meets in the same parking lot off Route 96 in Farmington, and the van returns to it. The inclusions mention hotel pick-up on request, but this booking is set to meet everyone at the start point and takes no pick-up address, so plan on the lot. Nothing goes through for fewer than two people.
Canandaigua Wine Trail ExperienceFive to six hours around Canandaigua Lake with an English-speaking driver-guide, tasting fees at four wineries included, and the winery reservations made for you. Twenty-one and over.www.viator.comYou Do Not Get to Pick the Wineries
The booking page says specific wineries are subject to change, and the operator says the same thing in its own words: it works with five rooms around the lake, takes you to four of them, and chooses by what is available that day.
The five, as the operator lists them. Heron Hill's room on Seneca Point Road, which the operator calls the sister location of its Keuka winery and describes as a renovated century barn looking out over the Ingle vineyard. Inspire Moore in Naples, where Tim and Dianne Moore make the wine on site. Hazlitt Red Cat Cellars, in what the operator says used to be the Widmer winery. Arbor Hill Grapery on Route 64, owned by the Brahm family. And Casa Larga.
Most of those rooms take reservations only, and the operator books them for you. That is a large part of what the day actually buys you.
You can put names forward. You cannot choose, unless you book six or more seats and the van is private, in which case the operator takes your list and confirms or rejects each room.
Who Else Is in the Van
Book two to five seats and you ride a public departure alongside other people; book six or more and the van is yours. The operator draws the line exactly there.
Two is the floor for any booking. A single booking can hold twelve, and the operator puts its own group size at two to twelve. The vehicles are fourteen-seat touring vans and seven-seat minivans.
Everyone on board has to be twenty-one or over, with photo ID.
The booking page's accessibility boxes do not match the operator. The page ticks suitable for all physical fitness levels, and carries a line about infants and small children riding in a pram or stroller that cannot sit with a twenty-one and over minimum. The operator's own answer is shorter: it is not wheelchair accessible, and you should expect to step up into a fourteen-seat van.
The Lunch Option Decides When You Leave
There are two versions of this day and the only difference is lunch. The one with lunch leaves earlier and adds a sit-down stop. The one without runs straight through on tastings.
Skip the lunch option and there is no lunch. The operator says it does not build in time to stop. At some rooms you may be able to order food ahead and collect it after the tasting, and if you are still eating when the van goes, you finish it on board.
The lunch stop itself has moved. The operator's own tour page now puts it at Nolan's on Canandaigua Lake, with a glass of wine, and names Roots Cafe in Naples as the stand-in when Nolan's cannot take the group. The booking page is behind on this and prints a different Canandaigua restaurant in one of its lines. Go by the operator's page.
The clocks disagree too. The booking page lists the two departures at roughly 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and has them finishing at 4:45 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The operator's own page says 10:45 a.m. and 11:45 a.m., with both versions back in the lot at 5:30 p.m. Budget for the later finish.
Snacks and soft drinks can ride along. Alcohol cannot be opened in the van.
What Is Not in the Price
Tips are not included, and there are two of them. The operator says the price covers neither the driver's gratuity nor the one for whoever pours at each tasting room. Take the lunch option and the tip for the lunch server is already in.
Anything you eat or drink beyond the tastings is on you.
Booking closes two days out. Confirmation is immediate, and the ticket works on a phone or on paper.
This booking is final. There are no refunds, for any reason. The listing also flags that the operator can call off a departure for weather or for too few travellers.
Booked direct with the operator the money is non-refundable as well, but it turns into a credit good for a year, with a rebooking fee if you pull out inside two weeks.
📍 The meeting point is the parking lot at 5857 NY-96 in Farmington. In off Route 96, down the long narrow driveway, and right when the lot opens out: the van waits by Pole G6.
The operator's busy stretch runs April through October.
You finish in the lot you started in, which is the whole point of the arrangement. Nobody has to count their pours against the drive home.