The vintners of New York's Finger Lakes region make wines that stand alongside California's best. And the scenery is likewise first-rate: Road-trippers can taste their way from vineyard to vineyard amid rolling hills, tidy Amish farms, and long vistas of blue water. These glacier-gouged lakes, like the fingers of a splayed hand, extend southward from a 75-mile-long (120-kilometer-long) line reaching roughly from Syracuse in the east to Rochester in the west.

Overview
Like much of central New York, the Finger Lakes region is a pleasing patchwork of rich farmland and small towns, with a mix of handsome 19th-century homes and red-brick downtowns that would have inspired Edward Hopper. Two-lane blacktops follow the lakeshores, sometimes hugging the waterlines, sometimes drifting up into green, pillowy dairylands. Except along Keuka Lake, popular with summer cottagers, farms and forest run right down to the water. On Cayuga and Seneca, the lakefront properties aren't cheek by jowl and you won't see any McMansions. Traffic moves at a slower pace, and you may have to slow down for bikers or a haywagon.

The finest of the area's nearly one hundred wineries nestle along the shores of Cayuga, Seneca, and Keuka Lakes, taking advantage of a microclimate created by the deep water's moderation of winter and summer weather extremes. "No vine likes roller-coaster temperatures," says Dan Mitchell, tasting manager at Fox Run Vineyards on Seneca Lake. Here among the lakes, the vines usually get what they want. You could spend a week or more visiting wineries around the Finger Lakes, zigzagging between shores. But a more straightforward 175-mile loop (280-kilometer) beginning and ending at Ithaca does ample justice to vineyards and views alike, and can be accomplished comfortably in four days. The attractions below lie along a route following the western shores of both Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, then swinging west and south to reach Keuka Lake before returning to Ithaca.

Start in Ithaca
Ithaca, at Cayuga's southern tip, is served by regional airlines and rental car agencies. Home to Cornell University, Ithaca is a small but lively city clinging to steep hills above the lake. Sciencenter (601 First St.; www.sciencenter.org) presents some 200 hands-on exhibits engaging for adults as well as kids. Just north of town, at Taughannock Falls State Park, a 20-minute walk leads through a deep gorge to the 215-foot (66-meter) falls.