New York’s Finger Lakes region seems preordained for producing great wine. While there are 11 lakes, a few are home to most of the wineries.
New York is a cool climate winegrowing region across the entire state. Different areas are moderated by different bodies of water and weather conditions, but universally, New York is making world-renowned cool climate wines. The Finger Lakes AVA (American Viticultural Area) lies at the very center of the state and the entire wine industry.
Established: 1982
The four main lakes of the Finger Lakes AVA (American Viticultural Area) are Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga. Together they have 10,790 acres under vine of predominately limy glacial till consisting of shale, limestone, and other glacial sediment.
While Keuka is not yet an official AVA, it is, in a seemingly contradictory way, both a storied winemaking area and an up and coming one. Keuka Lake is credited with early grape cultivation and the birth of America’s wine industry in 1860, and today it is home to a number of innovative wineries crafting balanced, vibrant, cool-climate wines.
Each lake’s winegrowing region is unique, with its own history, soil types, and macroclimates. Different lake depths and elevations contribute to the great diversity across a region. While other regions are governed by a single, large body of water, and while the immensity of nearby Lake Ontario helps to create a continental macroclimate for the area, the Finger Lakes have an amazing variety of microclimates that yield an equally amazing range of cool-climate, food-friendly varietal wines.
The individual lakes form a whole that is making waves internationally. Our Rieslings get most of the attention and they are absolutely world-class. But they are only the tip of what we do exceptionally well. We’re surprising people with our Cabs, impressing the world with our sparkling wines, and leading the way with our dry rosés.
Established: 1988
Cayuga Lake was the first individual lake to acquire AVA status in 1988. At 40 miles, Cayuga is the longest of the Finger Lakes and at 382 feet above sea level, the lowest. Its maximum breadth of 4.2 miles and depth of 431 feet moderates the winter climate and also delivers frost protection in early spring and late fall.
But Cayuga’s uniqueness within the Finger Lakes comes from a combination of how the body of water interacts with the terrain on each side of the lake and soil to form a variety of microclimates. On its East, terrain irregularities impact airflow and the moderating effects of the water. On the West, air drainage is not interrupted by variations in the sloping terrain and elevation does not cancel the temperature moderating effect.
Established: 2003
Seneca Lake is the deepest of the Finger Lakes. With a maximum depth of more than 600 feet, this 38-mile-long body of water rarely freezes—the last reported time was in 1912.
Even within the Finger Lakes, Seneca Lake is unique within that region. Its massive body of water and the latent heat it can store alters the local climate to the extent that grapes can be grown that would not otherwise survive the cold winter temperatures of early spring or late autumn frosts. The lower east side of the region is known colloquially as the “Banana Belt” because it is much warmer than the surrounding area.
Combined with the soils and the terrain, Seneca Lake holds a unique global niche for grape production.
The 2024 New York Vineyard Report from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation provides detailed information on bearing acreage, grape varieties by AVA and region, as well as classifications by origin (vinifera, American, hybrid) and color.