Begun in 2006 by co-owners and winemakers Leslie Knipe and Joseph Sheehy, Azure Hill Winery is a small farm winery on Keuka Lake’s west side producing limited-release wines from estate-grown and locally sourced grapes. The business grew from wine made in the couple’s basement cellar into a permanent home and expanded tasting room, where the owners still serve their wines alongside lake and vineyard views. Its vineyards include Riesling, the Georgian red Saperavi, and cold-climate varieties such as Noiret and Zweigelt, with production carried out on site without oak.
Frontenac Point Vineyard & Estate WineryFounded by Jim and Carol Doolittle in 1978 on a former fruit-growing property overlooking Cayuga Lake, Frontenac Point Vineyard & Estate Winery grows its own grapes and makes small-batch Finger Lakes wines. The Doolittles handle the work from planting and hand-picking through winemaking, bottling, and presentation, with son Lawrence continuing the family business as its second generation. Licensed as New York’s farm winery No. 44 in 1982, Frontenac Point is especially distinctive for wines made entirely from grapes grown on its Cayuga Lake estate.TRUMANSBURG, NY
Stever Hill VineyardsStever Hill Vineyards is a fifth-generation family farm and winery on the hills above Keuka Lake, producing about 2,000 cases of Finger Lakes wine each year. The Tones family’s grape-growing story began in 1951, and today brothers Harold, Don, and Jim oversee the operation with vineyard managers Jon and Mike Tones and winery managers Liz and Jay Sprague. Visitors can taste the estate’s dry, semi-dry, and sweet wines in the renovated 1850s Crooked Barn Tasting Room, surrounded by hundreds of acres of grapes.BRANCHPORT, NY
Red Heifer WineryOn a 56-acre Smithsburg hillside that was once the Naylor Peach Orchard, Kevin and Yvonne Ford run Red Heifer Winery, making wine from a vineyard planted in 2010. Owner and winemaker Kevin Ford processes, ages, and bottles every wine on-site, while the family farm’s history—from peaches and apples to dairy and hay—still shapes the winery’s character. Opened in November 2012, the adults-only winery pairs its dry and sweet wines with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains.SMITHSBURG, MD