This northerly region of 11 narrow glacial lakes might seem at first blush an unlikely wine district, but grapes have always been a primary crop. In 1860, the Pleasant Valley Wine Co. of Hammondsport became the first bonded, or federally licensed, winery in the nation, and by the end of the century, Taylor Wines, Gold Seal, and others were producing a prodigious quantity of New York State Champagne, a sweet, bulk-process sparkling wine made from native grape varieties.
But things have changed. In the late 1950s, vineyards began experimenting with French-American hybrid wine grapes. Walter S. Taylor, scion of the Taylor Wine Co. clan, parted ways with the family business in 1970 and made his Bully Hill Winery the bastion of these winter-hardy, heavy-bearing hybrids. The winery's ''museum" lauds the family's contributions to viticulture and lays out in cranky detail Walter's losing legal battle to put his own name on his winery. ( Coca-Cola owned Taylor Wine Co. then and argued that consumers would be confused by another Taylor winery.) The late founder's feisty mien persists. As visitors taste the Bully Hill wines, they are encouraged to recite a mantra that begins, ''Napa is for auto parts."
By the 1960s, a few pioneers were adopting sophisticated cultivation practices to raise European wine grapes typical of cool climates like Alsace and Champagne. When their experiments literally bore fruit, the winemaking gold rush was on, as entrepreneurs sought the ''next Napa-Sonoma." Today, some 90 wineries carry the Finger Lakes appellation, and most of them are open for tastings and tours. Right now, the wineries are in the thick of the harvest.
''Eight to 10 people harvest all 60 acres by hand," said Dan Mitchell of Fox Run Vineyards. ''They can be more selective than a machine." The vineyard and winery tour at Fox Run is a good introduction to contemporary Finger Lakes winemaking. Mitchell demonstrated the grape trellising system developed at nearby Cornell University, led the group through state-of-the-art crushing and fermenting equipment, and explained the effects of aging in different kinds of oak barrels.
