Cayuga Lake wineries sit on the longest of the Finger Lakes, and they make the quietest wine day in the region: farm tasting rooms strung along Route 89 between Interlaken and Romulus, a few with their own docks, and one serious Pinot Noir address alone on the east shore. These seven are the cellars we would plan a day around, with what each pours, what the tasting costs and whether you need to book.
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In this article
How we chose these Cayuga Lake wineries
We started from the ten members of the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail and kept the ones that pour mostly their own grape wine, have a tasting format a visitor can understand before arriving, and publish their hours and group rules. That left out the cideries and mead houses for this list, and it left out one small member whose website gives too little to plan on. We added one winery outside the trail, Heart & Hands on the east shore, because skipping it would mean skipping the lake’s most ambitious Pinot Noir.
Every fact below comes from the wineries’ own visitor pages or the trail’s directory. Where a winery does not publish its tasting fee, the box says so instead of guessing. None of these places sells its tastings through a booking platform, so there are no review scores to quote; how we weigh a place without ratings is set out in our editorial methodology.
The west shore: Route 89 from Interlaken to Ovid
Most of the trail lines the west side of the lake, where Route 89 runs a short way inland above the water. The four cellars in this section are a few minutes’ drive apart, which makes them the easiest stretch to taste at an unhurried pace.
1. Lucas Vineyards: Where Cayuga Lake Wine Began
Lucas calls itself Cayuga Lake’s first Finger Lakes winery, and the family-run tasting room still has the feel of a place built for regulars: a gift shop, an open lawn, a dog or two at the bar. You choose three or five wines from the list, which is useful if your group splits between dry whites and the sweeter local styles.
It is the southernmost stop on this list, just outside the village of Interlaken, so it works as the first or last tasting of a day based in Ithaca. Groups of seven or fewer simply walk in. The limit is that it is a casual stop rather than an education: come for a relaxed start, not a deep dive into one grape.
Good to know
Plan your visit on the winery’s site →
2. Sheldrake Point: Lakeside Tastings and a Library Room
Sheldrake Point is the one cellar here where the lake is part of the visit. The winery sits on a point with its own 400-foot beach and eight boat slips, and the bistro, The Vine, serves light food with the estate wines. At the bar you build your own flight of any five wines, so it is easy to compare a dry Riesling with the red blends.
The reason to plan ahead is the Vintage Room, a converted mid-19th-century horse barn where a seated tasting pours older bottles from a library the winery has kept since 1997, with local cheeses. It runs only on Fridays and Saturdays at two set times, adults only. If you want one more considered tasting on the west shore, this is it.
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3. Hosmer Winery: A Guided Five-Wine Tasting
Hosmer is a small farm winery that pours estate-grown wines, and its tasting is a 45-minute session with one of its wine educators rather than a pour at a crowded bar. You pick five wines from the list, which makes it a good place to try the local hybrid Cayuga White next to Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay.
Space is tight, so the winery recommends booking, especially on weekends from August through October. It is relaxed about dogs, which are welcome inside the tasting room on a leash, and it rents a three-bedroom farmhouse steps from the tasting room if you want to stay on the trail itself.
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4. Thirsty Owl: Lunch With a Lake View
Thirsty Owl is the trail’s most social stop, with a seasonal bistro, picnic tables outside and a 14-slip dock at the bottom of the hill. The tasting is simple and cheap: five wines, with part of the fee returned against a bottle. It is the obvious place to stop for lunch in the middle of a west-shore day.
It does not give tours and takes no reservations for small groups, so arrive expecting a lively room on summer weekends rather than a quiet seated session. If you come by boat, call for a ride up from the dock: the winery asks visitors not to walk the steep half mile up.
Good to know
Plan your visit on the winery’s site →
Book it
Rather not drive between tastings?
A private six-hour tour for up to six people, with a local driver and an itinerary you can point at Cayuga Lake. Listed from $559 per group; no reviews yet on Viator.
The north end and the east shore
North of Ovid the trail swings toward Romulus and the top of the lake, where the vineyards flatten out. The east shore has almost no tasting rooms, which is exactly why the one below is worth the drive around.
5. Buttonwood Grove: Classic Grapes and Log Cabins
Buttonwood Grove’s established vineyards are planted to classic European grapes: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot alongside Chardonnay and Riesling, and newer plantings of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. The tasting room has a multi-level deck with lake views, and in summer there is live music on it.
Its other draw is a handful of log cabins on the property, rented from April through November, which turn a tasting into an overnight stay on the trail. The website says little about the tasting format or the fee, so call before you go if timing matters.
Good to know
Plan your visit on the winery’s site →
6. Swedish Hill: One of the Lake’s First Wineries, Under New Owners
Swedish Hill was opened by the Peterson family in 1986, one of the first wineries on Cayuga Lake, and it now belongs to the Martin family, longtime neighbors on the trail. The bar tasting covers six wines plus a featured pour of the month, and the winery also makes hard cider.
Expect a work in progress: the main tasting room is being renovated, and tastings run from a temporary room next door. It is open every day, which makes it the reliable stop on a Monday or Tuesday when smaller cellars close, and its position near Route 414 suits a day that continues to Seneca Lake.
Good to know
Plan your visit on the winery’s site →
7. Heart & Hands: Pinot Noir on the East Shore
Heart & Hands is not on the trail, and it is the cellar on this list we would cross the lake for. The small family winery near Union Springs farms limestone-rich soil and builds its reputation on Pinot Noir, with a series of rare grapes such as Aligoté, Petite Arvine, Pinot Auxerrois and Lagrein that few American producers grow.
The standard visit is a seated, guided flight of five wines; in summer, co-founder Susan Higgins also leads a 90-minute UTV ride through the vineyard with six wines. Hours are short (weekends only for part of the year, closed January to mid-February), so build the day around it rather than squeezing it in.
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The Cayuga Wine Trail: what membership means
The Cayuga Lake Wine Trail calls itself America’s first wine trail and has been running for more than 40 years. Today it has ten members, most of them family-owned, and it publishes a single directory with addresses and wine styles, which is the easiest way to see who is open.
Membership matters in two practical ways. The trail runs its own ticketed events, such as Jingle & Mingle in late November and early December, which bring crowds to the member tasting rooms; those days are fun, but not the time for a quiet seated flight. And for an ordinary visit you still deal with each winery directly, as in the boxes above.
Being off the Cayuga Wine Trail says nothing about quality. Heart & Hands is outside it by choice, and our wider list of Finger Lakes wineries to visit includes other independents around the region.
Planning a day of Cayuga Lake wineries
Three or four tastings is a full day. A west-shore loop of Lucas, Sheldrake Point, Hosmer and Thirsty Owl needs only short drives on Route 89, with lunch at Thirsty Owl or The Vine at Sheldrake Point. Heart & Hands is a separate half day: the drive around the north end of the lake takes long enough that it pairs better with Swedish Hill than with the west shore.
Opening days are the trap. Heart & Hands opens only on weekends outside the summer season and closes in January, and Sheldrake Point closes on Mondays in winter. Check each winery’s page the week you travel. Ithaca, at the south end of the lake, is the natural base, and our Finger Lakes hotels guide covers where to stay around the lakes.
Nobody should drive after four tastings. If you want the day without the car, a private driver tour that can be set to Cayuga Lake is the simplest option, and our guide to Finger Lakes wine tours compares guided days and private drivers across the region.
If you buy bottles on the trip, our guide to shipping wine home to the US explains how to get them home.
Prices are indicative and set by our booking partners and the wineries.
Where this fits in a Finger Lakes trip
Cayuga is the lake for a slower day after the busier tasting rooms of Seneca. If you are planning the wider trip, our Finger Lakes wine country guide explains how the lakes differ and when to go, and the Seneca Lake Wine Trail round-up covers the next lake west. Two nights let you split the Cayuga Lake wineries across two shores and still see the rest of the Finger Lakes, from Taughannock Falls to Watkins Glen.
Book it
Staying around Cayuga Lake for more than a day? A rental car makes both shores easy.
Rent a car from Rochester, then save the tastings for the days someone else is driving.
