Heron Hill Winery

Heron Hill winery was founded by a couple of ex-hippies who came to the Finger Lakes to get back to the earth. John and Josephine Ingle met in college, fell in love, and eventually married. When they moved into the Lakes region they lived in cabin complete with wood stove. Without doubt, a hippie heaven for the early ‘70’s. While helping their neighbors harvesting grapes they became interested in grape farming for themselves. Unlike many of their neighbors, who were planting native or hybrid varietals, the Ingles decided to plant vinifera grapes in 1972. After the requisite four years necessary for grape vines to mature they picked their first harvest only be run smack into the middle of the mid-seventies collapse of the New York grape market. Finding insufficient interest in their crop they built the Heron Hill Winery on Keuka Lake , next door to Dr. Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars and Walter Taylor’s Bully Hill Winery.

The winery operates two main vineyards. The Ingle vineyard, on the west side of Canandaigua Lake is primarily operated by founder John Ingle. It is the vineyard responsible for their contribution to the top ten wines. Their other vineyard is at the winery facilities on Keuka Lake.

Their winemaker, Thomas Laszlo, joined the winery in 2002 after many years in the business in his native Hungary and a stint in Canada . His experiences gave him a significant knowledge of growing grapes in cooler climates. Thomas has a real passion for Rieslings and it has sown in the quality of the varital the vineyard has produced since he joined. Ratings of their wines, in major wine publications have been steadly improving. Awards from national and international organizations have also increased.

The winery itself it one of the more interesting buildings in the Finger Lakes region. It is a combination of Greek revival, Spanish mission,, Dutch Reformed church, and Upstate New York barn. It was designed by New York City architect Charles Warren. It is a truly beautiful building that echoes the contours and character of the land it is on.