Frontenac Point Vineyard & Estate Winery

About Frontenac Point Vineyard & Estate Winery

Frontenac Point Vineyard sits on the west shore of Cayuga Lake along Route 89, three miles north of Taughannock Falls and about ten north of Ithaca, on ground with a long history of fruit growing. Jim and Carol Doolittle bought it in 1978 and planted three acres of Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Noir. Jim had helped push New York's Farm Winery Bill through in 1976 while working for the state agriculture department; four years later the estate took Farm Winery license #44. Their son Lawrence returned from Los Angeles in 2014 and now runs it as the second generation.

What sets the estate apart is its ease with hybrids. Alongside the vinifera, the Doolittles planted Marechal Foch, Chambourcin, Seyval Blanc and Vignoles, and Jim uses them deliberately, adding a little Chambourcin to a Pinot Noir for color and body and folding Foch and Chelois into the Proprietor's Reserve. The whites run dry and unfussy: a bone-dry Riesling Reserve in an Alsatian mold, an unoaked Chardonnay, a crisp lime-inflected Seyval. The reds are patient. Pinot Noir spends three and a half years in neutral oak, and the Chambourcin is fermented by carbonic maceration, which the winery notes makes it quite unlike most Chambourcin.

Tastings come two ways: five one-ounce pours in a single glass, with local artisan bread in between, or a four-glass flight for side-by-side comparison, with cheese and charcuterie for sale. Wine by the glass goes out to the covered deck above the vineyard, where dogs are welcome and the view runs down the lake. Small groups can walk in; parties over six should call ahead. This is a two-person operation with a short season, so check before making the drive.