Izzo's White Barn Winery

About Izzo's White Barn Winery

Izzo's White Barn Winery sits 500 feet off historic U.S. Route 20 at the northern end of Cayuga Lake, between Auburn and Seneca Falls. John and Lorraine Izzo opened it in 2009 on a 14-acre property with petite vineyards and two ponds, one of them named Lake Lorraine, and the century-old barn that gives the place its name has been restored into the tasting room and celebration space. It is a deliberately small, family-run farm winery built around small-group tastings rather than a bus-tour bar.

The list mixes classic Finger Lakes vinifera with cold-hardy hybrids from the Cornell and University of Minnesota breeding programs, which makes it a useful primer on what grows at this end of the lake. Chardonnay is made unoaked in a Chablis idiom, the Riesling is dry with a clean finish, and an oak-balanced Cabernet Franc anchors the reds. The hybrids are the more distinctive pours: aromatic Aromella pitched at Gewürztraminer fans, an apricot-scented estate-grown La Crescent, apple-and-pear Cayuga White, and among the reds Marquette, a dark and peppery Noiret, light-bodied Corot Noir and a black-cherry Marechal Foch. A semi-sweet Catawba blush and a dried-fruit dessert blend round things out, and the house "Finger Lakes Sampler" tasting walks newcomers through the regional spread.

The tasting room keeps weekend hours and the family appreciates a call ahead; expect the owners to pour and talk you through the wines themselves. Patio seating lets you carry a glass out toward the ponds, with local beer on tap and snacks available. The barn doubles as an intimate wedding and event venue for up to 104 guests, and each winter it fills with locally grown Christmas trees for the winery's annual charity sale. It is a relaxed, unhurried stop rather than an all-day destination.