Forge Cellars

Forge Cellars was founded in 2011 on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes, a partnership between Rick Rainey, Justin Boyette and Louis Barruol, the Rhône producer behind Château de Saint Cosme in Gigondas.

The Finger Lakes are a genuinely unusual place to grow vines. They lie in upstate New York at the same latitude as central France, and the winters are severe enough to kill vines outright; what makes viticulture possible is the lakes themselves, which are deep enough not to freeze and which radiate stored warmth through autumn and moderate the spring. Vineyards cling to the slopes immediately above the water.

Riesling is the region's great grape and is made here in a dry, mineral style closer to the Mosel or Alsace than to anything else in America. Forge work parcel by parcel with native yeasts and minimal intervention, and are widely regarded as among the finest producers in the eastern United States.