The Finger Lakes

Glaciers gouged eleven long narrow lakes into the hills of upstate New York, and the deep water moderates the climate enough that vines survive winters that would otherwise kill them. The result is the most convincing cool-climate wine region in the country, built above all on Riesling, which ripens here with the acidity that the grape needs and which the warmer American regions cannot give it; Cabernet Franc and sparkling wines follow. Wine trails run down both sides of Seneca and Cayuga, the two largest lakes. At the southern end, Watkins Glen has a gorge trail that climbs past nineteen waterfalls through a slot of layered shale, walking under and behind the water on stone stairs cut a century ago.

What you actually see

• Riesling on the wine trails - cellar doors down both shores of Seneca and Cayuga.
• Watkins Glen gorge - nineteen waterfalls on a stone stairway through a slot.
• Taughannock Falls - a single drop higher than Niagara, near Ithaca.
• The Corning Museum of Glass - a serious glass collection at the region's edge.

When to go

June to October, with the harvest in September and autumn colour in early October the best of it; many cellar doors reduce hours in winter. The gorge trail at Watkins Glen closes from roughly November to May because of ice. Summer weekends on the wine trails are busy with parties.

Honest expectations

Tasting means driving between wineries on lake roads, so arrange a driver or a tour. Quality is uneven, with serious producers next door to places selling sweet novelty wine to bus groups, and the trail brochures do not distinguish. The gorge trail is closed for half the year and its car park fills by mid-morning in summer.

Nearby

Ithaca and Cornell are at the south end of Cayuga; Niagara Falls is three hours west.