The Cayuga Lake AVA is an

American Viticultural Area An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of winery, wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know abo ...

around Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York. The boundaries of the AVA include portions of

Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...

, Seneca, and Tompkins counties. Most of the vineyards in the AVA are planted in the

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

soils of the hillsides on the western side of Cayuga Lake. Vineyards are planted at a range of elevations above the surface of the lake, up to higher. The steep hillsides and the lake together form a unique

micro-climate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squa ...

in autumn that helps extend the

growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...

by preventing cold air from settling and producing

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

. The

grape variety was created in this region by researchers at Cornell University.

History

The first winery in the area was founded in 1980, although grapes were grown on the shores of Cayuga Lake for the large wineries in Hammondsport before then. In 1981, four wineries on the lake banded together to form the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail, the first of its kind in New York State. By 1988, the appellation was given AVA status, the first Finger Lake to be granted its own AVA.

References

{{reflist American Viticultural Areas Geography of Cayuga County, New York New York (state) wine Geography of Seneca County, New York Geography of Tompkins County, New York 1988 establishments in New York (state)