Finger Lakes AVA

Finger Lakes is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in upstate New York, approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of Lake Ontario encompassing entirely 14 counties: Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Livingston, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne and Yates counties. It was established as the nation's twentieth and New York's second appellation on September 1, 1982 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by the Finger Lakes Wine Growers Association proposing a viticultural area named "Finger Lakes."
The "Finger Lakes Region" encompasses eleven lakes expanding about 5.4 million acres (8,400 sq mi) while the area around Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga Lakes is resident to the majority of vineyards. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes were established as sub-appellations, in 1988 and 2003, respectively, based on their unique terroir due to "lake effect." As of 2014, 130 wineries, 9,393 acres (3,801 ha) of vineyards harvesting 54,600 tons of grapes annually making Finger Lakes by far the largest and most productive wine region in the Empire State. About 80 percent of the state's wine production is sourced from Finger Lakes.