2023 · Riesling Freese Vineyard Seneca Lake

Forge Cellars is a Finger Lakes winery on Seneca Lake in New York focused on Riesling and Pinot Noir. Owned and led by winemaker Rick Rainey, the estate also works in partnership with Louis Barroul of Château de Saint-Cosme. The winery sources from 16 distinct vineyards on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake and highlights the region’s terroir through low-intervention winemaking. Farming is described as bio-intensive and organic in practice, with cover crops, compost, hand cultivation under vine, no herbicides, cedar trellis posts, and compostable ties. In the cellar, Forge Cellars uses native yeast fermentations and neutral French or Hungarian barrels.