Vineyards are what make the world go round.  At least the winemaking world.  But it's people that make vineyards go. Without the hard work of vineyard managers, crews and migrant teams no wine would be made at all.  As a small project Entelecheia doesn't own any vineyards but I have the good fortune of working with some of the best sites in the Finger Lakes.

 

      In 2019, fruit came from Lahoma Vineyards on the west side of Seneca Lake.  Lahoma is a cooler, later-ripening vineyard that sits on a hodge-podge of soils ranging from sandstone to clay to a bit of limestone depending on the block.  Lahoma is also a younger vineyard first planted starting in 2006, and is the source for the famous rieslings of now owner Kelby James Russell such as The Knoll. 

 

       Starting in 2020 though I began sourcing riesling from Sheldrake Point Vineyards.  I source from their original riesling planting from back in 1994 that is just steep enough they cannot machine pick it, so they don't grumble too much when I ask them to hand pick.  Sheldrake is in a unique spot jutting out into Cayuga Lake and tends to be more protected in the winter, but cooler in the summer due to the lake's influence, making it a slow ripening site as well.  Soils are heavier clays and sandy loams.  Sheldrake is managed by Dave Weimann one of the Finger Lakes great viticulturalists who has been at work honing the vineyard to even greater levels of quality ever since he helped plant it.