Between Buffalo And Syracuse Is New York's Buzzing Finger Lakes Wine Trail With Award-Winning Pours

New York's Finger Lakes region is a gorgeous area of the country. If you're planning on a visit to Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes, you're in for a treat. In addition to the many outdoor adventures and endless beauty of the shimmering water and charming lake towns, you'll find the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. There are almost 30 wineries along the lake, and many of them have award-winning pours for you to try. Add in their lovely scenery, and you have the recipe for a fantastic vacation.

Situated almost exactly halfway between Buffalo and Syracuse, the Seneca Lake area is known for its Rieslings because of the cool climate, but the wineries around the lake feature a number of other varietals as well. The trail itself is popular, with wineries like Lakewood Vineyards, Silver Thread Winegarden, and Wagner Vineyards consistently mentioned in threads in Reddit's r/FingerLakes and r/wine. But there's more to Seneca Lake than just its great wines, like the award-winning Belhurst Estate Winery (above), with hotels, restaurants, and a spa on-site.

You'll definitely need a car for this wine trail, so make sure you have a designated driver if you're going from winery to winery. If you're starting around Watkins Glen near the southern tip of the lake, the closest major airports are Greater Rochester International Airport at 85 miles away and Syracuse Hancock Airport, which is 90 miles away. It's a good place to start or end, as the nearby Watkins Glen State Park has ethereal waterfalls and gorgeous cliffs to explore. 

There are wonderful vineyards all around the lake on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, including Lakewood Vineyards on the southwest side. However, wineries on the east side of the lake tend to get the biggest buzz on Reddit. I went to school in the area, and the ones I've tried there are my favorites as well. Most of those are set along the Seneca Lake Scenic Byway that runs from the southwest side of the lake, along the bottom, and up the east side. 

It's worth your time to visit Lakewood Vineyards in Watkins Glen. You can stop here for a guided tour and tasting on the weekends or try out a signature tasting flight of their dry and semi-dry or semi-sweet and sweet wines, available all week. If you time it right, you can join a vineyard hike and tasting at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

If you continue along the byway, make sure to stop at Silver Thread Vineyard's Winegarden in Lodi, which opened in 2025, right on the route. (The nearby vineyard itself has been around since 2011.) The winery won the Slow Wine Guide's Top Wine Award for 2026 with the 2024 Good Earth White and a Bottle Award for the total portfolio. The winery also won the 2023 Sustainability Award from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation. You can do a tasting at the Winegarden all year long, though the hours and days change seasonally. They have regular tastings of five wines, as well as food and wine pairings with small bites. You can also visit their Estate Tasting Room May through October on Fridays and Saturdays by appointment.

One place that is highly recommended on the previously mentioned Reddit threads is Wagner Vineyards (above) in Lodi. This winery has been around since 1979 and makes 50,000 cases of wine per year. It won the New York Wine Classic Award for Winery of the Year in 2019 and has a vast number of awards for many of their vintages. You can opt for a guided tasting or a library wine tasting (reservations are recommended), though you can do a self-guided tasting with either wine flights or beer flights, as they also have the Wagner Valley Brewing Co. If you're hungry, the on-site Ginny Lee Cafe is open on select days.

Finally, Belhurst Estate Winery at Belhurst Castle in Geneva has award-winning wines, with hundreds of medals. You can also try their craft beer and hard cider. The wine tastings are available with a cheese flight and a chocolate flight. However, a stop here is more than just tastings. There are three hotels, two restaurants, and a spa as well. In fact, it was named a World's Best Wine Hotel by Wine Enthusiast among its other awards. You can even stay in the castle, built in 1885, which features 11 guest rooms. You may want to stay anyway, especially if you plan on hitting all the wineries along the Seneca Lake Wine Trail.