Forge Cellars

We are a small, artisanal producer focusing entirely on Riesling and Pinot Noir. We are made up of three like-minded and passionate friends--French Winemaker-Grower, Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme in Gigondas and Finger Lakes partners Richard Rainey (Vineyards, General Manager) and Justin Boyette (Winemaker). 

We strive to grow grapes and handcraft wines of interest and value that perfectly balance minerality, aromatics and fruit to reflect our exceptional Finger Lakes terroir. Each vintage is viewed as an opportunity to express our region - to reflect its soils, its cool climate and its hillside lake terroirs.  

Our choices in the cellar guard the purity of our vineyards. Simply put, we make wine in the traditional, handcrafted manner. We harvest by hand. We sort by hand. We load the grapes into the press by hand.  We shovel the vats out by hand. We employ spontaneous fermentation and ferment in very tiny lots, so that we truly understand the expression of the vineyard each year. We use very low levels of sulphur and don’t fine or filter our red wines.