Forge Cellars
Specializing in bone-dry Riesling, cool-climate Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay, Forge Cellars is committed to exploring the unique terroir of the southeastern side of Seneca Lake.
Forge Cellars is made up of two friends with a common goal: to grow grapes and handcraft wines of interest and value that perfectly balance minerality, aromatics and fruit to reflect the exceptional area of southeast Seneca Lake. Each vintage is viewed as an opportunity to express our region — to give voice to its soils, cool climate, and diverse terroir. With 15th-generation French winemaker, Louis Barruol and long-time industry veteran, Richard Rainey at the helm of Forge Cellars we are uncovering the mysteries of our region.
For those eager to deepen their knowledge of Forge wines and the unique terroir of our region, we host reservation-only tastings in our Summer House. For a more casual, no-reservations-required experience, please join us in The Salon. Forge Cellars staff is ready to assist you with a high level of wine education if you want to know more, but we mostly allow The Salon to be an indoor/outdoor space for guests to kick back organically while taking in the view of Seneca Lake. Whether you are a seasoned wine enthusiast or just looking to settle into an Adirondack chair and enjoy, we welcome you.
Our Classique bottlings are our most important wines, as they aim to reveal the true nature of each vintage and to explore the terroir of east Seneca Lake. These wines are the foundation of Forge, and each year we aim to craft a wine that consistently speaks of the style of Forge and a pure expression of the vintage. Each of the 16 vineyards that we work with contribute to the blend that make up our Classique wines. These wines showcase the beauty of Seneca Lake: to be able to consolidate the various elements of each site into a perfectly balanced wine. Very few regions in the world provide in a natural way this perfect combination.
Our lieux-dits or single vineyard bottlings allow us to explore the impacts of soil and terroir on our different vineyard sites. The eight-mile stretch that we work with along southeast Seneca Lake offers an unrivaled diversity of soil types. We consider that our task is to explore them, understand them, and offer you the finest possible rendition of them through these wines. If there was such a thing as a formal ‘Grand Cru’-style classification of the finest soils in our region, our single vineyards would undoubtedly be a part of it.
