New York

The New York Wine & Grape Foundation dates the first vines in the Finger Lakes to 1829, when the Reverend William Bostwick planted native Isabella and Catawba. Brotherhood Winery, founded in the Hudson Valley in 1839, is described by the Foundation as the oldest continuously operating winery in the country, and the Pleasant Valley Wine Company of Hammondsport, founded in 1860, became US Bonded Winery No. 1. Prohibition left fewer than 100 of the country's wineries; a few New York companies survived through legal loopholes.

After repeal Charles Fournier, from Champagne, introduced French-American hybrids at Gold Seal, and Konstantin Frank, a Ukrainian emigrant, worked with him on vinifera before releasing his own first vintage in 1962. Alex and Louisa Hargrave planted vinifera on Long Island's North Fork in 1973. The 1976 Farm Winery Act cut licence fees for small producers; the state then had 14 wineries. The first New York AVA, Hudson River Region, dates from 4 June 1982.

The Foundation's guide places New York between 40° and 45° N. Glaciers more than 1.6 km thick covered the state during the Ice Age and retreated about 10,000 years ago, leaving the two terminal moraines that form Long Island, the varied mesoclimates of the Hudson Valley, the Niagara Escarpment, the Finger Lakes and the basins of lakes Erie and Ontario. Shale and limestone of marine origin underlie central and western New York. Along the Hudson the Palisades are basalt, the Highlands granite and gneiss, and shales and limestones run from Beacon to Albany.

Almost every storm system crossing the country passes near the state. Arctic air from Canada, warm humid air from the Gulf of Mexico and cool Atlantic air alternate, giving warm, often humid summers. The Hudson Valley lowlands receive somewhat less rain than the rest of the state and less in September and October.

The Foundation describes a cool climate, maritime on Long Island and continental inland, that challenges growers; it cites producers such as Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyards for cool-climate, moderate-alcohol wines with freshness. It stresses that New York Riesling ranges from bone dry to sweet and that the balance of sugar, acid and pH, not residual sugar alone, decides how sweet a wine tastes; many producers use a back-label sweetness scale. In the Hudson Valley, cold northerly winter winds limit the main grapes to cold-hardy varieties, and the region has been a centre for French-American hybrids. Each region's soils, topography and climate are said to give a distinct regional character.

New York has seven AVAs and four sub-AVAs: Hudson River Region (1982), Finger Lakes (1982) with Cayuga Lake (1988) and Seneca Lake (2003), Lake Erie (1983), Long Island (2001) with The Hamptons (1985) and North Fork of Long Island (1986), Niagara Escarpment (2005), Champlain Valley of New York (2016) and Upper Hudson (2018). Lake Erie is the only one that extends beyond the state, into Pennsylvania and Ohio. Wines follow the federal 75% state and 85% AVA rules.

The Foundation counts more than 130 varieties across native, hybrid and vinifera grapes. A 2023 grower survey reported 15,745 bearing acres (about 6,370 ha), but satellite estimates suggest 30,000–35,000 acres in total. The state had 452 wineries.