Montezuma Winery

Montezuma is a fun stop to include on your wine tour. There is pretty much something for everyone here, whether it’s a standard table wine, a fruit wine, or distilled spirits. For years their Diamond was one of my absolute favorite wines (it’s a little too sweet for me now).
They also do great events at Montezuma. The last one I attended included alpacas, silky chickens, and goats. It was pretty great.

If you’re into fruit based sweeter wines this is for you. Personally I prefer drier aromatic ones like Riesling and Gewürztraminer to the fruit wines. As far as their Rieslings are concerned they lose to other wineries on Cayuga and Seneca lakes. Not all of them but certainly a significant percentage.
What’s more surprising was a gift shop being a part of the tasting room which makes this more of tourist spot than a winery. I think this diverts focus from producing great wines IMHO.

This was our last (winery number 13) stop on a dreary, damp Saturday that was part of the Bacon on the Lake-​in wine tour promo on Cayuga Lake. Since this was more about the bacon infused dishes than the wine — I will comment on the bacon dish served here. Montezuma’s served a dessert pizza with bacon baked in and lots of sugary goodness topped by a maple bourbon liquor that they produce here. One of the wines they served was made with Concord grapes — I thought most Finger Lakes wineries left those in the past but not here… and yes it did taste like Welch’s grape juice… Being at the intersection of two busy roads this winery does not have much in the way of a nice lake location compared to the others we visited on this tour.
This was the first year that the Cayuga Lakes Wine Trail did this bacon event but given they sold 1500 tickets I’m guessing they’ll do it again next year — we really enjoyed it.

The wine was pretty good. Their fruit wines were definitely worth the try. I’m not sure if I would stop by again, however. The servers were not very personable. There were two women behind the tasting bar, and they didn’t seem enthusiastic at all when I was going for my tasting. They didn’t try to describe any of the wines, encourage me to try things based on my likes, or as anything beyond telling me «choose 6 wines. Pay $ 3 before you do tastings…». I would have hoped they could provide more information on what I was drinking and how the wines were made. I left thinking they just wanted me to drink and rush out. It was a Sunday at 4pm. I’ll give kudos to the young cashier who explained more about my purchase.

Montezuma Winery is by far my favorite winery in the world. Their wines are unique and award winning. Some of my favorites are Camper’s White, Diamond, Fat Frog Red, and Fat Frog White.
If you like sweeter wines this is your place. They have lots of wines that are not sweet, but happen to have a large selection of both. Many wineries do not have such a variety of sweet wines.
They have a gift shop too that is absolutely adorable.

Try the mead and the Riesling as well, that wine region is actually well known for their Riesling wines… they have alot of other nick-​nacks for sale as well. They offer locally sourced cheeses, whiskeys and crafts… definitely worth a stop in!

Every time we come in from North Carolina this is the first place that we stop. We never leave without a case. The staff is very polite and the prices are great. They now have a distillery in the stops. Didn’t check that out yet.

I suspect a lot of Montezuma Winery’s business comes from the fact that it is the northernmost Cayuga Lake winery, and a logical starting point if you are coming from anyplace to the north. It is also the closest of those wineries to the Thruway. Though as such, I would have expected Montezuma to do more in the «Welcome to Cayuga Lake Wineries» area (I got a lot more of that at Swedish Hill). Still, Montezuma has a very wide variety of products, alcoholic and otherwise.
For me, since so many wineries in the area have similar wines, what I looked for at Montezuma were wines more unique. That included their honey products such as meads, and their fruit wines. They even have a fantastic rhubarb wine! Because it was a slower time of the day, we had an opportunity to chat more about the wines and meads with the woman guiding us through our tastings.
And most important, how can you not love a place where you are greeted by a yellow lab reclining near the doorway demanding a belly-​rub?

This is a great place for wine !! My go to place. They are also open later than other 6pm close time.

This was our favorite winery during our visit to Cayuga Wine trail this past weekend. The lady who did the wine tasting for us was very helpful, knowledgeable and respectful. Also, the wines were great!!! Would definitely go back here again.

I come here about once a month and do a wine tasting for $ 3.00. I love this place! If Deb is working and serving you, you’re sure to have a great time! Love her! I recommend Tej, Diamond, Camper’s White, all of the fat Frog wines and cranberry bog! Their Judd’s wrecking back and blind side is great so is there line logger bourbon! Love love this place!

Nice place to stop and try wines in the Finger Lakes. They are expanding into a distillery and had some super liquors to taste.
Plenty of stuff to buy in their shop. Many fruit wines to taste, tried the Cranberry wine to compare to Turro Winery. Not sure if it was as good, but a nice product.

I visit Montezuma every time I go to Cayuga lake. Pay the extra $ 1 or so to keep the wine glass, then ask for the adorable little brandy snifter instead. I have a few in my collection and just love them. They have some interesting fruit wines here, and also cute gift items.

Love the wine and the frog-​bottle wine designs. Expanded gift shop usually has some good fun decorations and/​or wine accessories as well.

What led to my downfall at a recent wedding reception, may have been the winery pre-​gaming… But how can you pass up the opportunity when visiting Aurora!
Here, however, was not the highlight of our vineyard discoveries. For $ 2, you get to choose a number of tastings from a long list of wines. And they do have some interesting selections, namely the ones that were made with fruit (other than grapes). And they were numerous. Also some interesting meads and liqueurs on the list. But unfortunately, the bulk of what we tried seemed watered down. The tasting room is also largely a touristy gift shop. And there’s no vineyard here either, so no tours or scenic place to sit with a bottle.

This is one of my favorite Cayuga Lake Wineries. They have a nice variety of dry to sweet wines that includes fruit and meads. There are a few spirits and liqueurs to try as well — my favorite is the Maple Liqueur. You can also try a sample of their fudge — there is a wide variety to choose from.

The Montezuma store is cute and full of little trinkets and souvenirs. I really enjoyed their sweet wines and fruit wines. I couldn’t resist buying a bottle of Tej (honey wine) and an apple currant wine. They also have a really nice rhubarb wine. I was impressed with these unique offerings and appreciated that they can ship the wine for you.

Full of touristy Christmas Tree Shop crap. None of the wines were great, and they charge you PER spirit to taste, with paltry ¼ oz pours. Allegedly it’s NY State law, though I am rather dubious. The servers were aloof and not terribly forthcoming with information that wasn’t already on the sheets provided. The apple brandy and honey brandy were both pretty tasty, but not worth the near $ 30 price for a 375ml (small) bottle.
Skip this one. There are plenty of other wineries in the area. This was touristy and lame.

The first time I went up the Cayuga wine trail, I started in Ithaca and worked my up, which meant I didn’t have time for Montezuma winery. I have finally corrected this, and I think this has become one of my favorite wineries.
Unlike many others on the trail, they do not grow the fruits they use in their wines themselves. However, everything I tried at the tasting was delicious. They have a very creative variety of wines using all kinds of fruits and even a few mead selections. I left with their Campfire White, Cranberry Bog, and sparkling mead in hand, though if money if were no option… hoo boy…

An unusual winery in the Finger Lakes region – lots of meads and fruit wines along with an assortment of traditional wines, all of which are very good. The location is a bit remote if you’re coming up from the southern side of the lakes… but it is close to a nature preserve.
The prices, like many Finger Lake wineries, are unbeatable. So you are rewarded for driving to this out-​of-​the-​way spot.