Red Tail Ridge Winery

Red Tail Ridge Winery is a boutique winery specializing in personal touch with quality before quantity. RTR is the first LEED-Gold certified winery in the state. At Red Tail Ridge Winery, they believe that quality is more important than quantity. As a result they intend to keep production down and keep a close eye on the details of wine making. Exploring uncharted territory is an important component of this vision, as they are always striving to improve. For instance, they have planted Teroldego—a red Italian grape variety grown primarily in the northeastern region of Trentino-Alto—in our vineyard and are optimistic about the future of these vines. Wines produced from Teroldego have been compared to Zinfandel due to their deep color, brambly blackberriness, solid acidity, and moderate tannin structure. They are eager to see how these vines and wines develop, and we look forward to more experimentation in the future. Red Tail Ridge winery is owned and operated by Mike Schnelle and Nancy Irelan, a husband and wife team, who are dedicated to producing fine wine in the Finger Lakes.