NYC Wine Guide: 7 Restaurants Serving Empire State Vino

Get some NY wines at Colonie 

By Linnea Covington

At times, it feels New York wine is the redheaded stepchild of the vino world, and, given the stereotypes that surround it, this sentiment isn’t far off. A lot of this is due to the youngness of the vines. Europe has some of the oldest plantings in the world and even California (which wasn’t popular when they started growing either) has vines that exceed a hundred years. New York didn’t even really start producing high-class wine on a commercial scale until the 1960s arrival of Dr. Konstantin Frank from the Ukraine, and Hermann J. Wiermer from Germany.

Now there are three main wine growing regions in New York: the Finger Lakes, Hudson River, and Long Island. New York also has two other federally recognized wine regions, Niagara Escarpment and Lake Erie, but they aren’t as big as the others. As the third largest wine and grape maker, this state produced around 180 million bottles of vino last year from about 300 wineries. That’s a lot of wine, plenty of which makes its way into NYC restaurants. So now, it’s time to raise a glass to toast your local vino - click though the slideshow below to see where you can do it.