In the fall of 1999, we built our home on the southwest shore of Owasco Lake. Over the next few years, we continued to clear the woods between our home and the lake. In the spring of 2003, we planted our first Vitis Vinifera grapes. This was our Pinot Noir and our Cabernet Franc. We then finished clearing stumps and setting posts for our Riesling vines that were planted the following spring. We ended up with about 2-1/2 acres of grapes.

Our goal was to have something planted that would keep the area from eroding while also maintaining our lake view from the home we built together. Little did we know, there is much time and effort involved in the grape growing process. Every spring, we prune the vines, put up catch wires and hedge and pull leaves. Every fall, we (finally) hand pick the fruit and then cover the grafts with straw to prevent freezing for the upcoming winter season. We quickly learned that all these responsibilities are necessary for maintaining a vineyard. We also learned it truly is a labor of love.

At first, we always sold our grapes to Rick’s sister and brother-in-law, Jan and Chris Scholomiti, who own CJS Vineyards in Aurelius. Any extra grapes harvested during the bountiful years were also sold to local Finger Lakes wineries. We had never been wine drinkers, but we first attempted to make some wine for our personal use back in 2015. As beginner wine connoisseurs, of course we had to make a sweet wine in order to enjoy it. We had some Chambourcin vines and used Concord grapes from our neighbor’s vines to make our first “batch” of wine. We sat on our deck with our grown children and drank three or four bottles one evening the following spring. The next morning, sitting and drinking our coffee, our son-in-law said how “blitzed” he got from the wine. This led to our naming and creation of our signature, Berry Blitz semi-sweet red wine.

After retiring in 2018, we started consistently making wine and officially opened Firelane 6 Winery. With guidance from Chris, we created a Semi-dry Riesling and our own signature Riesling. In August of 2022, we released our first Semi-dry Rosé made from our 2021 Pinot Noir grapes.

We are currently selling our wine to area businesses, including liquor stores, restaurants, breweries and other local establishments. We also trialed our “dockside delivery” in the summer of 2022 during a few weekends for our lake friends and neighbors, with great success. We linked it to curbside pick-up for boats on the lake. At this time, we do not have a dedicated tasting room. Recently, we have started “off-site tastings” for a few events, and it worked out quite well to get our name out to the community. Currently we continue to offer tastings for events and other small gatherings.

Thank you to our family for their continued support,

We greatly appreciate all of our customers who have given us the opportunity to grow our business.

- Corinne and Rick Ryan