This year, Bet The Farm Winery celebrates 20 years of winemaking in the Finger Lakes. Owner and Winemaker Nancy Tisch started the business in 2006 in order to fill a retail space with locally produced wines and foods in the Village of Aurora, New York, on the East side of Cayuga Lake. However, according to state liquor laws, the only people that could sell wine & food in the same retail space were craft beverage producers. Nancy sought and found mentors in Lou Damiani and Phil Davis of Damiani Wine Cellars in Hector, New York, located on the East side of Seneca Lake. The first vintage produced approximately one hundred cases of wines and the adventure had begun!

The name of the boutique-scale winery, Bet the Farm, was taken from a conversation that Nancy had with partner Kit Kalfs during the early planning stages of the business. She said, “I’m not so sure about this, I don’t really know very much about making wine.”  Kit said, “Don’t worry, I’ll help you, you can bet the farm on it.”  With their strong connections to local agriculture, they agreed that Bet the Farm would be a good name for a retail space featuring the agricultural products from the region’s winemakers, cheesemakers, and small-scale food producers. The name also reflects an unsurpassed level of commitment to their craft and winery.

Production continued to grow over the years to around 1600 cases made from purchased grapes in a leased production barn. One afternoon, Nancy took a different route home and saw a for-sale sign on an open field along Krums Corners Road. After some research on soil types and water availability, Nancy and Kit purchased the property, where in 2018 they built a multi-use building and planted the Jacob Thomas Vineyard, named after Kit’s Dad. The vineyard consists of six acres of red vinifera grapes – Gamay Noir, Lemberger, Cabernet Franc, Saperavi, and Dornfelder. Their estate grapes together with fruit selectively purchased from surrounding vineyards, brought the wine production to around two thousand cases of balanced, fruit-forward wines, showcasing the best of the cool-climate region they call home.