Seeing as we travel full-time with our small dog Truffles, we like to do as many pet-friendly activities as possible so that she enjoys the road trip too. When we were in the Finger Lakes region of New York, we wanted to go wine tasting at numerous vineyards, so we decided to visit as many pet-friendly wineries as we could.
We discovered a bunch of great wineries, all of which not only let you have dogs on their patios but inside their tasting rooms too. That’s not all though – one has a dog park on-site, another gave Truffles a complimentary pup cup to enjoy while we tried their wine and spirits, others had amazing views of lakes and more.
Here are the 7 pet-friendly wineries in the Finger Lakes that we visited.
1) Idol Ridge Winery & Alder Creek Distillery
The first dog-friendly winery we visited was Idol Ridge Winery & Alder Creek Distillery, a winery that was only a short drive from our Airbnb in Lodi.
Idol Ridge allows dogs both on their patio and inside their tasting room.
As their name suggests, Idol Ridge Winery & Alder Creek Distillery has both wine and spirits you can taste. Shae decided to do a wine tasting while I did a spirits tasting, but we tried each other’s drinks seeing as we were both interested in both kinds of drinks.
You can pay for just a wine tasting or spirits tasting, or pay a little extra to get a souvenir glass or snifter. Idol Ridge also offers wine by the glass, wine flights, slushies and Jell-O shots, so there’s something for all non-teetotalers.
While we did our wine and spirits tastings…
…one of the team members brought Truffles a pup cup which had whipped cream and a Milk Bone in it. The team at Idol Ridge gave Truffles lots of attention and pets which she adored (as did they!)
After doing our tastings, we bought a bottle of their Moscato which was our favorite and had a glass out on their patio as it was a beautiful day.
Idol Ridge is on the eastern side of Seneca Lake and looks out on the water.
It was nice and relaxing on the patio for all of us.
On Sundays in August Idol Ridge runs Pooches On The Patio. We got lucky and happened to visit on a Sunday in August, so they gave Truffles a cute bandana that says “Dogs & wine make everything fine”; that’s offered for free with any wine or spirits purchase.
Shae and I enjoyed our experience at Idol Ridge so much that we decided to return a couple of days later to try some of their other wines and take another bottle of Moscato to go. We’d definitely recommend Idol Ridge as a great pet-friendly winery to visit in the Finger Lakes.
Another feature to point out is that they have a lot of grass around the property. There are some picnic tables on the other side of the tasting room, plus one section to the left of the tasting room by the parking lot is a designated pet area for them to do their business.
Address
Idol Ridge Winery & Alder Creek Distillery, 9059 NY-414, Lodi, NY 14860
2) Boundary Breaks Vineyard
The second winery we visited was Boundary Breaks Vineyard which was also close to our Airbnb but in the other direction to Idol Ridge. Boundary Breaks is extremely dog-friendly; pups are allowed in their tasting room…
…and at their outdoor tasting area which is where we did our tasting.
The best part of all though is that Boundary Breaks has a fenced-in dog park which is just past the outdoor tasting area. It even has its own gazebo to protect you from the rain and/or sun with tables and chairs so you can enjoy a glass of wine while your pooch stretches their legs.
We realized it had been quite a while since Truffles last had a chance to go to a dog park, so she loved being off-leash at Boundary Breaks chasing after her ball.
As for the wine tasting itself, that was good and so we decided to get a bottle to start on while Truffles ran around in the dog park.
If you get a chance, we’d recommend doing a tasting outside as the views of Seneca Lake are gorgeous out there. A storm was rolling in that afternoon, but it thankfully held off long enough for us to enjoy our time outside.
Address
Boundary Breaks Vineyard, 1568 Porter Covert Rd, Lodi, NY 14860
3) Lakewood Vineyards
Lakewood Vineyards is on the southwestern end of Seneca Lake, just a few short miles north of the cute village of Watkins Glen (side note: you should absolutely visit Watkins Glen State Park – here’s why).
As with all the other wineries we visited, Lakewood lets you have your dogs inside their tasting rooms as well as on their patio.
We did our tasting inside with Tracy who was lovely and shared some interesting information about the Finger Lakes region. There are two types of tastings you can do at Lakewood Vineyards; flight A has dry wines, while flight B has sweeter wines. They give decent-sized pours, so Shae got flight A and I got flight B and we tasted each other’s wines.
Something we noticed throughout the Finger Lakes is that the wineries tend to price their bottles very competitively, especially compared to other wineries we’ve visited around the country on our 50 state road trip. Nearly all of Lakewood’s bottles cost $10-$15, with the lone exception being their Lemberger 2021 (a red) which cost $20. When doing a tasting, they also give you a wooden chip per person which gets you a discount on a bottle of wine.
Shae and I both enjoy red wines more than white wines, but the Finger Lakes focuses much more on white wines due to the grapes they grow there. As a result, we found that we enjoyed white wines in the region far more than we normally do and that was no exception at Lakewood. We both liked their Full Monty Riesling and so got a bottle to start enjoying outside and took the rest to go.
It was hard to see Seneca Lake from where we were sitting due to the slope, but that didn’t matter as they had fantastic views nonetheless of their vineyard.
It was a warm sunny day when we visited and it was just after we’d visited Taughannock Falls, so Truffles was more than happy to lay down in the cool grass in the shade. There was a family with kids there that day and their children enjoyed playing with Truffles and she adored all the attention she received too!
Address
Lakewood Vineyards, 4024 NY-14, Watkins Glen, NY 14891
4) Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars
Less than a mile away from Idol Ridge & Alder Creek Distillery is Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars. A fun fact about Lamoreaux Landing is that 100% of their electricity is renewable thanks to their solar array which was installed in 2016.
We were grateful that Lamoreaux is a winery that lets dogs inside as it was starting to rain when we visited.
You get to try five wines when doing a wine tasting at Lamoreaux Landing. They start you off with a pour of a set wine which, when we visited in August 2023, was their 2021 Pinot Noir Rosé.
As we usually do when wine tasting, Shae and I then picked four different wines each so that we could try each other’s. Their Moscato and Riesling were both very good, their Pinot Noir was OK and their Merlot was good as were their ice wines.
Address
Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars, 9224 NY-414, Lodi, NY 14860
5) Bagley’s Poplar Ridge Vineyards
Most wineries in the Finger Lakes finish their tastings at 5pm. After finishing up at Lamoreaux, it was just after 4pm and so we decided to fit in another tasting. A couple of miles down the road from Lamoreaux Landing is Bagley’s Poplar Ridge Vineyards and so we headed down there before they closed.
Our tasting was fairly low key, but I imagine the place is more busy and fun when it’s not a rainy Tuesday afternoon. We did appreciate though that dogs are allowed inside as the weather was still pretty bad outside.
Pups – and their people – might also enjoy the deck outside which looks out towards Seneca Lake, but which didn’t seem to be viewable from that vantage point.
Bagley’s had almost 20 different wines we could choose from. They also have a few types of local beer available for anyone in your party who prefers beer to wine, as well as cheese, meat and crackers for purchase.
A tasting flight costs $10 and you get five 1oz pours of your choice.
As you might expect based on the other tastings I’ve described so far, Shae and I chose 10 different wines between us so that we could try each other’s.
The wine flights are served on fun holders. Big Rack Red was Shae’s favorite, while mine was Dave’s Big Red.
Address
Bagley’s Poplar Ridge Vineyards, 9782 NY-414, Hector, NY 14841
6) Glenora Wine Cellars
The penultimate day of our stay in the Finger Lakes was Truffles’ 10th birthday, so we decided to celebrate by going out to see a bunch of waterfalls, stop for ice cream at an ice cream shop that had recently been rated as the best in the US and also visit a couple of pet-friendly wineries.
The first of the two wineries that day was Glenora Wine Cellars in Dundee. That’s on the southwestern side of Seneca Lake, about five miles north of Lakewood Vineyards in Watkins Glen which we’d visited the previous week.
Their tasting room is pet-friendly, as is their outdoor covered porch which has lovely views of Seneca Lake.
A tasting consists of five wines of your choosing with more than 40 to choose from.
My favorite was the Raspberry Spumante from my selection, while I also liked the Pomegranate Pizzazz that Shae chose among her five. Her favorite was the Moscato.
Truffles waited patiently on the floor in her Birthday Girl bandana, soliciting pets from people as they went by.
Address
Glenora Wine Cellars, 5435 NY-14, Dundee, NY 14837
7) Keuka Spring Vineyards
Our seventh and final winery of our visit to the Finger Lakes was Keuka Spring Vineyards in Penn Yan. We hadn’t originally planned to visit there, but things ended up working out that way. We’d wanted to visit some waterfalls and they were on the southern and western side of Seneca Lake, plus we’d found out about that ice cream spot (Spotted Duck Creamery) a few days before which also happened to be in Penn Yan.
While we were staying in Lodi, it felt like every time I opened Facebook there was a targeted ad giving a Buy One, Get One Free tasting at Keuka Spring Vineyards. I’d taken a screenshot of it just in case we ended up over there and as luck would have it, our final day took us in that vicinity and so we stopped in for a wine tasting that was 50% off.
Although Keuka Spring Vineyards is fairly close to Seneca Lake, it’s even closer to the Y-shaped Keuka Lake to the west of there. As a result, they have some lovely water views from their patio outside where you can enjoy a glass of wine.
Tastings are done inside their tasting room, but depending on which side of the building you’re on, you still get some lovely lake views while you’re sipping.
Keuka Spring Vineyards is pet-friendly inside their tasting room, but be aware that it’s quite narrow inside. Truffles is only 10 lbs, so we were able to keep her fairly close by to us, but if you’re visiting with a couple of larger dogs it might be worth seeing if you can do your tasting at the back of the room so that you don’t have so many people walking by.
As for the tasting, you get to pick any six wines from a list of more than 20 for $10. You can also pay an extra $5 to try a couple of other limited edition wines.
Most of the other wineries only offer five wines during a tasting, so it was nice that Shae and I got to try 12 between us, not to mention the fact that it only ended up costing $5 per person thanks to our Buy One, Get One Free coupon.
Address
Keuka Spring Vineyards, 243 Route 54, East Lake Rd, Penn Yan, NY 14527
Final Thoughts
We (including Truffles!) had a wonderful time exploring all of these pet-friendly wineries in the Finger Lakes region, all of which are part of the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, with the exception of Keuka Spring Vineyards seeing as that’s on Keuka Lake. We loved how pet-friendly all these wineries were, especially seeing as dogs are allowed inside all of them and not just out on their patios.
Shae and I adored our time in the Finger Lakes overall, so much so that we’ve talked about possibly living there for a while after our 7 year, 50 state road trip ends at the end of 2024. Even if we don’t end up moving there, I imagine we’ll find our way back there in the future for a vacation where we can hopefully explore even more pet-friendly wineries.
[…] Heading into August I wasn’t overly confident about our ability to stay under budget for the month. I hadn’t thought that our accommodation spending was due to be excessively high, but we ended up spending more on that than I’d initially accounted for. Also, being in the Finger Lakes region meant we’d want to try out a bunch of different wineries. […]