Finger Lakes winery opens in 15th century barn shipped from France

An impressive 15th century barn that recently stood in Champagne, France, is now home to a new Finger Lakes winery.

The 1487 Heritage tasting room is up and running overlooking Seneca Lake in Hector.

Céline and Sébastien LeSeurre, both natives of France, are owners. The couple also owns Domaine LeSeurre Winery, which has been operating in Hammondsport on Keuka Lake since 2013.

15th century French barn finds new home in Finger Lakes

Sébastien LeSeurre, who grew up in the Champagne region of France, is the sixth generation of his family to make wine. He had long envisioned the couple having an old French structure in the Finger Lakes. "The idea was to bring the old character of us in the New World," he said.

But it would take years for the right land and the right building to come together.

In 2025, he

was in France when he spotted an online ad that said "beams for sale." When he answered the ad, he found an abandoned barn in disrepair; the farmer said he was close to knocking down the building.

“The thing was beautiful," he said. "I don’t think anybody realized how beautiful it was.” He appealed to the owner to give him time to figure out how to acquire, dismantle and move the barn.

Barn's oak beams date to 1487

In September 2025, the C.E.D.R.E. laboratory in Besançon, France, extracted carrot-shaped sections of wood from the barn's beams to conduct tree-ring dating. The testing established that the barn was built from oak trees that had been felled in autumn and winter of 1487.

The barn was dismantled in October 2025. Each piece was marked so that it could be reconstructed in New York. Over the next three months it was repaired; rotten or split timber was cut out and replaced with new oak, jointed the way the original building had been constructed. In 2026, it was shipped to New York in two containers. It was rebuilt in Hector in the summer of 2026.

Finger Lakes vineyard dates to 1976

The 20 acres on which the building now stands has a history of its own. Its 10 acres of vinifera grapes were planted in 1976, which places them among the oldest working vineyards in the Finger Lakes.

The LeSeurres had been working with its grapes for 10 years and thought they had the region's best terroir, a French term that refers to how the climate, soil, terrain and local practices combine to affect the flavor of the wine.

Every year for that decade, the LeSeurres would ask the Dalrymple family, who owned the property, whether they'd consider selling the land. The answer was always "no" until 2025, when it changed to "maybe." Finally the LeSeurres closed on the property in January 2026.

1487 Heritage plans estate-grown wines

1487 Heritage is now open for tasting wines from Domaine LeSeurre on Keuka Lake. The barn offers panoramic views of Seneca Lake; the plans are for a large terrace to be constructed for outdoor tastings and events.

The goal is for 1487 Heritage to be its own estate winery, with the grapes coming from the chardonnay and riesling grapes grown on the property. Sébastien LeSeurre estimates that the first 1487 Heritage wines could be ready in two to three years.

The goal is to plant roughly five more acres of grapes and for the winery to be entirely estate grown, a process that could take a decade.

But that timeline is a drop in the bucket for a man whose family has been making wine for more than a century, and whose winery is housed in a barn built before Columbus made landfall.

If you go

1487 Heritage on Seneca Lake is at 5705 State Route 414 in Hector. Call 607-656-2148. Find more information at 1487heritage.com.

Domaine LeSeurre winery on Keuka Lake is at 139 State Route 54 in Hammondsport. Call 607-292-3920. Find more information and reserve online at dlwinery.com.

Food and drink reporter Tracy Schuhmacher has a level 3 award in wines from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET). Send winery news to [e-mail].

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Finger Lakes winery opens in 15th century barn shipped from France