Exciting News: We’ve Signed an AP Agreement!

We’ve got some big news to share! We’re officially taking the next step in our winemaking journey!

This week we signed what’s called an Alternating Proprietorship (AP) agreement with a Finger Lakes winery. If you’ve never heard of an AP agreement, here’s the short version: it allows us to operate as our own winery by “sharing space” with an existing, licensed winery. We’ll be able to make and bottle our wines there under our own label, without having to build a winery facility from scratch. Think of it as a “coworking space” or “incubator” for winemakers.

Why is this exciting? Because it means the wines Scott is crafting this harvest—another dry Riesling and a brand-new Cabernet Franc Rosé—will be more than special bottles we enjoy at home. They’ll be wines we can officially sell next year under our own label!

We’ve also got a trademark pending for our chosen name for our wine brand. Hint: the name is derived from the concept of “Boat Bar 42,” the name of this blog, which was inspired by the boat bar in the basement of our Cayuga Lake house.

We’ll share more details about licensing, labels, and release dates as things move forward, but for now, we’re thrilled to finally announce that we’ll have wine available for you in 2026!

Thank you for following along as we’ve learned, experimented, and grown. This next chapter makes the long hours of study, harvest work, and winemaking worth it, and we can’t wait to raise a glass with you soon.

Stay tuned, the 2025 harvest is just getting started, and we’ll be posting updates (and plenty of grape photos) along the way.

For a refresher on our wine journey so far, check out this post.

And, before you leave, don’t forget to subscribe to our blog, and also check out our Facebook group, Finger Lakes Food and Wine Adventure.

Cheers from the lake,
Niki and Scott