As owner and Certified Sommelier, Laura Winter Falk offers premium Sommelier-curated experiences for those looking for the ultimate way to tour. Check our Sommelier Services and get ready to take a deep dive into the world of wines, as Laura helps you discover more about your palate, and Finger Lakes wines that will make it very happy!
As owner and CEO, Alan stays mostly behind the scenes taking care of the big stuff, but can be found occasionally doing a pop-up waterfalls and gorge hike, as our company’s original natural history guide.
Laura Sanders started out with us as a Tour Guide, became our Director of Operations for 4 years, and now is back to doing both wine tours and gorge and waterfall tours. Laura holds her WSET level 2 award with distinction.
Liz joins us with a passion for the outdoors, and has spent many years hiking, foraging, and otherwise exploring the Finger Lakes region. As a NYS Master Naturalist and member of the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society, she enjoys continuing to learn about our local ecology and is excited to share that joy with others!
Amie is a cool-climate wine enthusiast who fell in love with Finger Lakes area and its wines. She chose to move to Ithaca to pursue this passion after a 30+ year career in marketing and non-profit management in NYC. Amie holds a WSET2 Certificate and is excited to share her enthusiasm for this region’s history, geography, geology and its people, especially the growers and winemakers. When she is not leading tours, Amie can be found hiking in the local gorges and exploring the US with her husband, Tom in their self-converted campervan.
Experience! The Finger Lakes co-owner, Laura Winter Falk is a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers. She also holds a level 3 award of wines from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), and a PhD in Food & Nutrition from Cornell University. Laura’s passion for wine and food started as an undergraduate at Cornell and she had the opportunity to take Introduction to Wines her second semester senior year. Little did she know at the time, that more than 30 years later she would be living in Ithaca and enjoying a career that celebrates the food and wine of the Finger Lakes, and its place in the world of wine.
Laura has been an educator her entire career, and finds her role as a sommelier is the perfect way to share her passion for learning and her love of wine, and her background in food and nutrition (there’s so much science in wine!). She is a regular contributing wine writer for Edible Finger Lakes Magazine and Vineyard Registry and has authored the Culinary History of the Finger Lakes: From the Three Sisters to Riesling, available through The Arcadia Press.
In 2014, she was offered a position as an Adjunct Professor of Wine within the Wine Marketing program at Tompkins Cortland Community. This brought her full circle by giving her the opportunity to help young students discover the world of wine, and become enamored the same way she did in that course at Cornell all those years ago.
Liz joins us with a passion for the outdoors, and has spent many years hiking, foraging, and otherwise exploring the Finger Lakes region. As a NYS Master Naturalist and member of the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society, she enjoys continuing to learn about our local ecology and is excited to share that joy with others!
