Dr. Konstantin Frank installs Keuka Lake’s first wind machines for frost protection
Three wind machines have been installed across Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery’s estate near Keuka Lake, with planned coverage of roughly 30 acres of Finger Lakes vineyards vulnerable to damaging frost.
Three machines across the estate
Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery announced on October 27, 2026, that it had installed what it described as the first wind machines on Keuka Lake. The three units are intended to limit frost damage, an increasingly important concern for vineyards across New York’s Finger Lakes region. With each machine able to cover roughly 10 acres when carefully positioned, their combined potential protection is about 30 acres.1
The equipment serves three estate sites: Chateau Frank Vineyard, planted with varieties used for sparkling wine; Keuka Vineyard, which grows Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir and other red varieties; and North Farm Vineyard, where the winery cultivates Riesling and Rkatsiteli, described by the producer as among its most prestigious grapes.1
How the protection works
During a temperature inversion, warmer air sits above colder air that has settled near the vines. Wind machines circulate and mix those layers, raising temperatures around vulnerable plant tissue and potentially reducing frost damage. Their effectiveness is conditional on suitable weather, particularly the presence of an inversion layer.1
Meaghan Frank, the winery’s vice president and a fourth-generation vintner, said warmer winters and early spring weather can prompt vines to develop sooner, leaving tender buds exposed when cold conditions return. She cited damaging spring frost in 2023 and another event in 2026. Such late frosts can kill buds, lower yields and cause substantial economic losses, she said.1
State funding and regional resilience
The project received funding from New York State’s Climate Resilient Farming program, which provides financial assistance for agricultural practices and equipment designed to help farms adapt to climate-related pressures. Superior Wind Machine Service, Inc., of Caledonia, Michigan, supplied and installed the machines.1
Tom Eskildsen, senior district technician at the Yates County Soil & Water Conservation District, said the grant was intended to strengthen regional vineyards against a changing climate. Eskildsen, who has worked with Dr. Konstantin Frank since 1997 through the Keuka Lake Watershed Agricultural Environmental Management program, said the fans can be highly effective during extreme winter cold or late-season frost.1
Frost protection broadens the conservation district’s established work with farms, which has traditionally included runoff control, soil management and pesticide management. For the Frank family, the installation is a long-term investment in its estate vineyards and in maintaining vinifera production as weather patterns become less predictable.1
A Finger Lakes pioneer
Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery was established in 1962 and helped introduce European vinifera varieties to the eastern United States. Now led by the Frank family’s fourth generation, the Keuka Lake estate produces still wines and traditional-method sparkling wines. Its vineyards include some of the country’s oldest vines and what the winery identifies as the second-oldest Pinot Noir vines in the United States.1
Sources
Written by the Dionysus editors from the sources above.