We believe wine should reflect not only a time and place, but the people who made it. Fine wine is living and breathing, dynamic and evolving yet rooted in origin. We celebrate its nuance and the small surprises that make each bottle memorable.

Onyare is our tribute to the unspoiled beauty of the Finger Lakes and the result of our passion for crafting wines with character that develop gracefully over time.

Why Onyare?

Winemaking is storytelling at its core, a way of carrying place, people and time from vineyard to table. Onyare takes its name from the Haudenosaunee tradition, a horned water serpent of Great Lakes lore that later wove into settler era accounts around Seneca Lake.

Settler era reports of a "sea serpent" on Seneca Lake appear in 19th and early 20th century newspapers, travel journals and local histories. These accounts range from single eyewitness sightings to well publicized multi witness episodes, often describing a long, undulating creature seen from shore or boats. Such stories helped shape local folklore, fueled curiosity and tourism, and were retold in guidebooks and regional histories; they form one strand of the lake's layered story alongside Haudenosaunee oral tradition.

Legends of water serpents and lake creatures appear across cultures and eras worldwide, a thread of shared human curiosity that links communities from the Finger Lakes to distant shores.

As recent arrivals to the Finger Lakes, we wanted to honor the people who have long stewarded this beautiful region. The Onyare story connects deep oral tradition with later local lore and captures a shared curiosity about the natural world. That mix of history, place and imagination mirrors how we approach our vineyards and cellar work: attentive, curious and respectful of origin.

Our wines aim to reflect that same spirit. They are made to evolve in the bottle, to reveal new facets over time, and to bring people together around a table and a story. We hope Onyare invites conversation, a little wonder, and a clear sense of place.

About us

Thijs Verschuuren

Born in the Netherlands and raised in the Loire Valley (Muscadet), Thijs discovered winemaking working harvests in a local cellar at 15. He trained at a viticulture and enology high school and earned a Brevet Technicien Supérieur (BTS) in Viticulture and Enology, then worked at notable estates across the Loire, Bordeaux and Alsace. The first time he visited the Finger Lakes it felt like coming home; he values the region’s small, family-run wineries and the way grape growing and winemaking are woven into everyday life.

Katie Cook

Raised in Minnesota, Katie discovered wine during a college wine appreciation course and pursued that interest after earning a B.S. in Biology. She took a sommelier course in the south of France and soon moved into production work, learning the craft as a cellarhand in Napa Valley and Argentina. Katie then enrolled at L’Institut Jules Guyot at the University of Burgundy, earning a Diplôme National d’Oenologie in 2009—one of only a handful of Americans to complete the program.

She completed three harvests in France, including a six month stage in Alsace where she fell in love with Riesling, and followed with a vintage in Western Australia to explore the variety in a very different terroir. After discovering the wines of the Finger Lakes, she was excited about the idea of further exploring the region and making New York home.

Our Story

Though both fell in love with wine in France, Thijs and Katie met by chance while both were in Minnesota. After Thijs returned to France to continue work in Muscadet, they kept a long-distance relationship with meetings in places like Paris, the Loire Valley and Tuscany.

Over wine and roasted chestnuts in Tuscany they began planning a shared future—creating wines they loved and inspiring that same passion in others. Onyare is the culmination of that plan.