(TWCNews) - The history of the wine industry in the Finger Lakes spans almost 200 years. The first deliberate cultivation of grapes for winemaking began here in the 1830s. And since then, grape styles and consumer tastes have evolved greatly.

"The initial eras of when wine grape cultivation began in the Finger Lakes coincided with large waves of German and French immigrants, who brought with them a culture of wine-making and wine-growing," said Christopher Missick, the co-owner of Bellangelo Winery in Dundee.

Since then, the region has made a name for itself producing cool-climate wines. 

"There's no better place in the United States for cool-climate wines. Because they ripen sooner, the acids are a little higher so you get a nice crisp wine that tends to be really balanced and it's just more refreshing," said Scott Osborn, the president of Fox Run Vineyards in Penn Yan. 

According to wine-makers, it's the local geography that lends itself to great-tasting grapes.

"Reisling, pinot noir, chardonnay, they do very well on these slopes. The depths of the lakes ensure that in the winter, it's warm enough they survive, and in the summer, we get nice, cool nights," said Missick.

But with the industry's rapid rise came its share of growing pains. The one that stands out is the Prohibition era, when alcohol was banned in the U.S. throughout the 1920s.

"Prohibition dealt a really severe blow to the Finger Lakes. After Prohibition, people developed a different taste for wine, and it took a long time to recover from that," said Missick.

World War II also impacted the region. American soldiers deployed in Europe encountered a whole different style of wines.

"They weren't making sweet, native styles of wine in Europe. They were making dry vinifera wines. That's where there was large-scale introduction to these wines, and they came back with an acquired taste," said Missick.

After years of experimenting, Finger Lakes wineries began successfully producing these drier wines, to satisfy consumers. Today, dry wines are some of the area's best. And the thing that allowed wine-making to finally take off was the Farm Winery Act of 1976.

"What we saw at that point was a lot of small vineyard owners deciding to start making their own wines, and that act gave them the opportunity to start a winery for a lot less money," explained Osborn.

The state's wine industry now brings in five billion dollars a year, with eighty-five percent of the production coming from the Finger Lakes.

"What we're seeing now is a transition from wineries mostly selling their within the Finger Lakes on these wine trails, to moving out to markets such as New York and other U.S. and international markets," said Bob Madill, the executive director of the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance.

Wine-makers say their products speak for themselves.