A Barn Raised in 1487: Why We Carried It Across an Ocean
By Céline & Sébastien LeSeurre · July 7, 2026 · 2 min read
In short
Our tasting room was built in 1487 — five centuries before we were born. We took the barn down in Champagne beam by numbered beam, carried the whole oak frame across the Atlantic, and raised it again above our vines in Hector, New York.
Some wineries build. We inherited — and then we carried.
The barn we could not leave behind
In Champagne, where Sébastien's family has made wine for six generations, stood an oak barn raised in 1487. Five hundred and thirty-seven years of harvests had passed under its frame. When the time came to build our second winery on Seneca Lake, the question was never what should we build? It was: how do we bring the barn?
You don't build six generations. You carry them.
Down, beam by numbered beam
In the winter of 2025, the barn came down the way it went up — by hand. Every beam, every peg, every joint was numbered as it came apart, the way our ancestors numbered barrels. The oak that had sheltered Champagne winemaking since before Columbus sailed was crated whole.
The crossing
Six thousand kilometres of ocean, with a 537-year-old frame in the hold. We will not pretend it was romantic to arrange — it was customs forms and cranes and insurance in two languages. But watching the crates arrive on the shore of Seneca Lake, we understood what we had actually shipped: not timber. Proof. Proof that heritage is a thing you can hold, number, and keep.
Raised again, above our vines
Through the spring of 2026, craftsmen raised the frame a second time, true to the original plan, on the east shore of Seneca Lake in Hector, New York — above vines planted in 1976, now fifty years old. The same joints found each other again. Oak remembers.
The glass face of the new barn looks out over the water. From inside, at dusk, the vineyard rows run straight down to the lake — and the frame above your head is the same one that stood over our family's first winters in Champagne.
What opens in August 2026
1487 Heritage opens its doors in August 2026: a tasting room inside the barn, Champagne-method sparkling and still wines from our own acres, and a first release like nothing we have made before — 300 numbered collector bottles, one for each of the founding members who choose to start this story with us.
- Read how the estate fits into the lake in our guide to Seneca Lake wineries
- Plan the visit itself with our Finger Lakes tasting guide
- Or go straight to the source: become a Wine Club Founding Member
The barn waited five centuries for its second life. You only have to wait until August.
Questions, answered
01What is 1487 Heritage?
1487 Heritage is a Seneca Lake winery in Hector, NY, built inside a French oak barn originally raised in 1487, by the 6th-generation Champagne winemakers behind Domaine LeSeurre.
02When does 1487 Heritage open?
The estate opens in August 2026, with a tasting room inside the re-assembled 1487 barn and a founding release of 300 numbered bottles.
03Can you visit the barn before opening?
Not yet — the frame is being finished through summer 2026. Wine Club Founding Members will be the first through the doors.
About the authors
Céline & Sébastien LeSeurre are the winemakers of 1487 Heritage and Domaine LeSeurre. Sébastien is a 6th-generation winemaker from Champagne; together they have made wine on Seneca Lake since 2013 — and are now raising a barn built in 1487 above their vines in Hector, NY.