What is a man with degrees in electrical engineering and applied math doing in the a vineyard high above Conesus Lake?

Having fun, says George Kuyon, a hobbyist-winemaker who retired from Kodak after 30 years and decided to grow some grapes and his business, a winery named Deer Run off the beaten wine trail.

“I needed to do something and I thought, ‘I don’t want to work for somebody else.’ " He had taken a course on wine and had produced homemade wine for several years.

Kuyon, his wife, Joan, and his son, Scott, tell their story matter-of-factly as contractors and vendors parade in and out of the community room they have set up beside their tasting room.

“During my last five or six years at Kodak, I did a lot of studying and traveling on wine tours, here and in California. Something would come over me and I thought, ‘I’d love to do something like this some day.’ ”

The Kuyon story is becoming more common in the Finger Lakes as more families are trading in their careers and urban lifestyles for a piece of the good life. The good life, they say — but not necessarily the easy life.

“I was the hesitant one at first; they had to pull me along,” says Joan, a retired teacher who manages the shop where they sell wine and other locally made products (jellies, mustards, cheeses). “This wasn’t my idea of retirement, but it really has been fun building a business.”

The Kuyons planted their first fruit in 2001 and opened for business in 2003, purchasing grapes from area growers to produce their first vintages.

Deer Run Winery, 30 minutes south of Rochester, sits on 15 acres.

-- Traci Bauer, managing editor/multimedia and innovation, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

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May hours: Noon to 6 p.m. Thursday-Monday.
June 1 through Dec. 31: Noon to 6 p.m.