Pompous Ass Winery's owners keep sense of fun

This winery is anything but pretentious.

At the Pompous Ass Winery on Seneca Lake, co-owners Michael and Donna Lucent say they want "to enjoy wine for what it is." The donkey on the winery's label, named Sir Jackson, is "really just a sweet little guy," Donna says, "a spoof, poking fun at more serious wine people."

The six wines offered at Pompous Ass, located five miles north of Watkins Glen on Route 14, are made with local grapes and range from dry to sweet. "Five years down the road, I'd like to have a nice vinifera red, a barrel-fermented Chardonnay and possibly a port," says Michael, who doubles as winemaker.

Michael says he's been making wine "with my pop" since 1980. He and Donna knew each other in high school; when he turned 18, she gave him a winemaking kit. They went in separate directions after graduation, but reunited in the 1990s.

Donna's first visit to a winery didn't happen until she and Michael honeymooned in the Finger Lakes. The couple visited wineries and did tastings on the west side of Seneca Lake. In 2000, they purchased a little more than three acres of land on the lake's west side. Their dream was to have a Finger Lakes winery, but it would be eight years before it opened.

During this time, Donna worked in the tasting room at Logan Ridge Winery and White Springs Winery. Michael was a "cellar rat" for Glenora Wine Cellars and Knapp Vineyards, working on bottling and production.

"He's a very bright guy who is very thoughtful," Steve DiFrancesco, winemaker at Glenora Wine Cellars, says of Michael. "(And) in spite of the name of the winery, he (Michael) is anything but that."

Longtime wine consultant Tom Cotrell suggested that the couple head to New Jersey, where a family-owned winery needed managers. They decided to give it a shot, even though they really wanted to start their own business in the Finger Lakes.

Tom says the Lucents did a good job learning how to operate a winery at King's Road Vineyards in New Jersey. Tom was excited when he first met Michael: "He made some very good homemade wines. He had both the art and the science of winemaking."

The Lucents co-managed King's Road Vineyards for two years until the business closed after a death in the family. The event became an opportunity when they were able to buy enough stainless steel tanks at a great price from the winery to process 10,000 gallons of wine for their own business.

Donna remembers a "rather smug" man watching as King's Road was being disassembled, and recalls thinking that he looked like a "smiling ass," the first winery name she suggested. Michael later suggested that the higher-end wines they produce should be called "pompous ass" to differentiate them from the rest of the wines. The name won out.

Donna sketched the mascot, Sir Jackson, for the labels, and took her drawings to local artist Fred Wickham. "Fred took everything I did and made it more beautiful," she said. As for the donkey's name, that started with signmaker Greg Areford of Signs of Excellence in Dundee. He suggested naming the character "Jack." Michael said that was not pompous enough, and came up with Sir Jackson.

The Lucents struggled for months to get their winery license. They opened Dec. 4, just in time for the second Deck the Halls weekend event on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. Though not part of that event, their business was helped that weekend by recommendations made by staff at Hazlitt's 1892 Vineyard across the lake.

The Lucents plan to buy more land and plant their own grapes. In the meantime, they will buy local fruit for their wines. Michael admits that some of the wine he makes is sweeter than what he drinks. His experience at King's Road convinced him that there are many people who like sweeter wines, explaining why one of his wine lines has 7 percent residual sugar.

"It's not about us," says Michael. "You have to make wine that will sell."

The Lucents say they have "done their homework" and Michael says their philosophy is simple: "To try and fail is acceptable. To not try would be unacceptable. There would be too much regret."

That said, Michael and Donna intend to enjoy their new life. "The more you know us, the more you know we don't take ourselves very seriously," says Michael.