Tag: Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits

Local Love: KyMar Farms Distillery

Our month of Local Love continues with a KyMar Farms Distillery tasting on Friday 12/21/18 from 4pm-7pm.

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the store,

We’ve sampled local-made spirits galore.

It started last month with some Helderberg Mead,

“Let’s finish the year out,” we quickly agreed.

“With our favorite locals, both spirit and wine.

If we host one a week we’ll have just enough time.”

Then Saint Lawrence Distillery, next Hummingbird Hills,

Wondering what’s next? Well, you’re in for a thrill!

When what to your wondering eyes should appear,

but Kymar Farms this Friday– it’s practically here!

With their fine malted whiskey and Mapple Jack too,

and some other great wines and fine spirits will do.

So stop by on Friday between four and seven,

you’re sure to believe you’ve found homegrown heaven.

And you’ll hear us exclaim ‘ere you drive out of sight,

“Thanks for shopping local, and have a great night!”

THANK YOU for celebrating with us.

— Lyssa at Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits

 

Keeping it Local in December: Week One, Saint Lawrence Spirits

Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits kicks of a month of Local Love with a Saint Lawrence Spirits tasting on 12/7/18 from 4-7pm!

This month marks the second anniversary of the day we opened the doors here at Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits, and we’ve been loving it ever since. To celebrate, we’ve invited some of our favorite local wineries and distilleries for our weekly tasting events!

This week we have Saint Lawrence Spirits back with their craft distilled, locally sourced, seriously delicious spirits! If you missed our last tasting with Saint Lawrence, you don’t have to kick yourself too hard. Just come on down this Friday, December 7th between 4PM and 7PM. Hope to see you there!

 

Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone

Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone tasting at Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits on Friday 11/30/18.

Are you all tired of talking about the holidays yet?

Cause I’ve kind of got them on the brain, and not entirely in a good way. Retail wine and liquor (or really any retail) be CRAZY this time of year, and I am feeling it big time. Plus, with all of the fun early-winter illness that’s been running around our household (yay, pinkeye!), I feel both exhausted and wired in a way that’s beginning to just feel like late November/ early December to me.

My frazzled demeanor and lack of time to relax has me looking forward to sampling an easy drinking wine this week. Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone has a lot to offer in that department. Food friendly, delicately spiced, and budget-conscious, this one is a great choice to warm you up on a chilly December evening. It’s the sort of wine you might want to have on hand to bring to a holiday party, or as a last minute gift to give a friend or coworker that you have forgotten about in your haze of hurry-up-and-shop. I speak from experience: ALWAYS have a few spare gifts on hand!

jean-luc-colombo-cotes-du-rhone

We will have a bottle of Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone available to try this Friday, November 30th, from 4PM- 7PM. As always, it’s FREE to try, and if you decide to purchase this wine during our tasting, we’ll give you 10% off. It’s a good deal any way you look at it.

Now excuse me while I go find my hiding 5 year old and attempt to put a single eye drop in her eye without being jumped.

Cheers, friends!

I Have NEWS!!

The Holidays have arrived at Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits in Duanesburg, NY!

It’s Thanksgiving week! Around here that means we are gearing up for the holiday season, so I’d like to take a minute to share what’s going on in our neck of the woods:

We are OPEN Thanksgiving Day from 10AM- 1PM.

So if you have any last minute items you need to make your holiday special (or even just bearable), we’ve got you covered. Every other day from now until Christmas Eve we will be open regular hours. I’ll keep you posted on hours for that week as soon as I can– one step at a time, friends!

This Week’s Tasting

ecco-domani-pinot

Because Thanksgiving happens on Thursday, and because Black Friday is traditionally nothing special at liquor stores (everyone is too busy trying not to get trampled at Best Buy, I suppose), we’ll be hosting our weekly FREE tasting on Wednesday, and it will feature Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio (a classic pairing for a turkey dinner) and Pail Shop Vineyards Portrait of a Cooper Red Blend. Pail Shop is a local winery, and this is definitely my favorite wine in their portfolio.

We Now Have Gift Cards!

Welcome to the future. Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits now offers gift cards, in any denomination. They are reuseable, too. Pretty cool. Ask us for more details. If you have received a gift certificate prior to this that you haven’t redeemed yet, no worries; we still accept those too. 🙂

Last But Not Least

private-collection-vintage-20

We’re adding some great new products just in time for the holidays. Gift sets, hard-to-find items, free promotional ware, complimentary gift wrap, stocking stuffers, and custom gift baskets are available. You can also shop our private collection for some of our favorite special wines and spirits.

From all of us, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

 

Helderberg Meadworks Tasting at Vintage 20!

Join us for a free tasting, featuring the best mead available anywhere, made right here in Duanesburg!

We’re happy to welcome Helderberg Meadworks back from 4PM to 7PM, 11/16/18.

Ah, mead season. AKA late fall, when it’s not quite winter and I haven’t committed to having my heat on full blast yet and I need a drink made of sturdier stuff. I’m not even a little bit exaggerating when I tell you that their mead is one of my favorite things in my entire store. It’s local (sourced, crafted, and aged right here), traditionally made, DELICIOUS, and the artwork is pretty cool too. Did I mention it’s delicious?

If you’re already familiar with Helderberg Meadworks, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve got their NEW Apple Mead in stock!

If you’re new to mead, well, get down here and check it out! Friday 11/16 from 4PM to 7PM. We’ll see you there 🙂

Short and sweet (just like me) this week, because I’m on my way out the door! Errands beckon. Cheers!

Pristine Vodka Tasting at Vintage 20!

Vintage 20 welcomes Pristine Vodka for a free tasting on Friday 11/2/18 4 to 7 pm.

Guess who’s back? Back again? Pristine’s Back. Tell a friend!

^^Tell me you also sang that. Or maybe it was just me, summoning Slim Shady (but why, even?).

Pristine Vodka - Liquor Stores

We’re happy to have Pristine Vodka back in the house this Friday, November 2nd for a free tasting event from 4 PM- 7 PM. Pristine is a great vodka, because it has that “Top Shelf” look and taste, but costs about the same as a middle-of-the-road vodka. Any time you get more bang for your buck, I am a fan.

I also love that Pristine is a local import. So that means you are getting high quality, authentic Ukrainian vodka, imported into beautiful Voorheesville New York, by a person who KNOWS HIS VODKA (that’s Alex, by the way. And he is a blast to talk to. I would say that he is fully 50% of the reason I am looking forward to this tasting). So come, be our guest, talk his ear off, try some Pristine Vodka. It’s bound to be a great time!

Cheers.

Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie Liqueur

Vintage 20 will host a FREE tasting event featuring Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie Liqueur on Friday 10/26/18, 4-7 PM.

Having a Halloween Party this weekend?

I mean, I’m not. But I still really enjoy Halloween. Costumes, Jack-o-lanterns, the “candy-tax” that all parents take and never name (I skim at least 2 Reese’s PB Cups right off the top), and of course, FALL THEMED BEVERAGES!!!!

::tosses leaves into the air with joy::

I’m not just talking about PSL’s (that’s Pumpkin Spice Lattes, for the uninitiated). In my world, we have hard cider, apple brandy and pumpkin liqueur. Oh, my! So for this blustery week before Halloween, we’ll be cracking open some Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie Liqueur to get in the spirit! This stuff is sooooo so so good, even just poured over some ice in a rocks glass. However, it’s also an ingredient in one of my favorite cocktails:

The Pumpkin Pie Martini!

pumpkintiniStart with a martini glass, rimmed with a mixture of sugar and pumpkin pie spice.

Then in a blender:

  1. a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream
  2. 1 1/2 oz of Smirnoff Vanilla vodka
  3. 3 oz Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie Liqueur

Blend away! Pour into your martini glass, then top with whipped cream. Add a cinnamon stick or sprinkle some additional pumpkin pie spice for garnish. And watch yourself, because these WILL creep up on you!

This Friday

10/26, we will have Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie Liqueur open for you to try from 4:00pm- 7:00pm. And probably after then, too. You are DEFINITELY going to want to take this one home with you, even if it’s just for a Halloween party of one.

Cheers!

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Bogle Phantom Red

Vintage 20 Wine and Spirits will host a FREE tasting, featuring Bogle Phantom Red on Friday 10/19/18 from 4PM to 7PM.

Autumn is a great time of year to be a liquor store owner.

For one thing: you gear up to actually make money! No more crying into your coffee because you can’t feed the kids wine for dinner– the HOLIDAYS are coming! (I’m mostly kidding about this. Mostly.)

Reason Two: Seasonal releases. The fall sees a dramatic increase in limited release items that are usually very good and highly sought after. Interesting flavors abound, and you get a surge of wine blends aged in different kinds of casks.

bogle-phantomThere are other reasons, but for now let’s focus on reason number two, because it is the entire point my post. One of my all-time favorite seasonal release wines, Bogle Phantom Red, is in stock!! It’s deep, dark, and rich, with loads of spice and fruit flavors. A PERFECT wine to sip on those chilly fall evenings we’re finally getting.

And this year, they’ve jumped on the bandwagon with an “augmented reality” label. If you’re thinking to yourself, what in the Fred Flintstone is THAT? well, you’re probably not alone.

Augmented reality, commonly referred to as “AR”, uses the existing environment to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed through a device, such as a smartphone or an iPad.

So, Bogle has an app that you can download which will overlay movement and images over an existing item viewed through your phone’s camera, like so:

Sorry I am evidently terrible at converting videos. And does anyone else get a “Stranger Things” vibe from that vine?? Half spooky, half silly, completely entertaining and mildly creepy, this app is sure to be a crowd-pleaser at your Halloween shindig. And hey, so’s the wine!

 

Wanna try before you buy?

That’s why I post! Because we love you, we will have Bogle Phantom open this Friday, October 19th from 4PM- 7PM. After 7 I cannot promise that I won’t finish the rest. We’ll also be offering 10% off this product during our tasting event. Hope to see you there. Cheers, friends!

Bailey’s Almande Almond Milk Liqueur Tasting

What in tarnation is Bailey’s Almonde? It’s Bailey’s Irish Cream made with almond milk. So it’s dairy free. It’s gluten free. AND it’s quite delicious.

Do you ever feel like your life is a juggling act and you’re trying to keep too many plates in the air, and someone keeps removing one mid-juggle, lighting it on fire, and then handing it back to you? Just me?

Well, you know what they say, life is what happens while you’re busy making plans. So I’m just going to keep planning super awesome tasting events featuring products I love, that I can’t even attend because “something came up.” You guessed it, that’s what’s going on this week.

So here is this week’s tasting event, and I’m sad because I probably won’t be there.

Friday, October 12th from 4:00 pm- 7:00 pm we’ll have Bailey’s Almande available to try.

What in tarnation is Bailey’s Almonde? It’s Bailey’s Irish Cream made with almond milk. So it’s dairy free. It’s gluten free. AND it’s quite delicious.

If you’ve tried almond milk in the past and have found it lacking (I hear you), rest assured that while Bailey’s Almande does NOT taste like regular Bailey’s, it IS tasty. The almond flavor kinda steals the show, but there are also notes of caramel, and that pleasant whiskey burn. I like it on the rocks, but you could definitely make a pretty solid mixed drink with this. And with the weather being what it is, you could make either a wintery mix or a summery concoction with this and be happy. There you go, I’ve shored up your weekend plans for you.

Cheers!

Ho-Ho-Hold Your Horses!!

Evan Williams Eggnog is in stock at Vintage 20.

So yesterday I went to K-Mart

(yes, I live within driving distance of an actual, real-live K-Mart) to buy my kid diapers, and you know what I saw? Christmas. My god, it was Christmas everywhere. And not just like, cards and stuff, but full on rotating, singing, fake-snow clotted Balsam-branched nightmares.

The curse of retail: The Christmas Creep.

 

christmas-creep
You wait your turn, old man.

Even us fun-loving, inherently reasonable, liquor store folk must fall victim to the unforgiving march of the Christmas Creep. I don’t even have a Halloween costume yet. I wore shorts and sandals less than a week ago!!! And yet, I must hang my head in shame as I tell you, we set up this display yesterday:

evan williams eggnog
I still want to trick or treat, dammit.

Yep. Eggnog.

Don’t get me wrong– Evan Williams ready-to-serve Eggnog is A-MAZING. It’s probably the best eggnog out there, spiked or otherwise (Stewart’s is a close second). But come on. I haven’t even conned my children out of their Halloween Reese’s yet. Have some compassion for the fall festivities.

But also, get the Nog. Get it before it’s gone. Every liquor store I have ever worked in has run out well before Christmas, and I’ve been doing this for 15 years (holy crap!). So there’s that.

P.S. I don’t know what we’re tasting this week, but I promise it isn’t eggnog. 😉

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