Vermont has been a haven for microbreweries and housed impressive, fertile vineyards for the last few decades. Now Vermont produces award winning wines, spirits and award winning micro-brews! Here is a guide- brought to you by the experts themselves, of the best wines and spirits to gift and grace your holiday table.
Vodka from Vermont!
Vermont White Vodka is distilled from pure milk sugar. This unique base ingredient gives Vermont White its smooth texture and creamy mouth feel. Vermont White is perfect on its own or in any cocktail, and makes a perfect Dirty Martini, Bloody Mary, or Cosmo.
Vermont Gold Vodka is a pure, delicate vodka distilled from the sap of maple trees, the very essence of Vermont. Maple is a complex sugar which yields a wonderful aroma with a hint of warmth in the finish. For the vodka purist, enjoy Vermont Gold on the rocks, or in a martini with a twist.
Available direct from the distillery in Quechee or at Vermont agency liquor stores. For out of state deliveries, you can order online at www.drinkupny.com, http://www.parkaveliquor.com/ or http://www.astorwines.com/
Vermont Spirits
For the holidays I prefer the Traditional semi-sweet mead, Spiced mead or Cranberry Mead.
All of the mead is made with Vermont Honey and Vermont grown fruit. These three styles represent the most popular flavors for this time of year.
Mark of Artesano Mead
We love to give small bottles of our Honeycrisp Ice Cider as holiday gifts. They are the perfect size to end a special dinner for two! It is beautifully packaged in a stunning 375ml or 100ml bottle. If purchased directly from our farm market, we are offering a 10% discount on a 12 count box of the 100ml bottles, perfect little gifts, stocking stuffers or trial size.
Here is a link to our website, where we take orders for Holiday Apple Gift boxes and a variety of other apple products!
Jen Abbey and Julianna White of Champlain Orchards
A great holiday gift from VT.... Tough to go wrong with a bottle of Boyden Valley Winery's own Riverbend Red from Cambridge VT! Perfect for any holiday meal or just relaxing with friends & family around the holiday fire! Happy Holidays from Arvad's Grill & Pub,
Patrick Dwyer, GM of Arvad's Grill and Pub
I can't think of a better gift, for friends, family or for yourself, than one of our wonderful award-winning, Shelburne Vineyard Vermont wines crafted from the grapes we grow on our vineyards here in Shelburne. Fresh Feed or Blog We've just released our Ice Wine "Duet," harvested last December at about 15 degrees F. from our Arctic Riesling and Vidal Blanc grapes grown on our vineyards in Shelburne. With a rich, smooth texture and flavors reminiscent of baked fruits, it's a perfect dessert for any holiday meal and is available only at our Shelburne Winery and Tasting Room. Other choices, more widely available, are our crisp, dry white wine, Lousie Swenson, with its slightly floral and citrusy nose, refreshing acidity and stony minerality, our semi-dry white, LaCrescent, that exudes an elegant balance of sweetness and crisp acidity and a rich, warm apricot nose, and our rich and complex red, Marquette, with notes of dark berries and a warming spiciness that balances its oak aged, unfiltered richness. Taken by themselves or paired in one of our gift baskets with our souvenir wine glasses and a selection of Vermont's wonderful hand-crafted cheeses and chocolates....a gift to savor!
Gail of Shelburne Vineyards
Here at Caledonia Spirits in Hardwick, VT we find that people are looking forward to enjoying our Barr Hill Gin and Elderberry Cordial in festive combinations over the holidays. The Barr Hill Gin 375 ml bottle as well as the Caledonia Spirits Elderberry Cordial 375ml bottle make great house warming gifts any time of year! Enjoy these recipes for Vermont drinks with your friends and family over the holidays:
Elderberry Gin Fizz
½ oz Barr Hill Gin
¾ oz Elderberry Cordial
¾ oz simple syrup
¾ oz lemon juice
Egg white
Shake all ingredients together and strain over ice.
The Vermonter
½ cinnamon stick ½ fresh pear
2 lemon wedges 2 ½ oz Barr Hill Gin
½ oz maple syrup In a shaker, muddle all except gin. Add
gin, fill with ice. Shake well and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
Happy Holidays,
Todd Hardie of Caledonia Spirits
I may be biased but I think that Vermont Wine is the perfect holiday gift. Many of my happiest and most fun memories involve wine. Why not support local wineries while giving a gift that not only tastes great, but promotes entertaining social interactions too! My favorite Vermont Wine is The Digger's Dance by Fresh Tracks Farm and it makes the most delicious red wine brownies I have yet to try. Drizzle some Fat Toad Farm over the top of those babies, and you are surely in for a treat!
Tracy Roux of Fresh Tracks Farm Vineyard and Winery
Ice wine is one of my favorite things to give this time of year. Ice wine-- a rich dessert wine made from grapes left on the vine till they're frozen-- is dessert in a bottle, and makes a special ending to any dinner. I also really enjoy ice cider, a dessert wine made from frozen sweet cider with an apple-y tang. I highly recommend Windfall Orchard's ice cider (www.windfallorchardvt.com), available at the Middlebury Farmer's Market and in select stores. Here at Lincoln Peak, we also make an ice wine, Nightfires, available at our tasting room just north of Middlebury and on our website.
Sara Granstrom of Lincoln Peak Vineyards
