As part of our DigInVT Holiday Gift Guide, we present to you some wine and spirit ideas! Our Vermont makers offer many wonderful products rooted in the land to gift to family and friends. Bottles of wine or favorite spirits have always been not only easy presents to give, but this year allow people to celebrate safely at home. Additional distillery and winery holiday ideas are below!
Please check about shipping, curbside pick up, or local delivery with each business.
Gift a Bottle
Search our website for DigInVT wineries and distilleries to shop online, find their products in local stores, or arrange for curbside pick up. Our members make beverages perfect for apéritif, happy hour, dinner pairings, dessert, and more.
Drink Kits & Mixers
Make drinks at home with your loved ones. Try watching some cocktail-making videos to learn how! Appalachian Gap Distillery has several cocktail videos. Many of our members have recipes on their websites, too.
- Boyden Valley Winery & Spirits makes a Vermont Ice Maple cocktail gift box with their Ice Maple Creme Liqueur or purchase their Kir Royale gift box with Frontenac Brut Rose and Cassis (plus cocktail cards in each).
- Caledonia Spirits offers house made seasonal, tonic, and ginger syrups.
- Putney Mountain Winery & Spirits has fun adult chocolate drink recipes with their Simply Chocolate Liqueur and other cocktail ideas.
- Shrubbly is an herbalist crafted sparkling shrub (+bubbly) that is great on its own (a shot of wellness) or used as a drink mixer.
Cocktails To-Go
Perfect for an adult stocking stuffer or family happy hour at home, some Vermont distillers offer pre-mixed and packaged cocktails.
- Caledonia Spirits creates new cocktails each week and classics include Barr Hill Bee's Knees and Cat's Pajamas at their Gin Lane To-Go.
- Mad River Distillers offers ready-to-drink Old Fashioneds in 3 different flavors.
- SILO Distillery has ready-to-drink Maple Manhattans, Lavender Cosmos, Maple Whiskey Sours, and Blue-B Trap (SILO gin and Blake Hill blueberry shrub).
Holiday Glögg
Gift the ingredients for a glögg (a traditional warm Nordic spiced and mulled drink for the winter)!
- Boyden Valley Winery & Spirits sells their Glögg by the bottle.
- Fresh Tracks Farm Vinyeard & Winery's recipe.
Wine Clubs
Gift someone wine all year long! Purchase a wine club membership:
- Boyden Valley Winery & Spirits - become a Boyden VIP.
- Lincoln Peak Vineyard - read about what wine club members receive.
- North Branch Vineyards - Winemaker's Cellar Club for discounts, tasting pre-releases, and wine shipments.
- Shelburne Vineyard - become a "Barrel Thief" with their wine club: "the gift that keeps on giving."
- Snow Farm Vineyard - chose between two different clubs.
Related Artisanal Products
- Artesano Mead also offers maple balsamic vinegar, honey, daily tonic, turmeric mead, and apple cider vinegar.
- Bar Hill's Raw Honey is the special ingredient in their gins and vodka. Honor the honey bees with this honey gift!
- Boyden Valley Winery & Spirits makes a Maple Breakfast gift box with their organic maple syrup, a blueberry pancake mix, and Blake Hill Raspberry Mostarda Jam.
- Fable Farm Fermentory has cider vinegars, along with their wines.
- Fresh Tracks Farm Vineyard & Winery sells a Rosé Wine Vinegar.
- SILO Distillery offers various additional products, like their SILO Lavender Vodka infused cherries.
Gift Boxes
Many of these producers expertly create hand-selected gift boxes or baskets. Check their websites!
Sanitizer
Our state's distillers stepped up this past spring and shifted their production to produce hand sanitizer. This is truly a unique and artisanal gift for 2020!
- Barr Hill has been making hand sanitizer, in partnership with other local businesses, since the beginning of the pandemic for healthcare workers and their customers.
- Saxtons River Distillery makes sanitizer in southern Vermont.
- SILO Sanitizer uses Vermont grain.
Glassware + Barware
Many of the above mentioned Vermont businesses offer branded glassware, like rocks glasses, shot glasses, martini glasses, wine glasses, even mason jars and flasks. Check their websites! See Barr Hill's enamelware tumbler, Moscow mule mug, honey bear glass, shakers, jigger, and basic cocktail tools. If you have someone with a UVM connection on your list, check the UVM gift site for branded barware, like shot glasses and a sommelier corkscrew.
Apparel
Gift hats, t-shirts, and hoodies! Mad River Distillers has a great selection, including "Drinking Buddy" dog bandanas and tees of all sorts, plus metal shot glasses. We also love the Fable Farm Fermentory logo on their blue t-shirts.
Pairings
- Boyden Valley Winery has the perfect pairing of red wine and Lake Champlain Organic Chocolate in their classic black gift box.
- Shelburne Vineyard also sells other local products online to pair with a wine purchase, like Shelburne Farms cheese, Blake Hill Preserves, and shortbread. Also see their Happiness Boxes, which contain cheese, crackers, charcuterie, and more.
- Snow Farm Vineyard will create a custom gift basket with local maple syrup, chocolate, jams, pasta, and meats, to go with their large variety of wine, accessories, and more.
Books
- An Unlikely Vineyard by winegrower, Deirdre Heekin of La Garagista about her farm journey
- Distilled in Vermont: A History & Guide with Cocktail Recipes by Chris Maggiolo
- Drink Vermont: Beer, Wine, and Spirits of the Green Mountain State by Liza Gershman
- Seasons in a Vermont Vineyard: The Shelburne Vineyard Cookbook by Lisa Cassell-Arms
- Wines of Vermont: A History of Pioneer Fermentation by Todd Trzaskos
This DigInVT Holiday Gift Guide was made possible by support from the new UVM Office of Engagement. The office is the University’s “front door” for private, public, and non-profit entities looking to partner with UVM to address community needs.
