Winery’s New Tasting Room and Bottle Shop Opens in Downtown Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Shimmering riesling, citrusy gewurztraminer, and sweet vignoles filled the empty glasses of red-clad revelers a week before Christmas, which was the soft opening of Keuka Spring Vineyards’ new tasting room and bottle shop on Saratoga’s Spring Street.

The Finger Lakes-based winery initially opened a smaller outpost inside the Saratoga Marketplace last year before deciding to upgrade to a larger space; one more suitable for wine tastings, camaraderie, and group events.

“When we originally moved here, there was really nothing available, so we took that lease in the Marketplace,” said Autumn Manning, Keuka’s East New York regional manager. “It was 300 square feet. We didn’t even have plumbing, so we only offered $15 wine tastings in a plastic cup.”

Despite its constricting former digs, Keuka managed to acquire more than 200 wine club members, Manning said. But much has changed. Take-home cups have been replaced with proper glassware. A cooler is stocked with local cheeses and meats. Fresh bread, baked by the Saratoga-based Bread Basket, is available. A back room is lined, practically floor to ceiling, with bottles that surround a glass table supported by wine barrels. (This bottle shop can host as many as 17 people and be reserved for celebratory events like bachelorette parties.) Also, the bar top in the front tasting room was made from trees cut down at the vineyard’s Finger Lakes location, where it served as the winery’s bar top for decades before moving to its new Spa City home.

Keuka was enticed to enter the Saratoga market due to a combination of factors, Manning said: The vineyard’s license allows it to have up to seven tasting rooms in New York State, Keuka was already collaborating with the Saratoga Eagle distribution company, and the New York Racing Association was interested in having Keuka pour its wines at the Saratoga Race Course. Thus, the winery’s array of award-winning wines found its way to the Spa City.

Keuka Spring Vineyards’ Saratoga location is now open seven days a week. A $15 tasting allows patrons to sample five different wine varietals (an additional “welcome” pour unofficially brings the total to six). 

The tasting room and bottle shop is located at 15 Spring Street, the former home of Red Wolf.