Any wine can be a “holiday wine” if you like it and it brings some joy to the season. That said, there are some categories of wine that sell better than others this time of year, and our local wineries and wine shops are stocked and ready to help you pick the perfect ones. With many people buying bottles for dinners, gifts and parties, this is usually their busiest season. Here’s a quick introduction to some of their holiday best-sellers.

Spiced and Specialty

Henning Knipprath and the crew at Spokane’s Knipprath Cellars (knipprath-cellars.com) specialize in port wines. Their traditional and New World offerings—like their Chocolate Truffle Port and their coffee-cinnamon Spanish Nudge—are unique, and they might be perfect for particular people on your gift list.

One of their most popular seasonal wines, which Henning says sells well “through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the ski season,” is their Alpine Spiced Wine. Drawing from Henning’s German heritage, Alpine is based on his family gluehwein recipe, and they age it with orange slices, cloves, cinnamon sticks, ginger, and other spices. Right out of the bottle it’s ready for a quick heat-up in the microwave one cup at a time, or you can pour a bottle or two into a pan on the stove to stoke a holiday party.

Grant Gondry of Vino! A Wine Shop (vinowine.com) in downtown Spokane says that while they don’t carry any spiced wines, he happily recommends people try making their own at home with a large tea infuser bag or screen: “You get some of the spices and it’s not difficult. It smells so good in your house when you do it yourself.”

In Post Falls, John Eckhart at Enoteca Fine Wine and Beer (corkjoy.com) stocks a selection of spiced wines this time of year, and one of the customer favorites is mulled mead. He also has another unique seasonal pick—cranberry wine—which sells very well through winter.

Spending Up

John says that people often buy their most expensive bottles of the year around the holidays, so he offers discounts on some of Enoteca’s top selections. “This is the time when I start selling some of my higher-end wines,” he says. “People like to give them as gifts.”

Grant at Vino! says that in addition to giving wine as a traditional gift, many people take bottles as thank-you gifts for the hosts of holiday parties: “What a great thought as a hostess gift, you know, a bottle of wine and some flowers or a poinsettia.”

Washington red blends are the best-selling category year-round at Vino!, and sales increase during the holidays, especially for higher-end labels. “People will spend $12-20 a bottle for their event wine,” says Grant, “and then often when they’re doing gift wine, or wine that they’re going to put on the table, they’ll spend up and shop a little higher-shelf.”

Bubbles

Grant at Vino! and John at Enoteca both say that sparkling wine sales peak during the holidays, especially around New Year’s Eve. Both shops are well-stocked with bubbles like cava, prosecco, and champagne.

Michael Townshend of Townshend Cellar on Green Bluff (townshendcellar.com) says their sparkling Mountain Dome wines sell well during the holidays, with the non-vintage brut being the most popular (look for the gnomes on the label). You can find the four Mountain Dome varietals, all of which are sparkling, at their Green Bluff tasting room alongside the large Townshend lineup which includes local favorite red blends T3 and Vortex.

“We also have a bunch of different dessert wines that make great gifts, like ports and ice wines,” he says. Outside the tasting room they even have a Christmas tree farm, so people can come select their Christmas tree and their Christmas wine in one afternoon. If you want to taste before you buy, Enoteca will have a tasting event in early December, and Vino! will host a holiday favorites tasting on December 23. Nearly all of the local wineries and wine shops will have special tastings, holiday parties, and sales, and a great place to start your search is the Cork District website: visitspokane.com/cork-district.