Adirondack Winery to celebrate 9th anniversary in a Lake George 365 environment

A driver traveling through Lake George Village on a raw November night would expect to experience the post-season hush of a summer resort town all buckled up for winter — shuttered storefronts, traffic lights blinking above empty streets, dried and furled autumn leaves scraping along barren sidewalks.

It’s a lonely scene, but that was not the scene last November. Instead, that driver would find no place to park on the block between Montcalm and Amherst Streets. The traveler would see light spilling out onto Canada Street from the Adirondack Winery Tasting Room. A peek through the storefront windows would reveal several dozen people sipping wine and fumbling with skeins of chunky yarn. It was one night in the Winery’s Uncork and Craft series that brought people out to socialize, taste wine, sample locally produced foods and learn a craft. That one night was not an anomaly.

This hot spot in the center of a late-autumn Lake George Village is more than just a sign of good marketing of a popular product. It signals a shift that is taking place in century-old Lake George tourism norms. The Memorial Day to Labor Day season has been expanding on both ends; the shoulder seasons of spring and fall are now pushing up against the Winter Carnival/ski and snowmobile season. The Winery, which has always been opened year-round, if only for weekends during the “off” months, is committed, in 2017, to being open year-round, seven days a week– 365 days.

Last fall, the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce launched their Lake George 365 initiative with the goal of strengthening year-round tourism in Lake George. “I think the list of year-round businesses in Lake George is longer than people realize,” says Amanda May Metzger, Marketing Director at the Lake George Chamber. “The notion that ‘nothing’s open in the winter’ in the village is completely false. There are restaurants, the winery, Lake George Distilling Company, retailers and more,” Metzger says. “This past fall and winter were busy for us at the Chamber. It was not slow between interaction on social media and people calling and coming into the chamber looking for information on what to do in the winter.”

The Adirondack Winery will be celebrating its 9th Anniversary the weekend of April 7 – 9 with a host of special tastings, games and prizes at the tasting room. Their big anniversary gala, the Wine Infused Wine Pairing Dinner, will be held at the Fort William Henry Resort April 8. Tickets are still available for the five-course seated dinner, which includes a welcome reception, souvenir wine glass, prizes and an after-party with DJ entertainment.

Sasha and Michael Pardy opened the Adirondack Winery in 2008, producing 1,000 cases their first year at the Canada Street site, which featured a storefront tasting room. They’ve since moved production to a facility in Queensbury, and the Lake George tasting room remains open year-round hosting themed tasting weekends and event series that have contributed to an uptick in business over the traditionally slow fall and winter months.

The Winery partners with local businesses, including Barkeater Chocolates, SKETCH Design and Wax n’ Wix candle-making studio, to create unique experiences for their customers. “These collaborations with our local business friends have been so important,” says Sasha Pardy in a March press release. Metzger notes that the Winery’s fun and educational events have helped draw visitors to Lake George during the area’s slower months. “The fact that these events also feature collaborations between local businesses is fantastic, too,” says Metzger.

The Winery’s Uncork & Craft series combines wine and food tastings with creative endeavors — arm knitting an infinity scarf, painting wine totes and making wine glass candles. This May brings a little horticulture to the series with the Sip & Plant class. Participants will plant succulents in a flowerpot they’ve decorated while sipping wine. The Winery also hosts a Wine 101 series, which guides guests through wine pairings and explores wine-tasting topics.

These series were designed to appeal to Millennials, the generation born between 1981and 2000. The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) conducted a study in 2015 to learn more about this generation and their travel behaviors.  According to ROOST, Millennials number 80 million in America, a demographic 50 percent larger than the consequential Baby Boomer generation. “While people of all ages have been attending Wine 101, Uncork & Craft, and been taking part in our weekend wine tasting events,” says Pardy, “this effort has clearly worked in attracting more Millennials to our tasting room.”

In 2014, Pardy founded Adirondack Festivals LLC, which presented the June 2015 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival at the then new Festival Commons in Charles R. Wood Park. That first year drew a crowd exceeding 2,000. The June 2016 Festival more than doubled that number with 5,000 attendees, proving that a demand does exist for events beyond what July and August bring. The third annual Adirondack Wine & Food Festival is scheduled this year for June 24 and 25.

Other Lake George businesses are onboard with the 365 push. A half-dozen ice bars sprung up in the area this past winter. Several gift shops remained open along Canada Street through the “off” season.  The weekend after Halloween brought a crowd to the Adirondack Pub & Brewery for Pumpkin Chunkin, an event that will return in an expanded form this coming fall.

“The Inn at Erlowest organized an excellent Winterfest in January and February with fire bars made locally at Telescope,” Metzger notes. “All of this, with Winter Carnival, helped to keep us busy. This spring has not been slow either,” says Metzger. “Maple events and St. Patrick’s Day events were popular in March. Adirondack Winery’s Anniversary events will likely draw more than 200 people this weekend. We’ll start May with the Northeastern District of Barbershop Harmony Society and round it out with Law Enforcement Officers Weekend. These are two events we hope will be major draws in May, before Memorial Day.”