At The Ginger Man, we not only offer our guests the best wine bar experience in Albany, NY, but we offer a wide selection of specialty cocktails and dessert drinks as well. Maybe you would like a sparkling Prosecco cocktail? Or perhaps one of our signature martinis? Our staff will gladly help you figure out which cocktail to pair with your dessert, or take specialty orders. Our Prosecco cocktails offer us a fun yet refined spin on dessert drinks, and can be purchased by the glass, or by the pitcher. The Ginger Man has taken this traditional concept and placed our unique blend of knowledge and creativity to being you variations found at no other wine bar in Albany, or anywhere else. The martini is the quintessential “classic cocktail.” The Ginger Man wine bar in Albany has elevated the cocktail to being one of our most popular guest selections. We are positive it can please a wide variety of tastes and personalities, from the traditional to the daring. The Ginger Man also offers a wide selection of international award-winning and domestic microbrews available on tap or in bottles.

Whether you prefer the hops of an IPA or a rich stout, the Ginger Man wine bar in Albany has something for every palate. Our wine bar goes beyond the grape in offering the finest scotch in Albany. We invite you to partake of our selection of 15-year single malt scotches, imported and regionally made whiskeys, and small batch bourbons. Try our Scotch Tasting Flight of any three scotches of your choice. We did not gain the reputation of the best wine bar in Albany simply by offering wine pairing with our meals. Our knowledge and decades of experience allow us to pair our wide selection of dessert wines with some of the most decadent and sophisticated desserts in the Albany area. From our homemade hand-churned ice cream, to our Crème Brûlée, or our cheesecake selection, we have the best desserts and dessert wines in Albany. Our wine list in Albany is second to none!  We have an inventory of over 1600 bottles of wine for every price range and palate.  Our wine specials vary daily, so come see why we are the best Wine Bar in Albany, NY!

Dessert wines come in numerous styles, and there’s certainly at least one that will please even those who assume they won’t like any like sweet wines. (After all, dessert wines can be serious stuff. For example, sweet and full-bodied Sauternes is one of the most sought-after wines of Bordeaux.) Dessert wines run the gamut from light, fizzy and off-dry to dark, full-bodied and fortified with a few extra points of alcohol by volume. So pair accordingly, remembering that lighter wines pair nicely with light fare, and that more substantial wines are needed with richer, more deeply flavored desserts.You may be tempted to finish off dinner’s dry wine with dessert, but that won’t show either the wine or the dessert to its best advantage. You may be tempted to finish off dinner’s dry wine with dessert, but that won’t show either the wine or the dessert to its best advantage.Alas, dessert wine too is a victim of industry writer fickleness, and finding time to fit it into your busy wine schedule between tawny port, Manzanilla sherry and grappa can be tough.

Well for me, dessert wine is a constant joy, and the more traditional and recognised the better. wine and food tourismWhile it can be a little pricey, you certainly don’t need to be forking out for a Chateau d’Yquem when there’s some cracking Tokaji, non-vintage Sauternes and Aussie Muscats doing the rounds for about a tenner a bottle.top 10 red wine brands from around the world But in terms of value for money, to my mind the sweet wines of Monbazillac are King – so I went there to discover the secret of this affordable and consistent product.red wine glass cake Sitting haughtily on a hillside above the beautiful medieval city of Bergerac in the Dordogne region of France is the iconic wine village of Monbazillac. best wine to start drinking with

The hillsides are carpeted with vines rolling down to the Dordogne river a couple of miles away. It is one of the most glorious views in France.old red wine stain on wood The best of the region’s grapes – the main ones being muscadelle, sémillon and sauvignon blanc, and all of which are harvested by hand once the noble rot has set in during the onset of the chill – can be found at the crest of this hill next to the Chateau.red wine cold sick All the vines near the town are protected by the Monbazillac AOC (the acronym that ensures the wine is only available from grapes grown in that region), yet the Chateau’s own wines are the paragons of the style. In the Chateau’s outlet I paid out €16 (appproximately £13) for a 500ml bottle of tempting Chateau Monbazzilac 2011. This incidentally would be a lot harder to get hold of, and therefore more expensive, outside of France, for this is a gold-medal-winning wine, and rightly so.

The honeyed notes offset with a tinge of grapefruit and elderflower makes it a really enjoyable entry wine. It’s called dessert wine, pudding wine or sweet wine, but I really don’t believe in saving it for the end of your meal – go French, have it with your appetizer. It is a remarkable match for pates (especially something like Jamie’s Old-school chicken liver parfait). Otherwise, if you really must wait until dessert, then it crackles when taken with citrus flavours such as sorbet or a jelly. How about this clementine jelly together with a little piece of our Gluten-free citrus shortbread? Enjoy it responsibly, as it can come out a little bit stronger than your average wine – a small sherry schooner would suffice. Make sure it’s chilled and then left outside the fridge for 30 minutes at room temperature before serving to make sure all of the flavours have time to get over their chill and reveal their honeyed secrets. Although these AOC wines are available widely in the UK, and the Chateau’s own are a little harder to find, believe me when I say they’re worth the search.