Colonial Wine & Spirits

Cyndi Leonard

Colonial Wine & Spirits is located a few miles from Highmark Stadium – where the Buffalo Bills play. Is football season your favorite season?

I really love all the seasons in Buffalo. There are not too many cities where you can have all seasons happen in one week. It was 80 degrees the other day and now it’s 45 and who knows, it could snow tomorrow. But fall is a fun season for the store. Half the stadium attendees have to drive by our store to go to the games. We are literally on the same street as the stadium.

What is the store like during football season?

We try to do a lot in the store. We have Buffalo Bills wines. There are a lot of liquor and wine sponsors for the Bills. We have a lot of Bills décor in the store. It makes it a lot of fun. Everybody likes to tailgate in Buffalo, so it’s a lot of fun.

We let the staff wear Bills gear. Pretty much everyone wears Bills gear on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and sometimes even Monday. Sundays can be quiet but then again if you have a night game or a Monday game, then Sunday is normal. You’d be surprised how many people go out and do things. If someone just wants to get out of the house they’ll come shop. And there are some people who just don’t like football.

What is the atmosphere in the area on a game day?

Oh, it’s fun! We’re in a plaza with a Tops grocery store so we’ll get a lot of people even the day before. We’re a meeting place. You’ll see people in the parking lot “pre-tailgating.” They’ll grab some sandwiches and drive down closer to the stadium. It’s always fun. All the cars driving around all have Bills flags on them. Everyone is all into what’s going on and all excited. People really do plan their schedule around it. It’s definitely not a happy day the next day if the Bills lose. It’s like a big cloud is hanging over all of Buffalo. But when they win – everybody is in a good mood.

Tell us about your pre-game tailgate/gameday gift card giveaways.

On social media, if someone likes our post and follows our page, they’ll be entered into a $25 gift card giveaway.  And for every friend that you get to follow us, you get another entry. In the store, customers will make a guess of who will score the first touchdown for the Bills, and they’ll be entered to win. If you get the guess correct, you get another entry. We also have cornhole at the store so if a customer plays, they’ll get an entry. It’s just another way to get people engaged and having fun while they’re in the store. We probably get around 400 or 500 entries every week.

Are Buffalo Bills-themed wines popular? Which do you recommend?  

There’s a cabernet sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, rosé and sparkling wine. They have different etched bottles with different designs on them. Some say, “Bills Mafia.” Some have an image of the old, existing stadium. That was very popular because it was released right when the new stadium was breaking ground.  Some people buy one of each of them. Most people buy them for the bottles, but the wine is good. People really like the sparkling wine for mimosas on gameday. Sometimes you buy a product just for the bottle but these are good wines. The product is a good product. People buy them a lot for gift giving. They make great gifts.

What wine and/or spirit is popular this time of year?

This time of year people are switching to red wine. They’re roséd out. They’re switching to red whether it is a cabernet or a red blend or a pinot noir. Everyone wants to cozy up with a hardier red wine with a blanket and a fire.

Spirits-wise, tequila and vodka are our bigger sellers. Buffalo is a big vodka town. The “ready to drink” beverages are really popular too. Not just canned cocktails, but already-made drinks. Whether it’s a Negroni, a Manhattan or a Cosmopolitan – they’re already ready. People are really starting to like those because they’re good quality. They use name-brand spirits in them. They seem expensive at $30. But you’re getting 2 to 4 drinks out of them. You’re paying less than you’d pay if you went out and ordered them. They’re nice if you’re at home and feel like a drink but don’t feel like making them.

What do you recommend to drink around the Thanksgiving table?

If you’re a red wine lover, I usually suggest a pinot noir or Beaujolais. The Thursday before Thanksgiving is the release of Beaujolais Nouveau which comes out every year. It is a Thanksgiving-based, spirited wine. It’s the first wine of the season from that winery. Every year it tastes different and the labels are always super fun. But across the board, I suggest a pinot noir. It’s the perfect balance. It’s not too heavy. If you’re doing white, a lot of people will go with a Riesling. A lot of German white wines go very well with Thanksgiving food. If those aren’t your style then I would do an un-oak chardonnay, not an oaky chardonnay because it’s too creamy. Then again, we also tell people you don’t have to drink white and white meat and red with red meat. Drink what you want to drink. If you like super sweet wine, then drink that. Whatever makes you happy.

Tell us about the events you host like the Fall Wine & Spirits Tasting. What inspires you to host events?

It’s a great way for customers to come in and really get an opportunity to try a lot of the products they don’t normally try. We do tastings almost every single Friday and Saturday. We have small tables with three or four companies doing tastings. But the bigger ones that we do on the second Tuesday of the month. The customers get an opportunity to try a lot of different things. We do try to theme them, so that one we have in November will be themed for Thanksgiving and the holidays. And we’ll do it again in December and it will be themed for Christmas and New Year’s. We try to get a food truck here so that there’s something else fun going on to attract them. And we have a small private room, we hold private tastings in there. We list those on Eventbrite, they cost $10 to attend. They’re a little bit more quiet and intimate and an opportunity to really learn about a product, the winemaker, the master distiller. We’ve done cocktail-making classes. People like those because it’s a smaller environment, we cap it off at 25 people so they have the opportunity to ask questions and really learn more about the different products.

You host tasting classes. What does a tasting class entail?

Everyone knows Josh wines but nobody knows about the Josh reserves so we’ll do a Josh reserve class. There are usually around 5 wines that they can try. They’ll do a food pairing or a charcuterie board and they get to speak to somebody from the company. They’ll learn the difference in the wines, what makes something a reserve versus an estate grown versus a single plot wine versus a mass-produced wine, how the wine is made. What oak means versus un-oaked and new oak or old oak.

We’ve done bourbon classes. We might have the whole line from one specific bourbon or paired bourbons. Same with tequila or cocktail-making classes. It’s a more hands-on experience for the customers. We do them on Wednesdays and they’re only an hour or an hour and a half at most. We had a bourbon class where the bourbon was put in wine barrels. That’s a new thing now. Wine is being put in alcohol barrels and alcohol is being put in wine barrels. That was a fun one because we tasted the wines and bourbons so there were more couples there because they both got to taste their favorite.

What’s your go-to drink of choice?

I really like tequila and gin. My quick favorite is a paloma. And I love boutiquey gins so anything that’s make with a fun gin with different fruits, I love that. But I’ll drink anything, I’m open.

You were nominated for the Best of 716 awards for best wine store and best liquor store. What makes Colonial Wine & Spirits a community favorite?

I think it’s what we do in the community and for the community. I’m highly involved at Roswell Park and Camp Good Days and Special Times. Within the Orchard Park community, we’re involved with the Chamber. We do a lot of chamber events and we try to support a lot of things locally. We do what we can in the community to make everybody happy. It’s nice and it makes us feel good – to participate in stuff like that.

The store opened in 2002 so we’re going on 22 years. Our customers will come here for pricing, quality, selection, customer service, all that stuff. There are a lot of customers that we just know over time. You start to know them. You talk to them and find out about their kids, their grandkids, their dogs. It’s fun.

We also do a lot of curbside pickups. That didn’t take place until COVID. I think that’s across the board. We also still have a few old-fashioned customers who want to pick up the phone and call us to place their order over the phone. Ordering ahead of time is especially nice if you’re ordering cases or when the weather is yucky.  We’ll wheel it right out to your car.