At Hotel Vermont, Juniper Bar & Restaurant has long been our signature welcome, an invitation to pause, settle in, and make a connection with locally sourced food and beverages.

Juniper is not simply a hotel bar, it’s a community gathering space where locals and visitors sit side by side experiencing what Vermont’s best artisans and producers put on our plate and in our glass.

Music floods our space on Wednesday and Friday’s, the covered outdoor terrace is open year round with lake views and fireplaces. Juniper Terrace provides refuge for our guests from the realities of Vermont’s climate, a late frost in the spring, a wet stretch in July or the deep freeze of mid winter. These climate realities are challenging for our agricultural and food systems, specifically local wine makers.

Most Vermont wine makers work with hybrid grapes. Hybrid grapes are crosses of European wine varieties with hardier native vines, bred to survive winters that drop to thirty below, resist the mildew that thrives in our humidity, and ripen before the first frost. Hybrid grapes and the techniques used by local vignerons perfectly reflect the resilience and ethos of Vermont’s agriculture and food systems.

Hotel Vermont teamed up with the local winemaker Iapetus for the first time in 2019 to create our house wine made from hybrid grapes. Hotel Vermont x Iapetus, a light bodied red wine inspired by our favorite cool climate wines from the alpine regions of Europe.

“They were looking for a light red,” said Ethan Joseph, head winegrower at Iapetus. “It’s chillable, just easy drinking, pairs well with a lot of food, can have it with a meal, cannot have it with a meal, just something to relax with and enjoy.”

This year’s vintage followed a challenging 2025 growing season. After a late frost and wet spring Vermont entered an extended drought through the fall. Iapetus (under the Shelburne Vineyards umbrella) saw their hybrid grapes resiliency on full display with their vines in Charlotte and Shelburne still producing despite the conditions. To achieve the desired wine, a glass to be enjoyed with dinner or sip on Juniper Terrace, the team at Iapetus blended three styles. A robust red grape called Petit Pearl was blended with bright white varietals like Louise Swenson and L’Acadie Blanc and finished with a skin contact (also known as orange wine) Le Crescenet. This ingenuity and outside the box wine making is exactly what defines Vermont artisanship.

“It’s just super refreshing,” Joseph said. “It’s very fruit forward, perfect for just hanging out, sitting on the patio around the fire pit or looking out your room window at the lake.”

“You’re going to get flavors and different styles of wines that are inherently unique to Vermont,” said Tyler Mackelvey, Iapetus’ general manager. “We try to highlight that when we have customers coming, like this bottle of wine only exists here. The varieties and the styles are very unique to this place.”

That uniqueness – and the ability of local winegrowers to adapt to Vermont’s climate – has the Champlain Valley on the cusp of federal recognition as an American viticultural area. The designation will help local wine gain recognition and grow the state’s profile in the industry.

“We hope that this boosts and highlights Vermont wine growing and also gives retailers in particular, including places like the hotel, a bigger storyline to talk about,” Mackelvey said. “So having that partnership and being able to have that storyline is hugely important to small business owners.”

This new designation for Vermont wine is one of the reasons that we are committed to local producers, it’s a shared step forward and an ongoing commitment to helping one another rise.

“It is local agriculture, it is wine, but it is also part of the greater food network that exists within Vermont,” Mackelvey said. “Hotel Vermont looking to use that as another avenue to bring in a local product to their restaurant and bar is important, especially important to us as growers.”

The story of Hotel Vermont x Iapetus is one of a long standing friendship and desire to work with Vermont agriculture in a changing climate. Most importantly, the finished product needs to be delicious.

We think it is, and would love the chance to host you for a glass.