Wine is an excellent base for cocktails. This fermented intoxicant is synonymous with celebration in many cultures, so it naturally makes mixed drinks more festive.

However, if you want to up the ante, use high-end wines to make your seasonal beverages extra special. Marketview Liquor should be your first stop for some of the most sought-after rare wines on the market at affordable prices.

Marketview Liquor — Aging Like Fine Wine

Marketview Liquor has a distinguished pedigree. It started out as Vintage Liquors — a part-time venture the Palmeri brothers Mike and Dan opened in 1972. Eventually, Mike decided to go full time and bought his brother’s share.

He rebranded this humble wine and liquor store in Penfield, New York, into Marketview Liquor — as a reference to its view of the local Tops — and moved the business to a 4,500-square-foot space in the Henrietta Plaza in Henrietta, New York.

Despite losing its customer base after rebranding and relocating, the store gradually grew its volume through an aggressive advertising campaign, spreading the message that high-quality wine and liquors shouldn’t break the bank. Marketview Liquor delivered on its promise, successfully establishing a solid reputation for quality, variety, affordability and customer service.

In 2003, Mike moved the business to a 27,000-square-foot space in the same location, which included storage and warehouse facilities. By this time, Marketview Liquor was a household name. In 2007, the store launched its site to become a national wine retailer, signaling it was ready for prime time. Mike and his staff have never looked back.

Today, Marketview Liquor boasts a dizzying array of wines and spirits from around the world. Bar owners gravitate toward the store to find the most elusive drinks from premier regions for Old World and New World wine — such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tuscany, Marlborough, Finger Lakes and Napa Valley — and snag the best liquor and wine deals.

Marketview Liquor’s extensive range of reds and whites would engross any discerning mixologist seeking inspiration for new concoctions. With thousands of wines to choose from, you can experiment with novel drink ideas that capture the seasonal spirit.

A Rare Selection of Hard-to-Find Wines From the Finest Regions

Marketview Liquor offers more than 100 high-end wines from the most admired brands. These picks show you what to expect from this curated selection of rare wines.

2004 Marco De Bartoli Superiore Oro Riserva

This 500-milliliter dessert wine hails from the Italian city of Marsala on the island of Sicily. Made from the 2004 white wine grape Grillo harvest, Marco De Bartoli Superiore Oro Riserva is full-bodied yet semi-dry. It’s less sweet than many of its kind but less hard than overly tannic wines.

With an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 18% — which is above the average for wines — this varietal can spike and lend intense flavors to classic beverages.

2010 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin

This red blend has earned a perfect score of 100 from Wine Advocate, which speaks volumes about its rich taste. This 750-milliliter Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin combines the flavors of Counoise, Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah grown in the Southern French region of the Rhone Valley and cherry-picked in 2010.

This high-viscosity red wine has 15% ABV and owes its character to disruptive weather, which spoiled crop flowering and reduced grape yield. The grape varieties also matured slowly that year due to the cool, dry summer, extending the harvest season until October. The result is an equally sour and bitter elixir.

About a decade and a half later, this sharp-tasting rare wine is now ready to come out of the cellar. Its distinct flavor profile should be enough to make any cocktail enjoyable. Still, consider retelling its story to give your drink more meaning and impress guests.

2013 Moet & Chandon Dom Perignon Champagne

This 750-milliliter bottle of bubbly is very dry. Thanks to chardonnay and pinot noir, this champagne gives off intense aromas of grapefruit, lemon and peach fruit. Its ABV is only 12.5%, so it’s a superb choice to mix something tangy and tropical — like the cranberry mimosa — people can revel in.

2014 Bettina Bryant Proprietary Red

This California wine originates from the North Coast. Full-bodied, dry and with an ABV of 15.2%, it has earned an exceptional 97 rating from Vinous.

This 750-milliliter bottle of Bettina Bryant Proprietary Red’s accents of cinnamon, cranberry, mint, rose petal and sweet red cherry come from cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

2016 Newton Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon

This California varietal wine traces its provenance from the 500-acre North Coast cabernet sauvignon vineyard in the mountains. It’s astringent and bursts with pomegranate and black currant with hints of crushed rock, cigar box and cedar — worthy of a 94 Wine Enthusiast rating.

Wine connoisseurs expect the 750-milliliter 2016 Newton Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon to peak from 2026 to 2030. However, uncorking this 14.5%-ABV wine sooner is perfectly fine to create new concoctions.

2017 Penfolds Bin 798 RWT Shiraz

This varietal wine from Down Under is an aromatic powerhouse, emitting scents of anise, currants, dried flowers, plums and raspberry. If you have a sensitive nose, you may even sense some earthy herbs, beet, butterscotch oak and furniture polish.

Rich, satiny and fruity, this full-bodied Australian wine has an ABV of 14.5%. It’s powerfully tannic and spicy. Sophisticated palates would identify the pronounced oak influence on every 750-milliliter bottle of 2017 Penfolds Bin 798 RWT Shiraz.

Overall, Wine Enthusiast gave it a 92 rating. The same publisher says wines made from shiraz harvested in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, in 2017 weren’t at peak as early as 2022, but this dry wine is ripe for mixing drinks.

2018 Capensis Chardonnay

This South African export has an ABV of 14% and is predominantly peachy with nutty undertones. A sniff of this Chardonnay varietal wine would bring to mind almond skin, baked lemon and white peach. It is medium-bodied — somewhere in the middle of water and whole milk. This product from the Western Cape, South Africa, has an oily, supple texture, allowing it to move freely in the mouth.

Many wine collectors prefer to hold and keep the 2018 Capensis Chardonnay in the cellar, allowing it to age some more. However, you can definitely drink this semi-dry wine now. Using it for cocktails encourages you to be more creative with condiments to enhance its inherent nuanced flavor profile.

With a 93 rating, renowned wine critic James Suckling would agree that you’d enjoy every drop of this 750-milliliter bottle.

2019 Thierry Allemand “Reynard” Cornas

This syrah wine from the Rhone Valley, France, is complex. It delights the olfactory nerve with blue fruit, cherry preserve, incense and potpourri aromas. Plus, it tastes like cherry liqueur, sweet blueberry and violet pastille with a slight accent of smoked meat. This medium-bodied wine has an ABV of 14.5% and a lengthy, steady finish with a flowery and slow-building tannic end.

The 2019 Thierry Allemand “Reynard” Cornas scored 98 points in Vinous’ book. It’s one of those wines that need little help from bitters, syrup, hot sauce and other condiments, as it’s already wonderfully flavorful.

2019 San Pedro Altair Red

Every 750-milliliter bottle consists of 82% cabernet sauvignon and an 18% mix of cabernet franc, syrah and carmenere harvested from the Chilean wine regions of Central, Rapel and Cachapoal valleys. This grape variety composition gives it a spicy and peppery taste. It’s full-bodied and bone-dry, which means its residual sugar level is negligible.

This 2019 San Pedro Altair Red can still be a refreshing cocktail base when combined with well-thought-out condiments. Wine Advocate rates this red blend at 93.

Exciting Wine Deals, Endless Bargains

Marketview Liquor moves mountains to make hard-to-find wines within reach in more ways than one. The store offers various unbelievably great wine deals to appeal to the budgets of smaller bars and mixologists who can’t afford to buy in bulk and enjoy wholesale prices.

If you buy from Marketview Liquor, you can choose from hundreds of wines rated 90 points or above under $15. You can slash 10% off many items when purchasing per case instead of per bottle. The store also has a list of fine wines under $9.99 — some of which are eligible for the case discount.

Marketview Liquor ships wine to 44 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. It waives the shipping fee when you order 12 bottles or more of some wines. However, free shipping only applies to the 42 contiguous states this national retailer serves.

Year-Round Wine Tasting Events — No Signup Required

The Marketview Liquor team hosts simultaneous seminars throughout the year, teaching average individuals to appreciate rare wines and spirits like pros.

Anyone can join the company’s wine tasting events free of charge. There’s no signup or reservation, either. You can just walk in and start sampling wine and liquor when the team visits a winery or distillery near you.

Invent New Cocktails and Reimagine the Favorites With Rare Wines

Use only the rarest of top-shelf bottles to elevate wine cocktails. When you’re on the hunt for hard-to-find wines, check out Marketview Liquor’s selections first to make your search easier and a lot more fun.