written by Dustin

France 44 would be remiss if we didn’t share our new treasure trove of German wines with you. Over the past year our market had lost one of the most famous German wine importers that had serviced the US for over 40 years. We worked tirelessly to get any news of what happened to these wines, phone calls, emails, the ever so important Zoom calls, and now we have finally found a new life line to bring us back some of our favorites.

Last week, we were lucky to land 14 new German wines. The, all important, and fan favorite Frtiz Muller Rose has reclaimed its spot in our rosé section. The Von Buhl Bone Dry Riesling and Rosé are now smiling back at us from their once empty shelf spaces. If you have never tried any of the aforementioned wines, you must, but please do not look over some of the other house favorites that have come back.

German wine is and always has been historically known for Riesling. Riesling once rivaled the storied wines of Champagne and Bordeaux in demand amongst world leaders, it has been known to be one of the most versatile food wines, and has a history of making some of the most age worthy wines of all time. The grape itself gets a bad rap due to the possibility of it having a high residual sugar content. But please, look no further, we have brought in several dry expressions for those who love a crispy white wine!

Maximin Grunhaus Riesling Monopol Mosel, Germany $25.99/ bottle

“A blend of fruit from the three grand crus that opens with clear, aromatic mango fruit and, after a while, lots of flinty notes of crushed stones. Silky, pure and enormously salty on the palate, this is a stunning, complex, tensioned and almost challenging Estate Riesling with lingering salinity and immense complexity and charisma.” – Wine Advocate

Becker Family Pinot Blanc Pfalz, Germany $21.99/ bottle

Looking past just Riesling there are many other white wines produced throughout Germany. Unfortunately, many of these other expressions of white wine are scarcely imported throughout our country. Lucky for you we have acquired wines from a small estate called Friedrich Becker Family. The winery specializes in pinot noir, pinot gris, and an exquisite pinot blanc.

“Prominent notes of toasted barrel and nut accent crisp white plum and grapefruit here. It’s a briskly composed and easy-drinking but elegant Pinot Blanc made completely dry.” – Wine Enthusiast

Meyer-Nakel Estate Pinot Noir Ahr, Germany $39.99/ bottle

One of the many hidden treasures of German wine is pinot noir. Sharing a close border to France, Germany has a history of making pinot noir that some suggest could rival its neighboring red Burgundies. Just like many of the non-riesling white wines, pinot noir is ever so difficult to procure in the US. These wines embody the vigor and opulence of world class expressions of pinot noir and are definitely worth a try.

“Bright and tangy, delivering black cherry, currant and raspberry fruit on a juicy profile. The long, spicy finish echoes sweet berry and toasty oak notes.” – Wine Spectator

written by Chaz

It is after Labor Day, and it seems the world is a’changing. The air is crisp, sweaters are out, my jeans still fit on my quarantine body (score!), football is back, and the Edina Starbucks ran out of pumpkin cream cold brew due to all the Gen-Z teens in the area needing a pick-me-up before attending their online school, leaving none for the rest of us. Nature is healing.

The classics of fall are all back, so naturally, we are back to selling a plethora of apple spirits, mainly the classic apple brandy. Now, while we all love ourselves a good apple brandy old fashioned, sidecar, or spiked cider, we want to challenge you to maybe think outside the “basket” a little.  I present to you two eau de vie, an apple flavored whiskey with cinnamon, and some apple liqueurs.

Quick eau-side 

In France and most of the European Union, eau de vie is referred to as a colorless fruit brandy not made from grapes. Everywhere else, this term can apply to most colorless brandies and fruit distilled liqueurs. Where a lot of classic brandy (think E&J, Camus, Remy Martin) can get big and fat, eau de vie is light. There is even a Canadian maple syrup eau de vie. It is a close cousin to schnapps, and a whole other list of liqueurs, but we are getting a little too deep into the weeds, or orchard, one may say.

Dampfwerk Apple Brandy

This is brandy in pure form without the barrel aging process. Dampfwerk runs a spectacular spirits program just over the way in St. Louis Park, and their lineup of brandies are all beautiful pieces of craftmanship, inside and out. Fresh apple skin aromas pierce the nose as you open and pour. MacIntosh apple with a slight green texture dominate the palate here, and a watery texture allows you to enjoy this brandy neat or mixed, not demanding anything from the drinker.

FINAL RATING: Getting your first iPhone

Neversink Apple Brandy

This is a similar product to Dampfwerk, but hailing all the way from Port Chester New York, an hour outside The Big Apple. Another eau de vie, this brandy stems into more granny smith character. Big fresh and juicy apple flavor permeates the profile, but Neversink still holds notes of tree bark, soft spices, and more.

FINAL RATING: One bushel of Honeycrisp apples from a local farmer’s market

Du Nord Spiced Apple Liqueur

Starting in Lake City by the Mississippi River, this spirit begins by picking Wealthy apples, the first apple to grow successfully in Minnesota. After juicing and traveling to Minneapolis, Du Nord blends the juice with a corn-based spirit and finishes with light spicing. Red apple forward, this juicy libation still features a good spice profile thanks to its 30% ABV, a little higher than most apple liqueurs. Du Nord has been making a great catalog of spirits locally, and this is one of the best local options for your apple cocktails.

FINAL RATING: Hitting all the health goals on your Apple Watch

Panther Spiked Apple

Panther Distilling out of Alexandria brings a corn whiskey infused with Minnesota apples and cinnamon. It’s apple pie in a bottle. Doughy pie crust, roasted apples, cinnamon, and nutmeg all flow through this whiskey. Plus, at only 15% ABV, you are not going to feel bad pouring yourself a second glass of this if the night takes you this far.

FINAL RATING: One fresh baked apple pie from granny

Tattersall Freewheeler Pommeau

A partnership with Sociable Cider Werks, this is one of the more complex apple liqueurs. Made by distilling an apple brandy from Sociable’s Freewheeler Cider, blending in unfermented Freewheeler juice, and resting on oak. The combination is a deeper apple complexion having both bright and fruity flavor at the top with a smooth finish. A perfect spirit to drink neat, over ice, or adding a full apple character to any cocktail of your choosing.

FINAL RATING: Bobbin’ for apples, getting the golden one on the first try, and winning a $100 gift card to the local Applebee’s.

Written by Bennett

One of the profound losses for Minnesotans during this year’s pandemic was the cancellation of a great get-together that we hold most dear, the Minnesota State Fair. The annual twelve day festival attracts visitors from the farthest outskirts of our state to a fairgrounds bustling with upwards of 100,000 people in daily attendance. It is an event that any true Minnesotan must experience for themselves, just not in 2020.

Each year we would come for the amusement rides, live music, art, competition, parades, livestock and yes, some great people-watching. But above all this, we would come for the drink and food (as long as it’s on a stick). Over the last decade our growing local beer scene has bolstered the plethora of drink options with some wild, wacky creations that exemplify what the fair is all about: a little bit of excess in the name of fun. Amongst the dozens of craft beers served exclusively at the fair, you would undoubtedly find creations that stretched the concept of beer itself.

Though we missed out on the bulk of state fair brews this year, we are fortunate enough to have gotten our hands on two fun beers that were originally intended for this year’s celebration. So come get yourself a little taste of the fair and cheers to 2021.

Modist MN Brew Together Orange Dreamsicle Sour IPA — $18.99/4pk Cans

A collaboration between Modist, Barrel Theory and the Ballpark Café. This Sour IPA pours a milky, golden yellow with a dense, creamy eggshell-like foam. Sharp aromas of orange peel and dank hops give you a preview of the tangy citrus flavor with a bitter orange- and grapefruit-like finish. Just a hint of high-toned acidity brightens with each sip.

Pryes Winning Cobbler Blueberry Pastry Ale — $15.99/4pk Cans

A collaboration with Freehouse and The Blue Barn. This Pastry-style Ale looks beautiful in a glass, opaque garnet coloring with a salmon-colored foam on top. Jammy, candy-like aromas with a hint of pie crust. Its medium body is fruity but not sweet and has just a splash of vanilla. The lingering berry aftertaste is just right.

Dry Aged Beef

Selected from our locally raised, butchered in house cows and aged to 30+ days. Our dry aged steaks are nuttier, more tender, and more robustly beefy than their fresh counterparts. For fans of mushrooms and blue cheese, these premium cuts of beef deserve the sous vide treatment.

Roger Sabon CDP – Premium cuts of beef call for a premium wine. The Chateauneuf Du Pape from Roger Sabon provides a perfect balance between power and finesse. Fruit notes of blackberry and plum combine with gripping tannins and fresh minerality, to make this the perfect companion to any of our dry aged beef options. Open the bottle 30 to 45 minutes before serving.

Red Wattle Pork Chops & T-Bones

Lovingly raised in Altura, Minnesota at Pork & Plants Farm, our heritage breed chops and t-bones offer a truly singular pork eating experience. Seasoned with just salt and pepper and eaten at an internal temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, our chops taste like buttered popcorn and eat like steak. Savor every morsel.

Piaggia Pietranera Toscana Rosso – A fruit driven style of the Sangiovese grape made famous in Tuscany. The wine offers bouquets of rose petal, cherry, and rustic herbs. The palate is perfectly balanced between soft tannin and moderate acidity. The Pitranera Sangiovese will complement the pork without overpowering.

Linguica

Think Portuguese Chorizo. Our Minnesotans by way of California or New York will recognize this house crafted link. Hand made from our Red Wattle pork shoulder, this fully cooked sausage is seasoned with paprika and bacon, and just needs to be heated and browned.

Villa Wolf Rosé – The Villa Wolf Rose is one of the most versatile wines in the Rose section at France 44. You are met by aromas of watermelon and strawberry that carry through to the palate. A dry, light and refreshing with a zippy acidity, this wine is made for sausage on the grill.

Apricot Chicken Skewers

Chunks of chicken and apricot slathered in our house made curry and apricot jam. Treat this skewer like it has three sides, browning each over direct heat and finishing with a few minutes of indirect heat, or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees Celsius. Rest briefly, then dig in.

Willm Pinot Gris – Willm Pinot Gris is a fuller bodied style of white wine, with reserved acidity and just a touch of sweetness. On the pallet you will find fruit notes of pear, honeysuckle, apricot, and subtle baking spices. Don’t be afraid of the mild sweetness, it pairs brilliantly with grilled fruit, especially apricot.

Written by Tom Schneider

During these trying times, we have all been looking for a little ray of happiness. Some people find that ray while combing through books, others while watching movies—as a liquor buyer, I’ve done my looking in the deep-ends of booze distribution catalogues. And, folks, I’ve found my little ray of happiness: Luxardo Bitter Bianco. 

I stumbled upon it one lonely Monday evening and ordered a case. Why not, right? I’m a huge fan of white negronis and spritzes, not to mention souping up a gin and tonic with a splash of aperitivo; maybe this mystery bottle would be an upgrade, maybe it would bring a little light and warmth into my cold, cold life.

I received the case the next day, cracked the bottle later that evening, and… I was blown away. I fell in love with LBB’s combination of gentian, citrus rind, and wormwood—with just enough sweetness to balance everything out. I was expecting light and sweet, but this had a busty bitterness that was almost a rival for Campari. Brighter, less thick, and more elegant… We began a summer romance, to say the least.

A white negroni with Bitter Bianco subbing for Campari and Cocchi Americano subbing for sweet vermouth may be the perfect early-evening summer cocktail. Spritzed with cava and sparkling water, LBB made Sunday afternoons a charm. Where had this tantalizing elixir been all my life?

I then did a deep dive on my new fling. And guess what, folks? It’s got a bit of a history. It turns out the producer Luxardo (known for their cherries and maraschino liquor) was started in the town of Zara, where Girolamo Luxardo had moved with his family to be the Consular Representative of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He bought his lovely wife a distillery (a killer Valentine’s day gift for all you lovebirds out there) so she could bring her home liqueur-making project to the next level, which resulted in the creation of the company’s flagship Maraschino Liqueur. Zara is now Zadar, the oldest continuous inhabited city in Croatia. The Distillery was bombed out in World War II, and along with it went all of the Luxardo Bitter Bianco. The family has done its research, though, and finally re-released this gem of a bottle a few years ago.

While doing my research, I also found out that one of the primary uses of LBB was in an Italian Paloma (the traditional Paloma being a mix of tequila and grapefruit). So, being a devoted lover, I grabbed a San Pellegrino Pompelmo and put a splash of my new amore in there, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The LBB brought out all the citrus rind that the soda was lacking, bringing it all together. I nabbed the only four cases in the state to share my love with all of you, because sharing is caring. Keep your heads up and sip bittersweet cocktails with your loved ones, everybody.

Order Online here: Luxardo Bitter Bianco $24.99

By Emmet

You’ve probably noticed this already, but it’s kind of hard to have a quality face-to-face (mask-to-mask?) interaction these days. We feel the same. We miss seeing you. We miss having you in the classroom, in the store, sharing amazing conversations with us about wine, beer, and spirits. If only there were a way to bring those conversations to you, anytime, and anywhere…

So we decided to podcast about it! You’ve probably heard of them. They’re kind of like radio, but on your shiny, candy-bar-shaped pocket screen. There’s a million of them out there about anything you can imagine, from true crime, to politics, to pop culture. And now, there’s a podcast by your beloved Linden Hills liquor store, where we can share our passion for all the things we love to imbibe.

We’re calling it the France44cast. Every Wednesday, you’ll join our host, Marge Buckley, for conversations with our staff and our friends in the beverage industry. We’ll talk about what’s on our mind, what’s in our glass, and how what we drink connects us to the world. We’ll address pressing concerns such as:

• “What’s the deal with natural wine?”
• “What’s an agave, and why are there so many different spirits made from it?”
• “Great sparkling wine is coming from where now?”
• “What if instead of draft beer, there was a beer draft?”
• “You’re telling me that I can drink rum like whiskey, and cider like wine?”

And if there’s anything you’d like us to talk about, we would love to know. Send us an email at podcast@france44.com.

Find the France44cast on Apple, Spotify, Google (not yet, but soon!), Stitcher — wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time, drink well.

By Nick Mangigian  •  Read time: 5 minutes

During non-pandemic circumstances, going out to eat has to be—hands down—the quickest way to get a jolt of novelty and fun into your life. You get fresh flavors, different dining rooms, a hospitable human interaction. Sometimes, when you go out to eat, you’re really just trying not to do the dishes—but a lot of the time, even if you’re not trying to spend a zillion dollars, you’re still hoping that you’ll be low-key transported to a different frame of mind.

It’s probably the one thing that I miss the most about going out: how easy it was to get something new in front of me, without having to sweat for it.

What I will say, though, is that I have been saving a ton of money not going out to eat as often. And with necessity being the mother of invention, I have leveled up my cooking at home. My partner misses going out to eat even more than I do; I have done my very best to put together some awesome meals that offer an elevated experience without driving the stress level up. What I’ve discovered is that there are actually some real advantages to cooking at home, assuming you keep a few guiding principles in mind.

But first, you should know this: for a restaurant that starts service at five in the evening, they have cooks in the kitchen starting as early as nine in the morning, preparing the dishes that are going to be served for dinner. Often, house-made sauces and stocks are prepared a couple days in advance. A lot of work and effort has already gone into making the delicious meal that gets placed, elegantly, in front of you, once you’ve chosen it off the menu. So when I’m cooking a more involved dinner at home, I try to be mindful of just how much effort I actually want to exert; if I stress myself out cooking dinner, then I’ve effectively defeated my own ultimate goal of enjoying a nice evening.

That means you have to be holistic in how you look at things. Luckily for you, you have a couple advantages as a home cook that can drive the effort-to-enjoyment ratio in your favor. I’m going to go to bullet points here:

• You can afford really high-end ingredients: Did you know that the only other place you could get beef from Pork and Plants was the Bachelor Farmer? We are going to miss that place because of their thoughtful commitment to what they put on your plate. If you’re trying to cook steak for dinner, our beef from Peterson and from Pork and Plants is only found at high-end restaurants—you will not see it in the grocery store—and it is way more affordable to buy it from us, since we don’t have to charge you for the prep. A ribeye that might cost you over $120 at a restaurant can be had for $50 from us—not bad.

But I’ll add, too: make a risotto Milanese with real saffron—why not? It’s simple, and perfect. And the $15-20 container of saffron will make you a good half-dozen dishes if not more, including an epically perfumed whole chicken. Which—while we’re talking about chicken—if you’re going to order chicken at a restaurant, there are only a small handful in the area that buy the same chickens we buy. Our Green Circle chickens were co-developed by some big names in the New York culinary world for use in their own restaurants—Jean-George, Daniel Boulud—and if they’re good enough for them, believe me: they’re awesome cooked simply at home.

• Elevate Your Pairings: As Karina touched on in her previous blog post: when I’m at a restaurant, I’ll spend $40 on a bottle because that’s the cost of doing business. You’ll get a decent bottle of wine that flatters the food. But if you spend $40 on a bottle of wine at the liquor store—and you get a little guidance from one of the helpful somms working the floor—you will probably get your mind blown.

But also, think about this: if you’re making fish tacos at home (use our halibut: they will be the best fish tacos you’ve ever had) and wanted to pair them with a margarita, make a fresh margarita with real, fresh lime juice. It is literally the perfect drink to make at home (along with its cousins, the daiquiri and the Tom Collins) because the effort-to-enjoyment ratio is incredibly favorable.

• You can reverse-sear your ribeye: Most restaurants cook their steaks sous-vide because it’s the easiest way to cook at scale. Sous-vide is sort of miraculous, but if you’re asking me: I think reverse-searing flatters the meat more. It’s the kind of technique that is only inefficient at scale; at home, it’s actually quite efficient, and you can multi-task while the steak is in the oven.
• You can make this Green Chile: It might seem silly to highlight just one recipe in a discussion about general principles, but honestly: after having lived in the mountain west for a couple years, the thing I miss the most is Green Chile. It is very, very hard to find a good version of it in the Twin Cities. If you’re feeling up to some slightly more elaborate cooking, this is a transcendentally delicious dish, probably my favorite of all time, and it’s not that hard.

• You can make our Cardamom Half Chickens: Okay, okay: one more individual dish to highlight, because it is that good. Make our Cardamom Half-Chickens by browning them on the stove, then finishing in the oven. Deglaze the pan with a quarter-cup of white wine. Throw in a knob of butter, maybe a little extra garlic. Stir, stir, stir. You’ve basically made a poor man’s beurre blanc. Ladle over fresh white rice and an oven-roasted or grilled green vegetable.
• You can make Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce: Alright, the real last individual suggestion, because this is a prime example of what’s known as a “pantry recipe,” assembled entirely from staples. Canned San Marzanos, a stick of butter, an onion, your favorite pasta, and you are living like the Romans did, my friend.

If you are a pasta-inclined person at all, talk to one of our mongers about their favorite pasta recipes. There is a rich tradition of very simple pasta preps—carbonara, cacio e pepe, aglio e olio—which can often be made out of ingredients you already have at home, combined with a vegetable or a protein, and served with a mic drop.

***

Ultimately, the one thing I really want to emphasize is that if you can be a little mindful ahead of time, you can eat an elevated dinner—like, a meal that you will impress yourself with, and enjoy the heck out of eating—without stressing yourself out, and it will cost you a lot less money than going out to eat. I’m going to go to bullet points again to highlight the key techniques:

• Fresh, not Fussy: Freshness of flavor is how I personally like to drive the effort level down, when I’m trying to elevate my cooking. Use a mortar and pestle to grind some fresh coriander or saffron—it’s easy to grind, easy to clean, and in the scheme of things is a small, extra step that pays big dividends. Get some fresh basil or tarragon or mint. Use some citrus zest (I use a lot of citrus zest—way more flavorful than the juice). Don’t feel like you need to do something really elaborate in order to feel like you’re experiencing something new. There’s obviously a time to bone out a whole chicken and stuff it with risotto Milanese—that time is when you’re feeling an unstoppable surplus of energy.  If it’s a regular Friday night? Maybe just make a fresh chimichurri sauce, man.
• Coursing It Out: Getting the timing of your dinner right can be tricky. For this reason, most of the time, I recommend no more than two different cooked/hot components, at most three if the starch is really easy to cook. And I serve things family style—i.e., all at once—so that when you’re done cooking, you’re done cooking. Consider making a salad or crudité plate to go with your meat and potatoes or pasta, or serving a good loaf of hearty bread with your vegetables and meat. Anything you can do to get the degree of difficulty down while keeping the quality high.
• Self-Knowledge: Many of the home cooks I know fall into two categories: cooks and bakers. Cooks tend to be comfortable improvising; bakers like to use recipes. Both can learn a lot from the other, but the most important thing, in my opinion, is a degree of mindfulness. Cooks: have some semblance of a plan, mainly so that you don’t get carried away and end up dumping the entire spice cabinet in your dish in a fit of enthusiasm, but also so that you don’t wind up unexpectedly in the weeds. Bakers: go into things with the mentality that a B+ effort relative to the recipe will still sparkle, because ultimately it’s not just about the food—the big picture is absolutely about keeping things mellow.

In conclusion: there are a lot of ways to cook something that is legitimately awesome, that can give your palate some much-needed variety, and that can bring a smile to your face, and we would love nothing more than to help you set the menu. So do some mulling, maybe a little research—or maybe, don’t do any research—and hit us up. We’ll get you ready to roll with something really, really good. Scout’s honor.

Written by Bennett

Revived in Minnesota’s beer culture by Castle Danger Brewery from Two Harbors, cream ales have a rather mysterious ethos for such a simple beer style. It probably has to do with the name. For those who are still unsure, these beers do not contain cream or dairy products of any kind. They can, however, be as smooth and satisfying as a fresh dollop of cream.

Cream ales were born amidst a monumental shift in beer-drinking tastes during the latter half of the 19th century. The sensational pilsners and golden lagers from Europe, glowing with clarity and thoroughly quenching on the palate, had hopped the pond with the help of immigrant brewers, making quite a splash. American beer consumers quickly developed a fondness for this crisp, cold, bottom-fermented beer. Domestic ale breweries, forced to compete, began employing a variety of techniques to serve lighter ales that mimicked these qualities.

So what makes a cream ale then? The style offers broad parameters in which to work from. Cream ales are pale, golden beers fermented from a grist of six- and two-row barley and maize (or rice) used to lighten the body. They are fermented and conditioned at colder temperatures than normal for ales, producing a cleaner profile with less esters. In somewhat confusing fashion, brewers are allowed to employ ale yeast, lager yeast, or a combination of both to achieve this result. You can think of cream ales as a fuller-flavored, more characterful sibling of standard American lagers.

For those who are old enough to remember (not myself), the first post-prohibition revival of the cream ale style was in 1960 when Clarence Geminn, a brewmaster in Rochester, NY, created the recipe for Genesee Cream Ale. It briefly was the best-selling ale in the United States, topping one million barrels of annual production. Still in production today, Genesee Cream Ale is a benchmark on which others can be judged. Lucky for us, Minnesota’s abundance of quality breweries has allowed me to present four cream ales that I believe surpass this benchmark. Check them out below!

Castle Danger Castle Cream Ale — $9.99/6pk Cans

A beer that has defied convention and remains a personal favorite of mine, Castle Cream Ale has become ubiquitously popular in a market flooded with hazy IPAs. It is consistently in our top-5 best selling beers, and for good reason. Golden-hued with biscuit-y malt with a dash of spicy hop character on the nose. This mellow, rounded-feeling ale has notes of graham cracker, honey and biscuit with a prickly of hop to balance the light sweetness on the finish.

Bent Paddle Classic Ale — $8.99/6pk Cans or $17.99/12pk Cans

Another up north brewery known for consistent quality, Bent Paddle recently released the Classic Ale as a complementary option next to their Venture Pils. It’s a beer that tastes like beer. Pale straw and clear in appearance, it features notes of cornbread and biscuit on the nose. Light and creamy on the palate with a grain-forward finish.

Urban Growler Cowbell Cream Ale — $9.99/4pk Cans

The flagship offering from this woman-owned brewery in St. Paul is meant to be “transitional” enough to lure lager fans into the delights of the craft beer world. Extremely pale straw in appearance, it has a welcoming malty nose and super creamy mouthfeel. Delicate sweetness on the palate begs you to come back for another sip. 

Indeed Pistachio Cream Ale — $9.99/4pk Cans

It works, trust me. I honestly think pistachios were meant to be in cream ales.  We are so happy that Indeed pushed forward with brewing this, it’s a craft beer lover’s delight. A creamy almost frosting-like nose of pistachios leads a nutty, sweetbread like palate. Noticeably thicker, creamier and sweeter than the others mentioned but totally worth it.

By Karina Roe  •  Read time: 5 minutes

There’s a certain commitment that takes place when you decide to set foot inside a restaurant. You’ve decided to go out instead of staying in for your meal, because you’ve decided that you want that special experience that going to a restaurant promises. Someone has agreed to cook delicious food and pour amazing wine for you, do all the dishes, and make you feel special and well cared-for. You, in turn, have agreed to pay (sometimes quite handsomely) for all that to happen.

I love going out. I love the “specialness” of my experience. I love that when I get to my favorite wine bar, I’m going to come in contact with someone whose job is literally to make sure I enjoy myself. And when I’m seeking after that sort of experience, an interesting psychological shift happens: I don’t tend to think about price in quite the same way that I do when I buy wine to consume at home. When I see my favorite bubbles on the wine list for $25 a glass, I don’t think twice. I may even order two glasses, even though I know it’s not in the best interest of my bank account. The wine is served at the perfect temperature, in the perfect glass, and prior to being in that glass it had been stored correctly. I savor that glass to the last drop, and I assign a lot of value to my experience with it. Those 5 ounces of pure bliss were worth my $25 to the very last drop, because I decided it was worth it.

The next day, I stop by my wine shop because I haven’t yet had my fill of bubbles (ultimately impossible, if you ask me). I scan the shelves with a miserly eye and end up grabbing a bottle of $17 cava. I know I won’t have nearly the same experience with this bottle that I had with my $25 glass, but I’ll be “satisfied enough.” The value has become monetary instead of experiential.

This moment illustrates a curious discontinuity in how we experience wine. Why is it that we are nearly always ready to pay significantly more for wine in a restaurant, and rarely willing to pay even a few dollars more at a retail store? Could it be that we don’t allow ourselves the same kind of pleasure that drinking at a restaurant gives, in our own homes? Of course, there are special occasions where we are willing to shell out significantly more money for wines purchased to drink at home. But by and large, there’s a sizeable discrepancy in what we’re willing to spend at restaurants versus retail shops.

We know that wines on a restaurant list are always more expensive than what you’ll find them for on retail shelves. However, that doesn’t stop us from buying them; remember, you’re committed to having a certain experience when you step into that restaurant, so you’re also committed to the financial cost that experience comes with. Sometimes when you seek after that same wine in a retail store, you’re shocked to find that it’s half the price you paid.

Here’s some breaking news, and the real point of this piece: you can have a restaurant wine experience for an at-home price.

It requires a couple things from you, the thoughtful wine drinker, but it’s completely possible to drink as well (and better) as you do at a restaurant:

• Bring the “specialness” home. You took a picture of that bottle at the restaurant for a reason. There’s a great memory attached to it, because you probably drank it with people you really like, and in a comfortable environment that allowed you to sink into the full experience of the wine. There’s nothing that says you can’t transport the singularity of the “restaurant moment” into the comfort of your home and the everydayness of life. The first thing you have to do is simply give yourself permission to bring the specialness home. Serve it at a proper temperature and in proper glassware. Treat your wine with the same sort of care and respect that an excellent server does in a restaurant.

What about the notion that there are some wines that only restaurants get access to, and not retail stores? By and large, this is a myth: even though a good restaurant might be blessed with a cellar they’ve been cultivating for decades, any good wine shop with a well-educated and passionate staff will get their hands on the same sort of bottles that are so lauded at restaurants.

• Commit to a $30-40 price point. For a lot of consumers, $20 is a pretty standard average for a bottle of wine. At this price point you can expect the wine to be well-made, but to taste pretty simple and straightforward. Once you hit that $30-40 range, you’re much more likely to get the complexity, balance, and je ne sais quoi we all crave in a memorable bottle of wine. The deep care and thoughtfulness in winemaking choices begins to show itself in tangible ways. It’s difficult to replicate that attention to detail on lower-priced bottles. And when you consider that you’ll easily pay $60-80 at a restaurant for the same $30 bottle of wine at a retail store, it makes that “specialness” a lot more attainable.

• Do your homework (or have someone do it for you). So much of the magic of a great wine moment comes from knowing who and where your bottle came from. A great sommelier or wine steward takes a lot of care to pair your food with a perfect wine, and likely they’ll give you some background on the wine to elevate your experience with it. Similarly, a knowledgeable wine specialist will help build the story around your wine and give context to what makes it unique. Putting five minutes into learning about your wine will immediately deepen your connection with it, and it’ll be that much more enjoyable as you pour it into your glass.

Give yourself permission to drink excellent wine more often. Recognize what your dollars will get you. Learn about the people and places behind your wine, and the details of what’s gone into the making of your wine so that it could give you that special-occasion restaurant experience—no matter where you drink it. The current state of fine dining affairs is a perilous one, and the future is anything but clear as to when (if ever) we’ll be able to get back to enjoying “normal” restaurant experiences. Don’t give up the celebration of excellent food and wine, because these things are catalysts for connection with each other. Make the extra effort with your food, bring home the good wine, and create intentional, thoughtful experiences for yourself and your people.