Recipes and Pairings Archives - Page 2 of 10

The State of Craft Beer

Bennett Porter

Bennett (he/him) is one of our Beer Cave Trolls, is a Certified Cicerone® and holds his WSET Level 3 Certification in Wines. You’ll see him lurking about the German pilsner and kölsch sections most often. He also enjoys Steel Toe, Odell, and La Croix and chocolate milk on occasion. If he wasn’t at France 44, he’d be trying to make it work as a full-time snowboard bum. He and his wife share a great Anatolian Shepherd named Bear.

From my decade-plus experience of selling beer at France 44, I have been fortunate to get a first-hand perspective of the craft beer boom. My favorite quip about working in craft beer is that “the only constant is change”, one of the principal reasons I have enjoyed this industry so much. As new beers arrive daily, often hourly, the beer cooler exists in a fluid state. Every week is different, requiring a constant effort to keep your finger on the pulse. With near limitless choices of ever-improving quality, there has never been a better moment to enjoy craft beer; yet behind the rose-colored lenses the industry faces a new version of change.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on what got us here, and what the future holds. How “fully fermented” is craft beer? Early craft beer drinkers were like yeast introduced to sugary wort: consuming, metabolizing, multiplying in numbers, along the way generating by-products of more breweries, more craft beer in more styles, and more flavor. The chemistry of this industry developed quickly, thriving like an active fermentation. It seemed like a new brewery was opening every day.

We rode that high for quite a while. Then the pandemic hit, fraying the fabric of in-person social interaction—the main environment in which craft beer is enjoyed. Its toll magnified a reality we learned to be true: the market had matured and become much more competitive. For the confluence of these reasons and more, I believe we’ve reached the “secondary fermentation” of craft beer, a period of slowing change and maturation.

•••

Around the time I took my first shifts in the beer cooler was a particularly exciting time in the Minnesota craft beer scene. The recently passed “Surly Bill”, which allowed distributing breweries to sell their beer on-premise, opened the floodgates for new local craft breweries to plant their roots.

Up to this point, our beer selection looked much different. Swaths of shelf space were dominated by mid to large-sized regional breweries, most from out-of-state (e.g. Bell’s, Deschutes, Odell, etc). The local craft scene was just beginning to blossom. Brewery release calendars were steady and predictable back then. I could usually tell someone when to expect a certain seasonal offering. It was specifically the limited release bottles, often barrel-aged imperial stouts in tall glass and a fancy crown, that really generated peak excitement. I reflect fondly on my first few Surly Darkness releases when lines of people, lawn chairs and thermoses in hand, would form outside our doors in the early morning hours. Acquiring bottles of the most limited beers like these had become a sort of tradition for craft consumers.

This perpetual hunt to find the next rare beer was a nascent gamification for the widespread “gotta catch ‘em all” mentality that took over craft beer in the following years. BeerAdvocate, RateBeer and especially Untappd were all platforms on which users could rate and review the beers they had tried. Much like on social media, people became more aware of what beers their friends and peers were drinking, and if it was any good. Limited beers began to take on new faces: hazy New England-style IPAs featuring newly-developed hop varieties, pastry stouts with candy factory adjuncts, and smoothie sours saturated with fruit puree.

The “haze craze” was born, as hazy IPAs quickly became the hottest-selling beer style in our cooler. People who once lined up for stout releases turned to “truck chasing”: tracking down the freshest, juiciest, most-limited IPA drops from breweries like BlackStack, Drekker and Junkyard. Funny example, our Junkyard delivery driver would post his delivery route on Instagram, and by the time he arrived we’d have a crowd waiting to buy their beer. Genius! It was so crazy I actually had people actually grab beer out of my hands as I tried to keep the shelves stocked.

Like fuel to fire, soon we were juggling 50, 60, 70+ new beers coming through our doors every week. Sell out of one, replace it with another–wash, rinse, repeat. This became the environment in which most breweries had to operate to be successful. If you weren’t constantly developing new beers and flavors, you weren’t “staying atop the feed” in consumer’s minds. The results of these flavor pursuits were admittedly varied. It led to some of the best beers I’ve ever tried, and some of the worst. It was a time in craft beer when people responded well to gimmicks, us included. However, I think we reached a point of overstimulation that coincided with the eventual maturation of the craft beer market.

Today, it feels like we’ve come full circle. The onslaught of new beers continues, though at a more sustainable pace. Much to our satisfaction, maturing beer tastes have put a new focus on well-made craft lager styles (e.g. Pilsner, Helles, Bock) . Consumers are responding less to overengineered brews, as the risk of disappointment rises with the price point. Beer also faces fresh competition from the surging non-alcoholic and THC categories. In this “secondary fermentation” of craft beer, providing honest, dependable beer has become paramount.

It has never been tougher to decide what to stock our shelves with. Amongst the beer available to us there is a bit of amazing, a lot of great, and a sea of good, acceptable or worse. Our goal is to offer the freshest selection of the best quality beer we can provide. Although we make these decisions as a team, we rely on guidance from the most important people, our customers. Sharing your tastes and feedback with us is invaluable in shaping our selection and helps us best support the breweries that you want to thrive.

At this stage of craft beer, the future is in your hands. Support your local breweries and your locally-owned beer shops!

Complicating the Black Relationship to Wine: Part 2

Kaleigh Swift

Kaleigh has been working with the France 44 events team since January 2023. She received her WSET 1-3 certifications through France 44. Kaleigh also works in communications at the University of Minnesota. In her free time, she enjoys playing and watching volleyball, spending time with her cats, and working on house projects. Kaleigh is an avid vermouth fan and never misses an opportunity to introduce someone to Spanish-style sweet vermouths!

If you read part 1 of this blog post duo, you’ll know a bit more about the early history of fermented alcoholic beverages in pre-colonial Africa, along with some mentions of the first Black viticulturists and vinters in the United States.

Now, we can look more at the “why” behind that history, to help make sense of how we got to today, where Black presence in wine is becoming more visible. This post will look more closely at false stereotypes, Black perceptions of wine, and on my own personal experiences as a consumer and professional in the industry.

While researching the origin of the stereotypes I mentioned last week, which assert that Black people don’t like fuller-bodied, complex wines, I ran into quite a few interesting finds. Several articles that re-affirmed these stereotypes with less than impressive lines of reasoning, some blog posts pushing back, and even a few published research papers.

Quite a few modern pieces hypothesized an explanation for these stereotypes that I think is logical. Racism and white supremacy is a socialization process and system of power that dehumanizes Black and indigenous people, erases their cultures and histories through colonialism, and insists that they are fundamentally incapable of producing complex and “civilized” societies. Through the normalization of these beliefs, especially in America, harmful stereotypes have emerged, rooted in the assertion that Black (and indigenous) people are too uncivilized to understand, participate in, or comprehend the complexities of society.

Black people, almost by default, get excluded from, or written out of wine history because acknowledging our ancestors and their contributions also forces society to reconcile with the fact that, as I mentioned last week, “undoubtedly, where grapes were grown and wine was produced in the new world, slave labor was being used to do so”. Black history and the history of wine are intertwined. We, in fact, are fully capable of understanding wine, having complex palates, and knowledgeably producing quality products.

Articles seeking to broaden the discourse on the Black experience in the wine industry often begin with personal narratives of authors encountering assumptions about their presence at industry events or being directed towards budget and sweeter products. These anecdotes underscore the persistent challenges of racism in the field.

And in my research for this blog, I started to question whether or not this stereotype I’ve been researching, the preference for sweeter wines like moscato among Black wine drinkers, actually existed, or whether it had in some way been manufactured by the industry insisting and marketing folks into believing that was the case.

On the one hand, let’s acknowledge that moscato is an easy drinking wine that is a great intro for folks who are new to wine, or just looking for something a little sweeter. On the other hand, that is the case for all people, not just Black people. And our ability to enjoy wine doesn’t stop at moscato alone, as evidenced by Mother Vines: A History of Black Women and Wine, a research project explaining over 400 years of documented history of Black women’s relationships to wine and exploring this intersectionality between race, class, and gender.

My own experiences of wine have included very little moscato that I can recall. Even prior to studying wine, I purchased primarily Pinot Noirs or Sauvignon Blancs. I was always willing to try new things and found wine to be utterly fascinating.

Some years ago, I started visiting my uncle regularly in the Bay Area, and one of our favorite things to do was go up to Napa wineries. It was during these visits that my journey to becoming a wine professional started. Not because I was in awe of the folks presenting us wines in Napa, but often because I felt like I wanted to know more and my inquisitiveness was often met with derision and hasty answers, lacking depth.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be nurtured by the wine professionals at France 44 who saw my interest as a positive quality and happily answered my questions throughout WSET (a wine certification program administered by France 44), and beyond. I am excited and proud to be Black in wine, and have found a lot of joy in this journey. Unfortunately, this is not the experience of many. We have a long way to go before people who have historically been written out of wine are able to be fully recognized and appreciated for their value and contribution to the industry.

Resources:

https://vinepair.com/articles/stop-telling-me-to-drink-sweet-wine-just-because-im-a-woman-of-color/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhuyghe/2018/09/10/its-like-mansplaining-but-for-race-what-the-wine-industry-can-learn-about-black-consumers/?sh=108d7ed514e2

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=htmpubs

https://thesip.com/blogs/blog/yes-black-people-have-a-palate-too

https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-industry-black-consumers-marketing/

https://vinepair.com/articles/the-catch-22-of-drinking-while-black/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theworldwineguys/2020/06/08/does-the-wine-industry-have-a-racism-problem/?sh=60b21ea553c7

ancient wine black history month black owned winery colonialism wine wine history Wine Industry WSET

Complicating the Black Relationship to Wine: Part 1

Kaleigh Swift

The key to understanding Black people’s historical and modern relationship to wine–grape growing, winemaking, selling, and consumption–is to look at Black people’s relationship to this land, this society, and our ancestors.

We are well overdue for a confrontation of the harmful stereotypes around Black people’s “preferences” of sweeter wines and assumptions that we have no interest in more complex, robust, full bodied beverages as writer Kimberly Marie Ousley details in her 2017 article “Stop Telling Me to Drink Sweet Wine Just Because I’m a Woman of Color.”

We won’t get through the entirety of this conversation in this one blog post, but I hope to at least direct you towards some good sources, and of course some good wines! We’ll focus on some broad topics that will help to sketch a more nuanced picture of how we got to today, where less than 1% of the US’s more than 11,000 wineries are Black-owned, and it’s commonly assumed that Black people have had no place in winemaking history.

The intentional fermentation of grape juice into an alcoholic beverage is thought to date back to the early neolithic era with earliest evidence dating back to 6000 BCE from the Gadachrili Gora settlement in Georgia. (Did you make it to our Ancient wines pop up? So cool!) By 2700 BCE, a winemaking industry was well established in ancient Egypt, a civilization that was also actively trading with others in the Mediterranean, North Africa, West Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Near East.

The wine industry in Egypt was likely brought by experts from the Levant. And while grapes and wine didn’t feature prominently in Africa until the time of the Egyptian dynasties, the fermentation of fruit and grain juices was far from uncommon across the entire continent of Africa (and across the whole world).

Early alcoholic beverages were likely early forms of mead, as honey was a product cultivated as early as 40,000 years ago. Palm wine, a popular beverage made from the sap of certain types of palm trees in west Africa, has also long been important to cultural and social traditions.

In the “modern era” (meaning settler colonialism onward), wine’s importance to Western European culture and ritual necessitated its export to the places they colonized.

And undoubtedly, where grapes were grown and wine was produced in the new world, slave labor was being used to do so, though written documentation is scarce. The estate of Thomas Jefferson confirmed that enslaved laborers were in fact responsible for cultivating the 193 acres Jefferson had designated for producing wine grapes. The earliest written record of a Black person making wine comes in 1888 when in Orra Langhorne’s book Southern Sketches of Virginia, she recounts a visit to the Charlottesville, VA estate of Robert Scott, a Black man, where she enjoyed, “…an excellent glass of wine made from his own grapes.”

Much of Black people’s historical relationship to wine remains obscure, though anecdotally many families’ histories speak of their ancestors making “jug wine” for consumption by their own families or communities. Sound familiar? This is how much of the wine of the world is produced–locally and at small scales. This method of production undoubtedly made wine more accessible and cost effective for Black people.

However, over the course of the 20th century, Black land theft likely made any small production that was in existence virtually impossible. The longstanding socio-economic disparities caused by systemic racism, particularly around access to land ownership and capital, has played an outsized role in the lack of diversity in the industry.

Less obscure is Black peoples’ historical relationship to liquor production, including famous brands such as Jack Daniels. The crops used to produce many types of liquor were more readily available and actively grown in the US for food–unlike grapes–leading to continuous production of liquors even during prohibition.

We got the first Black-owned winery in 1940 in Clarksville, VA, where John June Lewis Sr. opened a small commercial winery that successfully produced a dry red wine and a dessert wine made from dried (raisin) grapes. In the decades leading up to the 21st century we have a small handful of trailblazing Black wine professionals making splashes in the industry, such as Deneen, David and Coral Brown of Brown Estates in Napa, Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars in sonoma, and Iris Rideau of Rideau Vineyards outside of Solvang. These wineries still exist today! In recent years, the presence of Black viticulturists, winemakers with vineyards and estates, and even négociants is actively increasing and becoming more reflective of consumers.

The conversation continues in part 2 HERE!

We’re highlighting some of the work of fantastic producers this Black History Month. You can learn more about and purchase some select products below!

ancient wine black history month black owned winery colonialism wine wine history

The Wines the World Forgot

Karina Roe

Karina (she/her) as a wine educator and as our Events General Manager. She has her Diploma in WSET Wines & Spirits, and finds that her fridge is constantly occupied by bubbles, Riesling, and non-alcoholic beer. She and her partner share an adorable dog named Ziggy who loves eating sticks as much as she likes drinking bubbles.

We’ve all heard (and used) categorical language like “New World” and “Old World” when it comes to describing the kind of wines we like, with “Old World” largely referring to European wines and “New World” being used for countries like the United States, all of South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. While these terms are extremely fraught, we have a hard time breaking out of using them because they’re comfortable shorthand for the descriptive, esoteric (and exclusive/isolating) wine language we’re maybe less familiar with and less confident in using.

There are, of course, some “New World” (aka, non-European) regions that have a longer winemaking history than some European regions and frankly, the lines get pretty blurry when it comes to why wines taste different between those two categories. They’re just not the accurate descriptors they may have once been. But honestly, our wine drinking culture today is far less focused on using accurate wine descriptors and categories and much more interested in the story of a wine. We want to taste a little pizzazz, a little romance! Doesn’t your wine taste better when you know the name of the horse that plowed the vineyard rows?

But if we look beyond that western skyline (both literally and figuratively), there’s a wine story that’s far, far older than any European country. Marc Hochar of Chateau Musar in Lebanon purportedly coined the term “Ancient World” to bring that story back into the conversation. All the wine regions situated east of western Europe (or at least those that became aligned with the East after the fall of the Roman Empire) usually get conveniently forgotten when it comes to classic/traditional wine education. But where Europe’s winemaking began in earnest with the influence of the Roman Empire, these Ancient World regions were making wine thousands of years earlier than that.

So, what are we actually talking about with Ancient World wines? Greece and Lebanon can absolutely be included in that category, for starters. Greece had a huge viticultural influence on the Roman Empire and helped spread wine all throughout Europe, and modern-day Lebanon was once part of Phoenicia (and we all know how much the Phoenicians loved wine). But equally or more ancient are regions like the Republic of Georgia and Armenia. How old are we talking? There are archaeological records dating back over 8000 years and 6000 years, respectively.

The modern-day wines of these regions have benefited from the technological innovations of the 21st century, but the farmers and makers of these wines are fierce protectors of their heritage and champion their native varieties and ancient traditions. Use of qvevri and amphora for fermentation and aging vessels is not uncommon, nor are “orange wine” (or white grape skin contact) fermentations. Varieties like Rkatsiteli, Areni and Voskehat are cultural equivalents of what Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc are to the western world.

Our Ancient World Wine Bar Pop-Up on February 16 is the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with these varieties and techniques. These wines are deliciously approachable and thoughtfully made, yet perfectly unfamiliar and will invite you to spend a little more time with them. Join us to learn about their stories while you sip your way through ancient history.

Sneak Peek of featured Ancient World wines:

Keush ‘Origins’ Brut

Lyrarakis ‘Voila’ Assyrtiko

Orgo Rkatsiteli

Chateau Musar ‘Levantine’ Red Blend

And then, mark your calendar for February 20th at Parkway Theater for a screening of the newest of the Somm movies, the highly-anticipated Cup of Salvation, presented by Twin Cities Somms! Click HERE for tickets and more information.

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Mardi Gras Cocktail Recipes

Sazerac cocktail site in front of cocktail shaker

“Laissez les bon temps rouler”, let the good times roll. Mardi Gras is coming up, and just because you’re not in New Orleans doesn’t mean you can’t party this weekend. Check out these new Mardi Gras cocktails crafted by our spirits team!

Polar Vortex

The Minnesota Hurricane

Invented in New Orleans in the 1940’s, the Hurricane is known as a booze-forward party cocktail. We’ve decided to mix it up a bit by swapping the rum for coconut aquavit. The caraway profile of the aquavit helps add complexity, while the coconut fits in with the other tropical elements.

2 oz Tattersall Coconut Aquavit
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Orange Juice
½ oz Liber & Co Passion Fruit Syrup
1 tsp Grenadine

Add the aquavit, lime juice, orange juice, and passion fruit syrup to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until just chilled. Strain into a rocks glass with crushed ice. Add the teaspoon of grenadine over the top. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Sazerac

A New Orleans staple, this Old Fashioned riff tones down the sweetness by swapping bourbon for rye. Bitters bring some botanical and licorice elements to the party, and the absinthe rinse amplifies those notes. The result is a spicy, botanical forward cocktail that swaps some of the classic Old Fashioned elements for new, interesting flavors.

2 oz Rye Whiskey
½ oz Simple Syrup
2 – 4 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Optional: La Fee Absinthe to rinse

Add ¼ oz of absinthe to a rocks glass and rotate the glass in hand so that the absinthe coats the walls of the glass. Discard the remaining absinthe. Add the whiskey, simple syrup, and Peychaud’s to a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into the absinthe rinsed glass over fresh ice.

French 44

Our take on the classic French 75

Though not an invention of the Crescent City, the French 75 become wildly popular in New Orleans. The simple recipe of gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and sparkling wine is simple to prepare infinitely riff-able, and astonishingly delicious.

1 oz Citadelle Gin
½ oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Liber & Co Grapefruit Cordial
3 oz Kraemer Blanc de Blancs

Add the gin, lemon juice, and Grapfruit Cordial to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled. Double strain with a fine mesh strainer into a champagne flute and top with the sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist or a raspberry.

classic cocktails cocktail cocktail inspiration cocktail recipe french 75 hurricane mardi gras recipe sazerac spirits

The Non-Alcoholic Pineapple Paloma

Cocktail in a coupe glass sits on a snowy table in front of three bottles

Welcome to Junuary. Yeah, you read that right. Frankly, it’s going to be COLD this weekend, and we will all need a little pick me up, a little taste of the warm weather to come (hopefully soon!). You don’t need alcohol to create flavorful, interesting cocktails and we’re here with one that emulates summer sun & happiness: The Pineapple Paloma. Pineapple syrup adds a tropical sweetness, which is balanced with the bright acidity of the On The Fly Paloma Mixer. It’ll make you feel like you’re sitting on the beach. So throw on a pair of sunglasses, mix yourself this N/A Paloma, stick a cocktail umbrella in your glass, and enjoy this below zero weekend in style with a summery drink in hand.

2 oz On The Fly Paloma Mixer: On the Fly elixirs are locally produced by Earl Giles Distillery. The Paloma Mixer, made with juice from ruby red grapefruit and lime, is tart with balanced sweetness and vibrant flavors.
¼ oz Liber & Co Pineapple Gum Syrup: Cold-pressed pineapple juice makes this syrup a truly tropical delight. The syrup is rich in flavor and sweetness, so even this ¼ oz goes a long way to bring summery flavors to the forefront of this cocktail.
½ oz Lime Juice: Both the Pineapple Syrup and the Paloma Mixer bring quite a bit of sweetness, and the addition of extra lime juice balances the drink with a bit of extra acidity. Non-Alcoholic cocktails are famously hard to balance and citrus does a great job at leveling the sweetness.
2 oz Topo Chico Mineral Water: Lastly, the addition of Topo Chico tops of the cocktail with a bit of texture!

To a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice, add Paloma Mixer, Pineapple Syrup, and lime juice. Shake well to chill and combine, then pour into either a rocks glass or a coupe and top with Topo Chico sparkling mineral water. Garnish with a lime wheel.
*Optional – if you do wish to add alcohol to this cocktail, add 2 oz tequila or mezcal to the cocktail shaker.

cocktail cocktail recipe n/a non-alcoholic recipe spirits

Thanksgiving Beverage Guide 2023

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, so we wanted to offer you a few suggestions for the big day. Unlike other holidays, Thanksgiving is a long celebration. For some, it may start as early as 4am when the turkey goes into the oven, and for others, it may last well into the night.

This year, we’ve categorized our beverage suggestions based on different parts of your day. We have something for the football game, something to pair with appetizers, impressive options for dinner, and even a drink to enjoy while digesting the massive meal.

Whether you’re hosting a traditional Thanksgiving feast or trying something completely new this year, you’ll find something here to enhance your day.

Beers for the Football Game

Junkyard Grandpa Bill’s Pils

Uffda, these are dangerous! Brewed with finest select malts, this working man’s Pilsner is lavish with flavor. Crisp, light, sessionable, and perfectly balanced with a trusty dry-hop of Citra. It’s the great outdoors, the call of the wild, and the often fresh and cheerful elder. Available in three distinct nature scenes- Deer, Duck, & Pheasant. Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er!⁣

Castle Danger Cream Ale

Castle Cream Ale was created while sitting around the kitchen table during our start-up days, and the need for a sessionable beer became clear. Castle Cream is our version of a Cream Ale. Deep gold in color, it has a soft malty aroma, slightly sweet creamy texture with a balanced bitterness, while finishing smooth and clean.

Noshing Hour

Keepsake Organic Semi-Sweet Cider

A blend of old and new apples only picked from our organic orchard. Including Liberty, Northern Spy, Nova Spy, Keepsake and more. Bubbled naturally with the Charmat Method. All sugars are from the apple, none added. Just Cider. This sparkling hard cider is the perfect way to start out the Thanksgiving meal – festive & bright.

France 44 Pointettia

This festive cocktail is the best of Thanksgiving flavor. The Cranberry Liqueur by Tattersall (local!) adds the perfect touch of sweetness and the brut champagne balances the sweetness and texture beautifully. Add some sugared cranberries and you’ve got yourself a showstopper.

Pour 1oz Tattersall Cranberry Liqueur into a flute. Top with 5oz Kraemer Blanc de Blanc Brut. Garnish with sugared cranberries and a sprig of rosemary or thyme.

Dinner Time

Twisted Cedar Petite-Petit 2021

Twisted Cedar is a tribally owned and sustainably farmed winery in California. The brand is wholly owned by the Cedar Band of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. Their Petite-Petit is a perfect choice to celebrate Native American heritage this Thanksgiving. Juicy blackberry and bold blueberry notes show in this wine, with a vibrancy of color, aroma, and flavor.

Drew Suitcase Pinot Noir

This deep, ruby colored, mineral driven, California Pinot Noir shows deep savory red fruit tones, shitake mushrooms, and wet stones. A very elegant wine at a very competitive price. This Pinot Noir will pair beautifully with your turkey as well as with roasted butternut squash.

Gustave Lorentz Gewurztraminer Alsace 2021

This is the perfect choice for the white wine drinkers at your dinner. Gustave Lorentz Gewurztraminer Reserve has a clear and pale-yellow color, with an expressive floral and spicy nose. On the palate, it is a warm attack, but the acidity gives it its remarkable length. The wine is complex and rich but still elegant and food-friendly due to its freshness.

Post-Feast

Elijah Craig F44 Private Barrel Lucky 13 Bourbon

We just got this new Single Barrel Bourbon last week and we’re so excited to share it with you. Bring this true one of a kind bourbon to your feast this year. Aged for 8 years, this could be our best Elijah Craig barrel to date. Rich caramel and vanilla dominate the nose, with subtle notes of apple and cherries following. The palate is bold and oily, starting with cedar wood that evolves into sweet toffee and balancing spice.

Rittenhouse F44 Single Barrel Rye

Our second Rittenhouse Single Barrel! Sweet baking spices lead on the nose with caramel, subtle herbaceousness, and hints of black pepper following. As is breaths, expect sweeter notes of cinnamon and maple to come through. On the palate, bright baking spices evolve in to deeply savory notes of black pepper, black tea, cardamom, and leather. The finish is surprisingly sweet and develops further as it sits.

Exploring Ribera del Duero

One of the most iconic and prestigious wine regions of Spain is Ribera del Duero. Ribera del Duero is located in Castilla y León, about a 2 hour drive northwest of Madrid (central Spain). Castilla y León is home to more than 300 medieval castles dating to the eighth and ninth centuries and the Duero River runs through the region and winemaking dates back 2,000+ years. The Ribera del Duero region is home to the Spanish king of red wine: Tinto Fino, a local name for the Tempranillo grape. If you’ve wandered down our Spanish wine isle in the store, you’ll know that the vast majority of Spanish wines are red, and the vast majority of those Spanish reds contain some amount of Termpranillo.

Ribera del Duero’s soil is made of chalk, stone, and clay. The temperatures shift greatly throughout the day due to elevation, and over a third of the vines in the region are over 45 years old. Most of grapes in the region are hand harvested. These factors lead to wines that are full bodied, intensely flavored, and high in quality. Ribera del Duero wines are known for their strong, dark color and dark fruit, tobacco, and vanilla flavors. Below are some recommendations for a great introduction to the region.

Protos Tinto Fino Ribera del Duero 2020

Protos Winery dates back to 1927, when 11 winegrowers in the Ribera del Duero region came together to establish the wine region. Their Tinto Fino wine is deep ruby in color, with balanced acidity and just the right amount of oak coming through. It’s a great, approachable introduction to the wines of Ribera del Duero.

Vina Sastre Crianza Ribera del Duero 2019

Viña Sastre is a family-run winery in the Ribera del Duero region. They’re famous for their old-age vines, ranging from 20-65 years of age. This wine is made from 100% Tempranillo grapes and is fermented with native yeasts. The wine shows aromas of red and black berries, and peppery spice comes through on the palate. It’s a big, rich red, perfect for holiday meals and celebrations.

Psi Ribera del Duero 2020

The Psi Ribera del Duero has an inviting and expressive nose of blackberry and spice. Its complex, concentrated fruit flavor is followed by soft tannins and bright acidity.

Cepa 21 Hito Ribera Del Duero Roasdo 2022

The Cepa Rosado is the only rosé of Ribera del Duero that we carry here at France 44. The rosado has the color of a summer sunset, and aromas of Barlett pear, apricot and Stargazer lily. Floral notes open on the palate and fade as ripe summer peach, cantaloupe, passion fruit and vanilla take hold and sail into a refreshing finish. Pair this with fish or cured meat!

Cepa 21 Ribera del Duero Tempranillo 2016

The Cepa 21 Tempranillo has some spicy and smoky notes from the élevage in oak, which gives it a showy profile. It’s ripe without excess with a sweetness of fruit that coats the palate and makes it a bit jammy. There are plenty of tannins to stand up to food – the wine would pair beautifully with rich, red meats.

Vina Sastre Flavus Rueda

Just miles from the Ribera del Duero region is the Rueda region, and we wanted to point out one Rueda wine for all the white wine drinkers out there. In the Vina Sastre Flavus Rueda, Dark berries punctuated with Thai basil and cocoa establish a deep dark core. The wine has a surprisingly refreshing palate, like biting into the juicy red center of a ripe peach, which offsets spice and a medium body & structure.

November Spirit of the Month: Rye!

Jake Rollin

Jake (he/him) can be found primarily working in the Beer and Spirits departments, though he occasionally dabbles in Wine. He loves helping customers brainstorm ideas for new and interesting cocktails (ask him about his Caprese Sour cocktail), and talking all things whiskey. His fridge is stocked with a healthy combination of local hazy IPAs, Belgian beers, and Riesling, and he has an ever-growing whiskey collection.

Like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. With that comes colder weather, and with colder weather comes cold weather cocktails…the Hot Toddy, Irish Coffee, and maybe the most famous of them, the Manhattan. Obviously, vermouth plays a major role in a Manhattan, but the star of the show is whiskey, specifically rye whiskey.

The word “whiskey” in America has become synonymous with bourbon, but what if I told you that America’s whiskey poster child wasn’t even the first whiskey we produced here? Let’s go back to Pennsylvania in the year 1750. Rye was the major grain being grown due to its propensity for rapid growth in the Mid-Atlantic climate. Farmers and immigrants who had moved to the North American colonies were longing for the whiskey they were familiar with at home and attempted to recreate it using rye as the grain. The result was a whiskey with rich notes of spice, dark red fruits, and black tea. To this day, many American whiskies are produced with varying amounts of rye in the mash bill to add complexity and depth.

These days, bourbon has stolen the spotlight for American whiskey, though without rye, there is no bourbon. But what’s the difference between bourbon and rye? Much like bourbon must contain 51% corn in its mash bill, rye must contain at least 51% rye grain. Here at France 44, we often like to swap out bourbon for rye in cocktails, as the flavor profile of rye tends to be a bit more interesting and holds up better to strong cocktail ingredients, like citrus juice and liqueurs. Check out some of our favorite bottles below!

Elijah Craig Straight Rye

With its mash bill of 51% rye, 35% corn, and 14% barley, Elijah Craig Straight Rye sits right on the lower boundary of what qualifies as a rye whiskey. What that means is that this is an ideal rye whiskey for the bourbon drinker who’s looking to get into rye whiskey. It has much softer spice notes than rye whiskies with higher rye content, but still contains enough to create a complex, rich whiskey that would be great on its own or in cocktails. Try it in an Old Fashioned!

Stellum Rye

Where the Elijah Craig is the bourbon drinkers rye, this is a rye drinkers rye. Stellum uses a 95% rye mash bill, which creates a much more spice forward whiskey. Expect notes of baking spices, spiced apples/pears, black pepper, and black tea. This rye is excellent on its own but also makes one of our favorite Manhattans.

Wild Turkey Rare Breed Rye

This rye is a blend of 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old rye whiskies and bottled at barrel strength. The result is a beautiful whiskey with notes of toffee and mint on the nose. As it opens, expect to smell more apples and cherries along with light baking spice notes. The palate is spiced fruit forward, with rich flavors of cinnamon apple and pear, followed by more nuanced flavors of nutmeg, black tea, and cardamom. The finish is long and warming, perfect for the cooler weather. If you enjoy drinking whiskey straight, you owe it to yourself to give this one a try.

Spooky Halloween Cocktails

🎃🍹 Get ready to stir up some spine-chilling concoctions and unleash your inner mixologist because Halloween is creeping closer, and it’s time to summon the spirits of delicious, spooky cocktails. As the leaves turn crimson and the nights grow longer, there’s no better way to celebrate this eerie season than by concocting a cauldron of hauntingly good drinks. From vampire-inspired elixirs to ghostly libations, this is your ultimate guide to crafting the most spooktacular Halloween cocktails. So grab your broomstick, light the pumpkin candles, and prepare to be spellbound 👻🍸

Corpse Reviver 44

0.75oz Aquavit
0.75oz Cap Corse Blanc
0.75oz Dry Curacao
0.75oz Lemon Juice
Absinthe, to rinse (optional)

Optionally, rinse a chilled glass with absinthe (add the absinthe to the glass, swirl, and discard). Add all the other ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until well chilled. Fine strain into the chilled glass, garnish with a lemon twist.

Blood Moon Margarita

2oz Reposado Tequila
1oz Lime Juice
0.75oz Tattersall Sour Cherry
0.25o Simple syrup

Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until well chilled. Fine strain into a chilled glass and serve with a lime wheel.

Zombie Brain Shot

0.5oz Midori
0.25oz Cream Liqueur (could be bailey’s, bourbon cream, etc.)
1 barspoon grenadine/cherry syrup

Add the Midori to a shot glass. Carefully pour the cream liqueur over the back of a barspoon so that it rests on top of the Midori. Add the barspoon of grenadine to the middle of the cream liqueur. Take the shot!

Midnight Manhattan

2oz Rye whiskey
0.5oz – 0.75oz Cynar
2 dashes Ango bitters

Stir well over ice. Strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with a cherry.