The Sláinte Buck

Cocktail in a highball glass sits on a coffee table

🍀 Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style with a cocktail that pays homage to the Emerald Isle’s rich whiskey tradition: the Sláinte Buck. This delightful cocktail combines the smooth warmth of Irish whiskey with the crisp tang of an Apple Rosemary Shrub, topped off with a touch of ginger beer. The result? A refreshing, crushable cocktail that perfectly balances sweet, tart, and spicy flavors, making it an ideal choice for toasting the occasion. So raise your glass and toast to the luck of the Irish! Sláinte!

  • 2oz Irish Whiskey
  • 1oz Sharab Shrubs Apple Rosemary Shrub
  • Ginger Beer to top
  • Rosemary sprig to garnish (optional)
Shake the whiskey and shrub in a cocktail shaker with ice until lightly chilled and diluted, about 5 seconds. Strain into a highball or Collins glass over fresh ice. Top with ginger beer and lightly stir. Optionally, garnish with a rosemary sprig.
With light notes of toffee and dried fruit, Irish whiskey pairs incredibly well with apple. The acidity from the Shrub provides bite, while the ginger beer rounds out this cocktail with a little sweetness and spice. Undertones of rosemary tie the whole drink together and will leave you wanting a second one. Sláinte!

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.

Fruity yellow & red cocktail
  • 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.

Sazerac cocktail site in front of cocktail shaker
  • 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.

    Valentine’s Day Guide to France 44

    Plate of pink macarons

    It’s that time of year again – check out our favorite Valentine’s Day picks below!

    The Valentine's Pairing Box

    Graphic with a heart shaped cheese and bottle of sparkling wine that says "The Valentine's Pairing Gift Box"

    Celebrate Valentine's Day with our brand new Pairing Box! Nothing signifies a special occasion like bubbles, soft cheese, and chocolate, and we're excited to share some of our favorites with you. Enjoy this curated box with a loved one for a perfect Valentine's evening, containing Cowgirl Creamery's Heart's Desire, Argyle Brut Rosé, France 44 crostini, single origin chocolate, and a beeswax candle.

    Wine & Cheese Exploration

    Sign up a loved one by January 31st and they’ll receive their first box the week of Valentine’s Day! 

    Dinner for Two

    Our Valentine’s menu this year features a delicious, hand-made dinner for two – including beef tenderloin, roasted vegetables, macarons, and more! We also have individual desserts and cheeses available for pre-order.

    For the bourbon lover in your life, we have a couple of special bottles in stock that you can’t get anywhere else! A truly one of a kind gift. 

    Romantic Wines by Argyle Vineyards

    Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2021

    Light in color and texture, this Pinot displays pretty watermelon and cherry flavors that ride smoothly over velvety tannins, hinting at mint as this all lingers enticingly.

    Argyle Brut Rosé

    Brut Rose Willamette Valley 2020

    Strawberries and Rainer cherries leap from this Vintage Brut Rosé with zesty acidity, fleshy volume, and strong character. This vintage’s warmth and dryness allowed for us to play with youthfulness through time en tirage, intentionally creating another perspective of approachable Brut Rosé sparkling wine that is ground yet spunky.

    Argyle Brut Willamette Valley 2018

    A light, airy style delivers plenty of pear and pineapple fruit, keeping the balance delicate and fresh. This shows a refreshing balance, and the flavors persist. An incredible deal especially considering it is a vintage sparkling wine!

    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 JuiceBoth 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 WaterLastly, 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.

    Spotlight: Far North Spirits Seed Vault Series Aroostook Rye Single Barrel

    Our friends at Far North Spirits way up in Hallock, Minnesota have been up to some pretty interesting projects during the last few years. They are in the midst of a three year study with the University of Minnesota where they are growing different one-acre-plot heritage strains on rye grain. Far North Spirits harvests, mills, ferments, distills, and ages them all in the exact same way. Their process is the ‘control,’ and the experiment is on the actual rye strains themselves. This is a project unlike anything done before on a teeny tiny scale. France 44 only saw a few bottles of a couple of the strains in the past, so when the chance to purchase an entire barrel arose, we had to pounce on the opportunity. Meet our rye strain, Aroostook!

    Each rye strain was aged for 18 months in small 15 gallon barrels. The yield for our Aroostook was only 48 bottles! (Talk about taking small production to a new level.) Aroostook is a seed variety released in 1981 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services. The whiskey itself is intensely rye forward, accented by notes of toffee, pecan, Fig Newton, prune, and chocolate. This whiskey is literally one acre of one rye, in one barrel. With only 48 bottles produced, it goes without saying that once it’s gone… it’s gone. Get it while you can!