National Créme de Menthe Day was yesterday, and that got us thinking. We’ve all heard of putting this minty liquer in coffee – but why should we limit ourselves? So we found 10 other delightful uses for this delicious spirit:
Créme de Menthe Brownies – via AverieCooks.com
Basically, a giant Andes candy – but better, because it’s in brownie form!
It’s not Christmas yet – but after a long Saturday afternoon at a crowded holiday mall, you’ll be glad you saved this recipe.
5. Dirty Girl Scout Cookies – via Liquor.com
Perfect for Halloween – but they’re for grown-up trick-or-treaters only!
6. Continental Cocktail – via SheKnows.com
Believe it or not, these cocktails don’t have to be green – use clear créme de menthe if you don’t care for the color.
7. Créme de Menthe Cheesecake – via BettyCrocker.com
What better complement to cool créme de menthe than creamy cheesecake?
8. Shamrock Cocktail – via Liquor.com St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the only time to enjoy this amazing cocktail!
This year, Total Wine & More will join thousands of other corporations, volunteer organizations, charities, and foundations as a partner of #GivingTuesday, and we will celebrate the holidays by giving back to our local communities.
For those of you new to #GivingTuesday, it is a national charitable holiday that started in 2012 as a day to transform how people think about, talk about, and participate in the giving season. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — December 2, 2014 — families, charities, businesses, and individuals will come together to improve their local communities and contribute to the causes they support and help create a better world.
Since opening our doors in 1991, Total Wine & More has been committed to enriching the lives of wine lovers, as well as being active and supporting the communities in which we work and live. Total Wine strives to be a responsible corporate citizen and make a difference in our communities through philanthropy and social responsibility programs.
In support of #GivingTuesday, Total Wine & More will double all in-kind donations granted to registered charities for requests received on December 2nd.
If you’ve never requested a donation for a local charity before, information on how to apply for an in-kind donation for one of your upcoming fundraisers is located here: www.totalwine.com/donations
Celebrate with us! What will you do for your community on December 2nd? Share your story below or on our Facebook page.
Earth Day is celebrated internationally on April 22 each year. Senator Gaylord Nelson started this environmental movement in 1970 when high levels of air and water pollution were business as usual. Many laws including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act followed shortly after, and now, after 40 years, being green has garnered more interest than at any time since then.
The idea of being environmentally conscious and responsible has also evolved from those early days–it’s no longer just air and water. Here at Total Wine and More, we believe that brewers, vintners and distillers are the new leaders in the movement, creating environmentally sustainable products that do not pollute or strip the Earth of its resources.
Between farming techniques and the use of ingredients produced under strict sustainable standards, beer, wine and spirits companies are leading by example. Many are so passionate about the cause that they have become early developers and adopters of certain certifications and their rules, despite the additional cost and resources needed to obtain them.
Traditional farming practices use herbicides, pesticides and artificial fertilizers, where the only goal is to protect the crops and deliver the best yield. There are, however, three other strategies that are more aligned with the mission and traditions that Earth Day stands for.
Organic Farming means that no pesticides, herbicides or artificial fertilizers are used when growing the crops. In addition, vintners are not permitted to add any preservatives to their wines. Though most brewers do not grow their own ingredients, several have taken the initiative to use organically grown products. Daniel Del Grande, owner and brewer at Bison Brewing, exclusively brews organic beers. “Organic Dan” as he known in some social networks, said he does this to support organic farmers who he believes are the key to sustainability. His mission is to educate consumers and retailers about the positive environmental impact, helping create demand for those organic farmers, to the point where they ultimately convert all of their fields to organic farming. And when asked if one small brewery can make a difference, Daniel gave a resounding “yes”, offering some statistics to back up his enthusiasm.
Several spirit makers also use organic ingredients in their products. Florida’s Drum Circle Distilling uses organic sugar cane when making its Siesta Key rums. And Bainbridge Organic Distillers uses locally grown organic grains from Washington for their vodka, gin and whiskey.
Wine makers are often able to go beyond the organic certification since they often grow their own grapes. A farming practice called Biodynamic Agriculture was started in 1924 by an Austrian philosopher named Rudolf Steiner. Steiner created the method to help farmers have an ecological and sustainable approach to growing their crops. Biodynamic Agriculture embraces the practice of not using herbicides, pesticides or artificial fertilizers (and is thus also organic). However, the practice also considers the farm as one ecosystem and provides rules for how the farming must be done. Plants, animals, insects and soil are all considered as one. Farmers irrigate based on the lunar calendar. Byproducts such as grape skins and seeds taken during the harvest are composted and returned back into the vineyard. Wineries that follow these and several other guidelines can become Demeter Certified Biodynamic.
Virginia “Ginny” Lambrix, the winemaker from Truett Hurst, said their estate is currently in the process of achieving biodynamic certification. She believes that creating an ecosystem that mimics nature and keeps chemicals out of our natural resources is worth the cost and effort. “Wine is a luxury product with a relatively high rate of return on the farming investment. If there is one product that should be amenable to a more cost intensive farming method, it seems viticulture is a natural fit. Furthermore, higher quality grapes yield better wine and I do believe that vines growing in living soil and extracting their nutrients naturally from it are in fact higher quality and value.”
Sustainable Farming is another technique being used. Sustainability takes into account conservation and employee practices in addition to the farming practices. For example, energy saving solar panels may be installed on the buildings and water conservation and irrigation techniques may be developed. Although sustainable farming does still allow fertilizers, the practice encourages as few chemicals as possible and only to use them when necessary.
We spoke with Paul Sobon, the winemaker and vineyard manager of Sobon Estate, about his winery and approach to farming. Paul said that although they had been previously certified organic, their approach should now be defined as sustainable farming. Paul said their mission is to keep what is in nature in balance and let the quality soil nurture grapes into tasty wine. His winery runs on solar power, they compost all waste materials created in the wine-making process, and recycle, among other sustainable practices. “Sustainable farming is definitely worth the money,” he said.
To get you started, here are some delicious, “Eco-Friendly” selections, just follow this link.
From the Santa Lucia Highlands you can look across the Salinas Valley to the Gabilan Range.
“Toto, we’re not in Napa anymore.”
It was clear to me from the very beginning that California’s Central Coast wine region is a world away from the Napa Valley. This huge appellation runs south from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara, encompassing an incredible range of microclimates and topography, and everything from big towns, to small towns, to no towns at all.
In the Santa Lucia Highlands, where I started my trek, there’s not a Tuscan-style tasting room in sight; no boutique hotels or gourmet restaurants; heck, there’s not even a gas station.
What I did see was lettuce — lots of it. Row crops cover thousands of acres on the valley floor, and it was harvest time in the Salinas Valley. A good portion of the nation’s salad makings were being trucked out of the lowland that lies between the Gabilan Range to the northeast and the Santa Lucia Highlands to the southwest. The two ranges almost converge as they near the Pacific Ocean, but that lovely little gap between them makes this area a paradise for wine grapes.
Morning fog and cool afternoon breezes from Monterey Bay blow in through the gap, moderating the temperatures and creating a wonderfully long growing season. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thrive in the vineyards scattered along the benchland on the lower slopes of the Santa Lucia Highlands.
There are more grape growers than winemakers here, most selling at least some of their fruit to high-end, highly-awarded wineries. We passed Garys’ Vineyard (owned by two guys named Gary) from which Testarossa makes a killer Pinot Noir. Then we stopped at Paraiso Vineyards, owned by the Smith family, who were among the first to plant grapes in the Santa Lucia Highlands.
Every winery has a dog or two: Bleeker lives at Paraiso Springs.
And here’s a “vineyard” I didn’t expect to see: we rounded a corner on River Road and almost ran smack into hundreds of acres of …Prickly Pear Cactus! I have no explanation for this…
What are cactus doing in wine country??
The white-knuckle drive up to Calcareous ends in a spectacular view.
We continued south along the Salinas Valley, aiming for the region some call “the next Napa Valley.” The town of Paso Robles (and the AVA) sit at the southern end of the Santa Lucia Highlands, where the Monterey breezes don’t reach. The summer days are hot here, but Paso has its own thermal regulator: the Templeton Gap, which splits the Coastal Range just south of town, pulling in morning fog and afternoon ocean breezes that are strong enough to blow your hat off — really!
Warm-climate grapes thrive here — Zinfandel, Cabernet and Rhone varietals — and the wine industry has exploded in the last two decades. The once-sleepy town has grown up too, with gourmet restaurants such as Artisan where we had a great dinner with wine-loving friends (and of course, some good wine: we loved Stephan Asseo’s L’Aventure Estate Cuvee).
Vineyards cover the hillsides at L’Aventure.
This is what a limestone deposit looks like.
The West Side of Paso is all hillsides and valleys, and most wineries here are off the beaten track. We twisted and turned up to the top of Peachy Canyon Road to visit Calcareous Winery, which seems to perch on top of the world. They (and most of Paso Robles) sit on top of California’s largest deposit of calcareous soil. This is a good thing for wine grapes — this one-time sea bed is, well, really lousy soil. Poor soil makes grape vines work very hard to gather water and nutrients, and that’s a good thing because stressed vines produce grapes with more complex, concentrated flavors.
The folks at Calcareous were wonderful hosts, and we lunched on Ginger Glazed Salmon before barrel tasting with Royce, the assistant winemaker. We especially loved Tres Violet, a rich and soft Rhone-style blend, and the Twisted Sister line from Calcareous: the Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon are ripe but balanced, and their blend, Main Squeeze, is something you could fall in love with for everyday drinking.
Check out Part Two — More Adventures in Wine Land…
Posted by Deb Lapmardo, TWM Wine Team member, Phoenix Desert Ridge
Hi! My name is Jean-Hubert Fabre. I’m visiting from France where my family owns several properties in Bordeaux and I’m interning for the next few months at Total Wine & More’s headquarters in Potomac, Maryland. I thought it would be fun to write about the Tour de France from a wine perspective, I hope you enjoy my posts!
The 99th Tour de France started on Saturday June 30th and is made up of 20 stages, which represent almost 2,200 miles. The runners will cover this distance in 23 days and the final stage will be, as all years, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
I want to use this event to allow you to discover French wine areas. You will be able to discover beautiful places like Champagne, Alsace and Burgundy. At each stop, we will tell you about their wine history, winemakers who work with Total Wine and with which recipe you can drink these wines.
Gascogne and Armagnac
The cyclists start the last week of the Tour de France. They enter in the middle of Armagnac’s area, in southwest France.
Armagnac is distilled from white wine grapes, called Folle Blanche, Ugni Blanc, Colombard and Baco blanc varieties. After distillation, it’s aged in local black oak casks.
A common question for consumers is to know the difference between Cognac and Armagnac. The first one is distilled twice, whereas the second is distilled only once. The result is that Armagnac has more finesse and roundness.
Most Armagnac is a blend of vintages. In blended Armagnac, the label is important in order to choose a bottle. A label that says “VS” means the Armagnac has spent a minimum of two years in cask; VSOP and Reserve labels indicate five years. “XO” and “Napoleon” are aged six years and “Hors d’Age” ten years or more. The older Armagnac are better, more complex (vanilla, toffee nougat, pepper,…) but more expensive.
We can also find Armagnac in the Gacony’s food. One of the specialists of this area is a salmi of quail. It is a stew of quail, where the portions are slow braised then simmered in onions and herbs.
A great recipe for Gascogne quail can be found here.
Hi! My name is Jean-Hubert Fabre. I’m visiting from France where my family owns several properties in Bordeaux and I’m interning for the next few months at Total Wine & More’s headquarters in Potomac, Maryland. I thought it would be fun to write about the Tour de France from a wine perspective, I hope you enjoy my posts!
The 99th Tour de France started on Saturday June 30th and is made up of 20 stages, which represent almost 2,200 miles. The cyclists will cover this distance in 23 days and the final stage will be, as in all years, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
I want to use this event to allow you to discover French wine areas. You will be able to discover beautiful places like Champagne, Alsace and Burgundy. At each stop, we will tell you about their wine history, winemakers who work with Total Wine and with which recipe you can drink these wines.
Languedoc
During the Bastille’s Day, the cyclists are on the Languedoc’s roads! What a great area for this such important day! For the 14th stage, the Tour de France will leave from Limoux, a famous sparkling wines AOC. Much to France’s chagrin (we love to win on Bastille Day), André Greipel, a German on the Lotto-Belisol team Belgium won a third stage victory on the tour.
The Languedoc is one of the largest winemaking region in the world with its 608,000 acres of Carignan, Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Bourboulenc, Viognier, …. You can find also Rousanne and Marsanne varieties in the Languedoc’s vineyard. 30 000 winegrowers make a living doing what they love. In Languedoc, the France’s most southern region, a vast variety of soil types exist in a Mediterranean climate: vast pebble terraces, calcareous clay, limestone and shale, pudding stone, sandy soils, and many more!
For twenty years, the quality of these wines has always increased thanks the replanting of the vineyards and the updating of winemaking technology. Producers took important strides to improve the quality and limit the quantity.
The Minervois is one of the most famous AOC of this region. It is located east of Carcassonne, a well known medieval walled castle city. The parcels are located on a high plateau and close to the river Aude. The Minervois gives concentrated wine with red fruit flavors.
In Languedoc, we can taste a delicious “Crème catalane”. It is a traditional Languedoc’s dessert. You will enjoy it! Recipe here.
Hi! My name is Jean-Hubert Fabre. I’m visiting from France where my family owns several properties in Bordeaux and I’m interning for the next few months at Total Wine & More’s headquarters in Potomac, Maryland. I thought it would be fun to write about the Tour de France from a wine perspective, I hope you enjoy my posts!
The 99th Tour de France started on Saturday June 30th and is made up of 20 stages, which represent almost 2,200 miles. The runners will cover this distance in 23 days and the final stage will be, as all years, on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
I want to use this event to allow you to discover French wine areas. You will be able to discover beautiful places like Champagne, Alsace and Burgundy. At each stop, we will tell you about their wine history, winemakers who work with Total Wine and with which recipe you can drink these wines.
Burgundy
Ten days after the start in Liege, Belgium, the Tour de France arrives finally in Burgundy! In Mâcon, the racing cyclists have a day off. I hope that they can visit some wineries! This place produces one of the world’s most famous wines.
The notion of terroir finds its fully expression in Burgundy. “Climats” in Burgundy are small parcels which form a mosaic. There are several thousands of climats and 100 AOC only in this wine region! The Burgundy region is composed of 5 main areas (143 miles From north to south) : Chablis, Cȏtes de Nuits, Cȏtes de Beaune, Cȏtes Chalonnaise and Mâconnais.
Here, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the main varieties. The both represent 82% of the grape varieties produced in Burgundy. Gamay and Aligoté are also planted but in a small proportion.
And how do we speak of Burgundy and not include the famous dish Boeuf Bourguignon?
The beef Burgundy is the best-known recipe of the region. It is easy to cook it and no one is ever disappointed. The steak is cooked in olive oil, then simmered in beef broth and red wine. It’s seasoned with thyme and then mushrooms and onions are added. We suggest you to drink a bottle of Château de Chamirey 2007, a red Mercurey (Wine Spectator-90 points). An excellent vintage with a red cherry and vanilla flavors.
Hi! My name is Jean-Hubert Fabre. I’m visiting from France where my family owns several properties in Bordeaux and I’m interning for the next few months at Total Wine & More’s headquarters in Potomac, Maryland. I thought it would be fun to write about the Tour de France from a wine perspective, I hope you enjoy my posts!
The 99th Tour de France started on Saturday June 30th and is made up of 20 stages, which represent almost 2,200 miles. The runners will cover this distance in 23 days and the final stage will be, as all years, on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
I want to use this event to allow you to discover French wine areas. You will be able to discover beautiful places like Champagne, Alsace and Burgundy. At each stop, we will tell you about their wine history, winemakers who work with Total Wine and with which recipe you can drink these wines.
Alsace
After the Champagne region, the Tour de France’s racing cyclists cross the Meurthe-et-Moselle, close to the Alsace and its wines. Located in the east of France, this area owns a real terroir thanks to the Vosges Mountains and the several varieties of soil (clay, gravel, schist,…). The clay brings body to the wine, while schist gives it delicate fruit and floral aromas. The Vosges Mountains protect the area against too much rain and give it 50 additional days of sunshine compared to the western area of these mountains.
When Alsace is mentioned, Gewϋrztraminer is the first word that comes to mind. This famous grapes variety gives to wines an intense yellow color. The nose is complex and offers exotic fruits (especially lichee), flowers and citrus aromas.
Riesling is also another ultimate Alsatian variety. It is cited for many centuries, but its culture did not develop until the second half of the 19th century. And today, Riesling is the most produced variety in Alsace.
Flammekueche or Tarte flambée is a well-known Alsacian specialty. It is onion and bacon tart with a thin-crusted cheese. With the Tarte flambée, I recommend you the Arthur Metz Riesling or the Albrecht Pinot Blanc Reserve . (Recipe for the Tarte flambée can be found here)
Hi! My name is Jean-Hubert Fabre. I’m visiting from France where my family owns several properties in Bordeaux and I’m interning for the next few months at Total Wine & More’s headquarters in Potomac, Maryland. I thought it would be fun to write about the Tour de France from a wine perspective, I hope you enjoy my posts!
The 99th Tour de France started on Saturday June 30th and is made up of 20 stages, which represent almost 2,200 miles. The runners will cover this distance in 23 days and the final stage will be, as all years, on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
I want to use this event to allow you to discover French wine areas. You will be able to discover beautiful places like Champagne, Alsace and Burgundy. At each stop, we will tell you about their wine history, winemakers who work with Total Wine and with which recipe you can drink these wines.
This stage starts in Epernay, the most famous town with Reims in Champagne. It is a small town with 25,000 inhabitants. Originally planted by the Romans, the Champagne vineyards cover today 85,000 acres. It is important to note that it was not until the 17th century that Champagne produced sparkling wines. In Champagne, just three varieties are allowed : Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and the famous Chardonnay.
Champagne is also known for its food products. Biscuit de Reims are sweet, fine biscuits and are known under their French name Biscuits Roses. The ingredients are very basic: only sugar, eggs and flour and vanilla-flavor. Fossier’s Confectioners who first made it in the late 18th century keeps still secretly its original recipe.
With these pink biscuits, we can suggest you to drink Mailly Brut Reserve Grand Cru. Champagne Mailly practices sustainable methods of cultivation and they produce elegant wine with a complex nose of pears, and necatarines and citrus.
I am Jean-Hubert Fabre. I will spend the next six months in the USA and this is my first blog post of many on my experiences during my internship here at the headquarters of Total Wine & More in Potomac, Maryland.
I come from France and my parents run a winery in Bordeaux. They sell a part of our Chateau’s production to Total Wine and More. Maybe you know Château Landat or Château Lamothe-Cissac in Haut-Médoc’s AOC? These wineries are owned by my family!
This past weekend was full of events. On Friday night, the fantastic Toast of the Town, organized by Wine Enthusiast, took place in the beautiful National Building Museum in Washington, DC. The event was an awesome evening of wine, food, and music; the ambiance was very convivial. Many elegant wines could be tasted with delicious hors d’oeuvres. I really like the Kona coffee rubbed beef tenderloin from The Capital grille! During the evening, I met Hank Rosen, the President of Wine Enthusiast. What a great guy! Here we are:
(L to R) Greg Tuttle, product education manager; John Jordan, CCO; Hank Rosen, President Wine Enthusiast; Jean-Hubert Fabre
This week, another big event will happen for Total Wine & More. On Thursday, June 28th, we will open our first store in Washington State located in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle. The opening of this store is a big deal for Total Wine and the residents of Washington State, who recently decided by referendum that the state should privatize all liquor stores. So, if you are in Washington this week, do not hesitate to come over and see our newest store!
I have greatly enjoyed my time in the country thus far. The weather here was wonderful this past week and it was a beautiful weekend to discover more about life in the USA. I went shopping and sightseeing in Georgetown, a small historic neighborhood in D.C. along the Potomac River, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve been working on improving my English, and at the same time I am teaching my new friends some French! I was really surprised when I asked a saleswoman to try on a casquette, which is pronounced as “casket”. She was very surprised! In France, a casquette is a baseball cap. Funny misunderstanding, eh? After five minutes of explaining, I got to try on the hat and I ended up buying it. I had the same problem with another word; someone asked me about my studies and I said that I would be a bachelor in one year. A little embarrassing! I did not know that in English bachelor means “single”. We use it in France to mean “graduate”.
During the upcoming weeks, I will continue to report back to you about news and events at Total Wine and my stay in the United States. And, of course, my funny language experiences!