Branding and bars have long gone hand in hand. But the days when cocktail napkins, swizzle sticks, cardboard coasters and matchbooks were the last word in tactile advertising are over. In today’s distracted culture, cocktail bars need something a little flashier to chisel their names into the drinker’s consciousness. Bars are now using stamped ice cubs to remind drinkers where they are but I am sure after the 2nd drink you will not remember. 
Rap star Drake has officially launched his Virginia Black whiskey brand, made in collaboration with Brent Hocking, the creator of DeLéon Tequila.
With a shared passion for style, music, and the pursuit of taste; Brent Hocking, & Award-winning songwriter, rapper, and actor, Drake, have collaborated to bring you Virginia Black American Whiskey. Made from a personally selected collection of two, three, and four-year old bourbons, finished with a decadent profile. Aged for two years.
After attending the exclusive Trade tasting of Virginia Black pre release- I am happy to report it is a rich, smooth bourbon available at a decidedly reasonable price (because its founders believe that “everyone should have access to glamour, swagger and soul”).
I wish they were both here but the bottle is! Order your bottle online here to have it shipped.
In celebration of Patrón tequila’s Mexican heritage, the ultra-premium tequila brand has introduced a limited edition collector’s gift tin. Contemporary Mexican artist Verónica Villarreal Sada designed the Aztec-inspired metal box, which houses a bottle of Patrón Silver tequila.
“Though Patrón is enjoyed across the world, every drop of our tequila is produced in the town of Atotonilco el Alto in the picturesque Jalisco Highlands in Mexico,” says Ed Brown, president and CEO at Patrón Spirits International. “We’re very proud of our Mexican heritage, and the history and culture that for generations has inspired the production of tequila, showcased through this beautiful collector’s edition Patrón Mexican Heritage tin.”
Set against a vibrant pink background, the Patrón Silver Mexico tin prominently features two Aztec deities, Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent, and Tonatiuh, the sun god, as well as an eagle to represent ancient mythological symbolism. Drawing inspiration from traditional mosaics and embroidery, Sada used bright, eye-catching colors to capture traditional Mexican patterns and prints. Circling the Patrón bottle on the side of the tin is an interpretation of the ancient Aztec calendar.
The special edition Patrón Mexican Heritage tin is available for purchase : http://www.melandrose.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=92502
Patrón Silver is made from only the finest 100 percent Weber Blue Agave handcrafted in small batches in Jalisco, Mexico to be smooth, soft and easily mixable. Its taste is sweet, with fresh agave and citrus, and a light pepper finish.
It’s not every day a champagne can elicit audible cries of “Wow!” without even being opened. But this not every day. Today, we have the Veuve Cliquot Rose Megafone. Not only is it a truly memorable gift containing one of the best non-vintage champagnes available, it is also one of the most interesting pieces of engineering ever made related to a bottle.
On first glance, the gift case brings cheer-leading and old movies to mind: shaped like an old-fashioned megaphone, it is a striking image that conjures a sense of classic fun. Unscrew the base, and the megaphone shell lifts up to reveal a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Rose Champagne. A blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, and Veuve Cliquot’s own reserve wines make up a delicious rose champagne, with bright fruit notes front and center, but a carefully balanced acidity and lingering finish to keep you entertained glass after glass.
But wait! We’re not done yet. We’ve only cracked the surface of the Megaphone. Picking up the shell again, we can take off the cap at the top, and voila! It is now a fully functional megaphone, perfect for when you want to play director at your next party. And that’s still not all, because, when you’re finally ready to pop that champagne, simply screw the top end of the megaphone into the base, inverting it from its original orientation, and now, it’s an ice bucket.
Three fantastic uses from just the case: an eye-catching gift, a party-starting megaphone, and a practical ice bucket, not to mention the champagne inside the whole thing. A better gift, I couldn’t imagine.
OCEAN ORGANIC VODKA
We have to start with an Aloha as Ocean Vodka has been created in the beautiful island of Maui in Hawaiian Islands. This family owned operated distillery has released a new bottling featuring the best handcrafted vodka in the world for the environment. The crisp, natural, clean taste great to enjoy in cocktails or straight on ice
Absolut Warhol Limited Edition.
Napoleon Bonaparte is reported to have had a weakness to Champange. When Lord John Maynard Keynes took his last breath, his last words were “I wish I had drunk more Champagne” before he consigned his soul to the almighty. In a nutshell his last words can describe the sentimentality of any champagne drinker. Nowadays no celebration is complete without popping the bubbly froth of champagne. From winners spraying each other with champagne to people marking any occasion like a promotion by opening a bottle of champagne, this drink is a flawless match and adds grace to a gathering in any celebration because of its vivaciousness and elegance. However, not many people realize that champagne is in fact a sparkling wine with the main difference between the two being that, unlike wine, champagne undergoes double fermentation, once in the barrel and then in the bottle. This allows the carbon dioxide to get trapped in the wine giving those distinctive bubbles. The bubbles in the champagne are also responsible for carrying the alcohol into the blood stream faster. Also, since, classic champagne is only produced in a particular region of France, it is produced in a far more limited quantity. That is why champagne is one of the most expensive drinks. So, raise a toast with champagne as often as you can, in celebration or not, so that you don’t end up expressing the sentiment of Lord Keynes. Read below for some interesting and amazing information about champagne.
Interesting And Fun Facts About Champagne
Celebrate 2012
With a few choice facts about the bubbly stuff, you can look knowledgeable rather than just tipsy when you drain your flute. Here are a few little nuggets you can share with fellow revelers.
1. What exactly is champagne?
Strictly speaking, champagne is a sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region of northeastern France.
If it’s a bubbly wine from another region, it’s sparkling wine, not champagne.
While many people use the term “champagne” generically for any sparkling wine, the French have maintained their legal right to call their wines champagne for over a century. The Treaty of Madrid, signed in 1891 established this rule, and the Treaty of Versailles reaffirmed it.
The European Union helps protect this exclusivity now, although certain American producers can still generically use “champagne” on their labels if they were using the term before early 2006.
2. How is champagne made?
Sparkling wines can be made in a variety of ways, but traditional champagne comes to life by a process called the methode Champenoise. Champagne starts its life like any normal wine. The grapes are harvested, pressed, and allowed to undergo a primary fermentation. The acidic results of this process are then blended and bottled with a bit of yeast and sugar so it can undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle. (It’s this secondary fermentation that gives champagne its bubbles.)
This new yeast starts doing its work on the sugar, and then dies and becomes what’s known as lees. The bottles are then stored horizontally so the wine can “age on lees” for 15 months or more.
After this aging, winemakers turn the bottles upside down so the lees can settle to the bottom. Once the dead yeast has settled, producers open the bottles to remove the yeast, add a bit of sugar known as dosage to determine the sweetness of the champagne, and slip a cork onto the bottle. Mental Floss: Why is the drinking age 21?
3. What’s so special about the Champagne region?
Several factors make the chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier grapes grown in the Champagne region particularly well suited for crafting delicious wines. The northern location makes it a bit cooler than France’s other wine-growing regions, which gives the grapes the proper acidity for sparkling wine production. Moreover, the porous, chalky soil of the area — the result of large earthquakes millions of years ago — aids in drainage.
4. Do I have to buy champagne to get good sparkling wine?
Not at all. Although many champagnes are delightful, most the world’s wine regions make tasty sparkling wines of their own. You can find highly regarded sparkling wines from California, Spain, Italy, Australia, and other areas without shelling out big bucks for Dom Perignon.
5. Speaking of Dom Perignon, who was this guy?
Contrary to popular misconception, the namesake of the famous brand didn’t invent champagne. But Perignon, a Benedictine monk who worked as cellar master at an abbey near Epernay during the 17th and 18th centuries, did have quite an impact on the champagne industry.
In Perignon’s day, sparkling wine wasn’t a really sought-after beverage. In fact, the bubbles were considered to be something of a flaw, and early production methods made producing the wine somewhat dangerous. (Imprecise temperature controls could lead to fermentation starting again after the wine was in the bottle.
If one bottle in a cellar exploded and had its cork shoot out, a chain reaction would start.) Perignon helped standardize production methods to avoid these explosions, and he also added two safety features to his wines: thicker glass bottles that better withstood pressure and rope snare that helped keep corks in place. Mental Floss: The men behind your favorite liquors
6. What’s the difference between brut and extra brut?
You’ll see these terms on champagne labels to describe how sweet the good stuff in the bottle is. As mentioned above, a bit of sugar known as dosage is added to the bottle right before it’s corked, and these terms describe exactly how much sugar went in. Extra brut has less than six grams of sugar per liter added, while brut contains less than 15 grams of additional sugar per liter. Several other classifications exist, but drier champagnes are more common.
7. Why do athletes spray each other with champagne after winning titles?
Throughout its history, champagne has been a celebratory drink that’s made appearances at coronations of kings and the launching of ships. However, the bubbly-spraying throwdowns that now accompany athletic victories are a much more recent development.
When Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt won the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1967, they ascended the winner’s podium with a bottle of champagne in hand. Gurney looked down and saw team owner Carroll Shelby and Ford Motors CEO Henry Ford II standing with some journalists and decided to have a bit of fun. Gurney gave the bottle a shake and sprayed the crowd, and a new tradition was born.
8. What’s sabrage?
After the French Revolution, members of Napoleon’s cavalry decided that the normal pop-and-foam ritual of opening a bottle of champagne just wasn’t as visually impressive as it could be. They responded by popularizing a way of opening bottles using a sword.
The technique, known as sabrage, involved holding a bottle at arm’s length while quickly running a saber down the bottle towards the neck. When the saber’s blade struck the glass lip just beneath the cork, the glass breaks, shooting off the cork and neck of the bottle while leaving the rest of the vessel intact.
Ceremonial “champagne swords” are available for just this purpose, and if you can pull off this trick, you’ll be the toast of your shindig. (Be careful, though. A flying champagne cork is already you’ll-put-your-eye-out dangerous, and adding a ring of ragged broken glass to the equation doesn’t make the whole endeavor any safer.) Mental Floss: Drinking stories that put yours to shame.
Now that you know all about Champagne & Sparkling wine, you can use the link below to see our vast selection of them.
Mel and Rose Blog 