Holiday hours: We are open every day until Christmas; extended hours on the following days-
Sunday, December 22 from 10 AM-6 PM
Tuesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) from 10 AM-4 PM
Wednesday, December 25 (Christmas Day) CLOSED
Regular hours beginning Thursday, December 26 (10 AM-6 PM)
Come see us for holiday meal ingredients, great bottles of wine, port or sherry for gifts or to accompany a special meal. Ask us for recommendations!
Cheese arrivals:
Brillat Savarin Affiné – Oh my gosh, this is a delectable cheese! Pillowy and white as snow, fresh, decadent and rich on the palate. A fabulous triple-creme fromage with 75% butterfat, and a thin, edible, bloomy rind with a touch of mushroom flavor. A pasteurized masterpiece from Normandy. Astonishing with French champagne, such as Aubry Brut and fabulous with rosado wines.
Etorki Basque sheep milk cheese: A creamy and sweet cheese which kids love. Made with the local Manech ewe’s milk from southwestern France, the cheese is lightly aged for 3 to 6 months. Smooth and velvety with notes of hazelnuts, it makes a fantastic toasted cheese sandwich.
We carry a selection of cheese knives, cutting boards and cheese serving sets. The sets are excellent for parties, or simply get a good cheese knife for yourself or a cheesy friend!
Escargot: Our frozen escargot from France makes a succulent appetizer and are incredibly simple to prepare. Simply bake them for 10 minutes at 430 degrees, and serve with bread to sop up the butter-parsley sauce. Impress guests with this simple-to-prepare dish. It’s a rarely served dish for most, and it’s a standout!
Paella kits: Introduce friends and family to paella making with one of our kits. We’ve assembled the essential ingredients into a gift box, one set includes a pan, the other has just the edible components. This gift keeps giving all year round!
We have restocked our selection of Baby Cie serving dishes for young toddlers. Made of melamine, they are practically indestructible, and the themes include pirates, animals, boating and more. Sweet and adorable.
The holidays wouldn’t be complete without traditional sweets.
From Spain, we have E. Moreno and El Almendro turron, both blando and duro (hard and soft nougat), yema tostada and turron de praline crema catalana. We also carry mazapan, polvorones, mantecados, alfajores de almendra, Astorga Hojaldres (sweet puff pastry) and almendras rellenas.
From France, we’ve got Marrons Glacé in stock, along with Nougat de Montélimar, Calissons de Provence, a wide selection of butter cookies and shortbread.
We have gift certificates in any denomination and they never expire. Pick one up at the cash register or call ahead to order and it will be ready for pick up. And we’re happy to mail them for no charge.
These wines are some of our best for gift-giving or serving with holiday meals.
R. Lopez Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva Blanco 2005 Rioja ($47.00) “The 2005 Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva is a fine and elegant wine inspired by the vineyards of Graves in Bordeaux. 2005 was an excellent vintage, mostly Viura (Macabeo), but it always contains some 10% Malvasía Riojana, and the white varieties are always planted on whiter, limestone-rich soils. It matured in used oak barriques for six years before bottling. María José and Mercedes López de Heredia told me their Viura, with the low yields they get (often 2,000 kilograms per hectare), shows less of the vintage differences, and even in torrid years like 2003, the wines do not show heat. It’s very interesting comparing this with the Gravonia from 2008, as this showed higher ripeness and a lot more developed aromas, nuttier with hints of hay and straw, honey and also chamomile and dried flowers. But the oak is never obvious in the wine, it only adds spiciness but no wood aromas. 2005 was also a warmer, riper and more powerful vintage, which shows more in the palate, which is round and powerful with pungent flavors. 20,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2013.” 95 points Wine Advocate
Domaine Catherine & Claude Maréchal “Gravel” Bourgogne rouge 2015 ($33.00) This 12-hectare estate covers 11 appellations, all located in Côte de Beaune. Organic vinegrowing and very low yields create natural wines that are deep and bursting with flavor. In this exceptional vintage, it is difficult to resist the charm of a wine that has a delicate nose of cherries and is supple, round, fruity and silky in the mouth. Elegant and layered, this is a gorgeous red. 100% Pinot Noir, aged 6 months in barrels.
Marqués de Murrieta Dalmau Rioja Reserva 2012 ($69.00) If you love Super Tuscan reds as I do, you will be over the moon for Dalmau Reserva. This full-bodied red wine offers up incredible grace, structure, and balance. Dalmau is crafted by the same winemaker that produces silky and elegant Ygay Gran Reserva Rioja, and that oenologist’s hand shows in the layered complexity of Dalmau with notes of spice, toast and mineral. It has also aged to perfection and would be a fabulous accompaniment to grilled tenderloin or Iberico de Bellota Solomillo. The grapes are sourced from a single plot on the Ygay estate from 60-year-old vines. “The 2012 Dalmau Reserva–they call it their ‘modern’ red–is a wine that has evolved since the first vintage in 1994; it is now sourced from one single plot of vines, the Pago Canajas, within their Ygay Estate. The blend here is 70% Tempranillo, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Graciano, and the aging is exclusively in new French oak barriques and it lasts some 19 months. The varieties of this wine are always aged separately and the blend is decided after the élevage; the blend is different according to the conditions of each harvest. This feels like a ripe and voluptuous vintage with aromas of blackberries and a minty hint, with an earthy touch. The palate is full-bodied with some earthy tannins, full of power.” 93 points Wine Advocate
Visit our website to view core products in stock (although we don’t have the resources to show everything we carry on our site…). Order in advance and pickup by clicking on “Order & Pickup” button. Our Facebook and Instagram pages have new arrivals and event information.