Sacre Bleu Wine presents the Minneapolis premier of the acclaimed documentary film MERLOVE, Thursday, February 19th at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis

The evening begins with a very special wine tasting at 6:00 P.M. Haskell's is presenting 6 outstanding Merlots and Sacre Bleu's Pinot Noir. Here's a tidbit of the kind of Merlots you're going to experience:

TRACE MERLOT (CALI)
LA FORGE MERLOT (VIN DE PAYS)
ANDEAN RIDGE MERLOT (CHILE)
RIVE GAUCHE MERLOT (BORDEAUX)
TRAVANTO MERLOT (ITALIAN)
CHATEAU MILLE ANGES (BORDEAUX)
and of course SACRE BLEU PINOT NOIR


MERLOVE, an Indie film about your favorite grape, Merlot, was written and directed by Rudolph McClain. Get ready to fall in love with Merlot all over again.

MERLOVE and our tasting will help you learn more about wine, but it is your own experience that will guide your personal journey. As you try new wines you will gain love and appreciation for the gifts that wine can bring. Like anything in life, wine can be enjoyed and enhanced by sharing it with others. The bottom line is good wine is good wine and bad wine is bad wine, but that should not stop the adventure. The message of MERLOVE is that no single grape varietal should be singled out as superior or inferior to others.

If you enjoyed SIDEWAYS, this film helps to restore the balance. Sorry, Miles.

The wine tasting begins at 6:00 P.M. The screening begins in the theater at 8:00 and afterward McClain will conduct a special Q&A session. It's your opportunity to discuss film and Merlot with a gifted film maker who happens to know plenty about both subjects.

This is sure to be the most fun, special wine tasting event of the winter season. Join Haskell's and Sacre Bleu Wine for the Minneapolis debut of MERLOVE.

This is a 21 event.

Cosmic Questions for Galen Struwe of Sacre Bleu

From Mutineer magazine...(article link)


What is Sacre Bleu?

Sacre Bleu is no more or no less than a clever name for our wine. Most people get that it is a bit of a gag or innocuous curse word. The fact is that the literal French translation is “Sacre Bleu” and is an old reference to the Virgin Mary in Renaissance paintings.

How is Sacre Bleu different from more traditional French wines?

Sacre Bleu still tips its hat to the French traditions in that our Meritage Cuvee Gustave Fayet tastes out like a classic Bordeaux and the Pinot Noir still bears an earthy presence with the new world wine nod to being fruit forward. Our Chardonnay is unoaked so I’m not sure that we could be defined as radically un-French.

Talk about the production process and vineyard sources for Sacre Bleu wines.

Gustave Viennet is our winemaker. His estate is Chateau de Raissac in Languedoc. It’s been in his family for six generations so all of Sacre Bleu wines are entirely estate bottled. We’re pretty damn lucky to have Gustave Viennet making this wine. He’s a young man connected firmly to French winemaking but spent a couple of years attending high school in New York. So he knows what the American consumer prefers in a wine. He’s actually merged two distinct styles of winemaking; kind of an old world meets new world presentation.

How does Sacre Bleu use new media to connect with its drinkers?

We are fully committed to Web 2.0 or as the wine industry has come to embrace it as Wine 2.0. Look, there is no question that the brands of tomorrow are going to emerge from these platforms. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Myspace and others have become the central conduits for the credible flow of information and entertainment content. ROI’s [Return On Investment] for big ads in Network television and major market newspapers are hard to rationalize anymore. The audience is not spending their time there anymore….big companies are slow to realize this.

Explain your unique partnership with the Fillmore.

The Fillmore Miami Beach is a Live Nation venue. Our promotional partnership with the Fillmore is a beautiful thing. We have been given great access to brand in the venue and to our credit we have done so quite tastefully. The Fillmore’s have great tradition so it was incumbent upon us as a corporate citizen to establish a presence there without seeming to intrude. Brand, be cool, be effective in getting your message out but do it with the same integrity found in the musical history of the Fillmore. I like what we have done there. So much of the credit for our presence there goes to our Jill Elliott and Matt McKenna from Live Nation.

Where are Sacre Bleu wines available?

Here’s the good news. The brand is expanding in 2009. We’ve made consumer impacts in Florida and the Mid West but plans for 2009 will enable us to be far more accessible.

Maria De Los Angeles takes us on a video tour of the Fillmore and the Sacre Bleu wine bar

We opened the Sacre Bleu Wine Bar inside the Fillmore Miami Beach last Saturday to help celebrate the music of David Byrne and Brian Eno. Maria streamed live from the Fillmore and we made it accesible through out Twitter page for everyone to enjoy. If you missed her check it out here. This is a world class concert venue. We love being there.

A wine blog that honors irreverence

Wine blogs are plentiful. There are literally hundreds to choose from. They come from wine industry insiders, wine consumers and often casual wine observers who use wine as simply an occasion to blog. Blogging about wine has become a bit of a cottage industry. In fact, it has it's own Top 100.

With a few exceptions,what's been lacking in this growing landscape is humor and personality. No one inside takes on the bloggers to suggest that they may be a bit too serious and polite. We couldn't possibly mock ourselves. This is wine, after all...until now.

We give you Wine-ing 2.0. This is the perhaps the most original writing out there today. It is irreverent. It is unapologetic. It wants to bite the hand that feeds it. It wants to instigate. In short, it is refreshingly entertaining. It is not, however, prolific. Its author seems to have the output of Guns n Roses. Posts come way to infrequently.

2008 has been a good year for writing about wine. We've seen a number of good blogs come on the scene. We really enjoy Katie Pizzuto at Gonzo Gastronomy She is both insightful and persuasive. We love what Courtney Cochran is doing with Hip Tastes. and Mutineer Magazine completely changes the alcohol beverage magazine game.

Read on. All of these writers are to be savored and paired to wonderful wines. If we're on a roll here then 2009 is gonna be a great year to read and drink.

Jill with Gary Vaynerchuk in Miami

Say No More...

The Sacre Bleu Wine Bar @ The Fillmore Miami Beach

New photos from the Sacre Bleu Wine Bar at the Fillmore in Miami Beach. More photos to come...

Sacre Bleu Presents Ari Herstand's CD Release Party: Whispering Endearments

ARI HERSTAND
This explosive artist, blending genres from acoustic pop/rock, folk, hip-hop and jazz, busts down the walls of the tired acoustic rock, singer/songwriter box and has forced the world to take notice. Ari's unforgettable live shows display his talents on the guitar, piano and trumpet. Fusing them with his vocal percussion and beautifully angelic vocals - with the help of his loop station - Ari stuns every person that has the opportunity to catch his performance.

Play This Pinot Louder!

Many people have described our Pinot Noir as "different" and that's okay. What I think they are really saying is that the style is not perhaps as fruit forward as many Oregon or Napa Pinot Noir's that they may be more familar with.
What they encounter with Sacre Bleu is a real meger in styles. The traditional French wines are sometimes described as "earthy" and this is where old and new world meet. Our Pinot Noir is the best of both of these worlds.
Our winemaker, Gustave Viennet, has produced a Pinot Noir that really embodies these two very different approaches. If you love Pinot Noir then experiment. Try as many as you can. Flex your taste limitations.
Ultimately, there is no right or wrong here. This is the subjective moment of your life. Beauty here is indeed in the eye of the beholder. So behold.

Sacre Bleu Wine @ The Langerado Music Festival

Sacre Bleu's CVM Signature Blend

The 2008 Sacre Bleu ad campaign will be electric

The video wine ad is reborn

Sacre Bleu Chardonnay on a Beautiful Fall Day

A classic wine review blog emerges

Wine reviews/tastings are among the most subjective of all criticisms. How else can one explain the vast distance between a Robert Parker praised chardonnay for $89.00 and the Charles Shaw chardonnay (award winning) for $1.99? That example, though perhaps not typical, may serve as the ultimate proof that the customer is always right.

Enter Ben Saltzman and Andrew Stuart of Chateau Petrogasm. www.chateaupetrogasm.com We are delighted to have found this particular wine review blog. Without exception, it is the most interesting, creative wine review blog today and there are most certainly many to choose from. Wine blogging has become a cottage industry. The makeover is at hand.

Ben's team has opted to honor the extreme subjectivism that is wine reviewing by admitting that written words often struggle to adequately define the wine tasting experience. In contrast, they have cleverly chosen to use pictures or drawings. That's right. Pictures and drawings. Let the visual image serve to sort it out when words cannot or will not. When a taste can no longer be defined with tired wine review cliches, then an appeal to a higher order is necessary. Let the eyes have it.

Go to their site and see for yourself. Chateau Petrogasm is a wine review blog that exults wine in a most refreshing way. Bravo, Ben.

The impact of the Internet on Sacre Bleu as a new wine brand

We began with our Internet site www.sacrebleuwine.com just this past spring. Shortly thereafter we put up our Myspace platform then quickly followed that up with podcasts via The Sacre Bleu Wine Network through iTunes, blogs, creative videos from our master winemaker on Youtube, newsletters and most recently Facebook. The impact of all of this has been nothing less than profound.

There is little doubt that Sacre Bleu's core consumer could have discovered the brand outside of these media venues. It would not have been likely since we did no conventional advertising whatsoever.

As a brand the wine is not yet available in Germany, UK, Finland and Australia yet we receive email every day from those countries asking about our wine. The Internet has made us the brand on the corner. These inquiries speak directly to the new reality in the process and methods for how many new products are now brought to market. But here, to us, they specifically speak to wine.

Emails arrive each day from new customers with details on what store they purchased the wine from and in what state and even the varietal. Our consumers share the most relevant marketing information with us that any supplier could hope for. We hear suggestions on topics like subject matter for podcasts, access to retail outlets and wonderful, innovative marketing ideas. This speaks to the savvy of today's new/young wine drinkers. They have grown up with the Internet and seem instinctively to know that all this information matters to business. This begins to describe for all of us in the global marketplace who make, market or sell anything the framework for the most sophisticated consumer in history. How fortunate are we?

What is happening to Sacre Bleu as a brand is becoming a case study in marketing. Last week I had the opportunity to speak to the University of Wisconsin's MBA wine club. Many of the students are studying marketing/branding. As I told them our story and shared our vision for the brand, I was met with some interesting comments. This was a group of young men and women who not only understood the fundamentals of our strategy but have their own concepts rolling around in their minds that take things one step further. I knew I was in a pretty sharp ideas incubator. More than anything the students affirmed for me that we are moving in the right direction. I was given assurance that if we continued to put great wine in our great packaging and stayed relevant through the various Internet mediums that we utilize that we would most likely be met with success.

I want to offer a special thanks to the students at the University of Wisconsin MBA wine club. I learned a great deal.

Galen

Sacre Bleu Wine Network ~ Episode 5

Tapes n Tapes. Vicious Vicious. Bassist, producer, raconteur, Erik Applewick is one very busy man. He opens up to Sacre Bleu in a telling interview on the merits of modesty, the joy of producing and the phenomenal impact of the Internet on his bands. This is an audio portrait of a thoughtful and engaging artist. Erik Applewick is on the Sacre Bleu Wine Network.

Sacre Bleu Wine Network ~ Episode4

Behind Jenny Dalton’s music are lyrics her fans describe as melancholy, plaintive and heartfelt. Her music captures romantic essences and invites comparisons to Kate Bush. We invited Jenny to sit down with us and talk about her work, her inspirations and where she feels this very unusual sound is taking her. Chef Ben weaves magic with his takes on wine and food and Doni Walker gets the pop culture integration of wine with rare insight.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THEPODCAST

Sacre Bleu and Autumn 2007

We have an incredible fall season of promotional activity to tell you about. Sacre Bleu wine is going to be engaged in CD release parties, art exhibitions and concert events that serve to put our wine at the center of some pretty cool things.

We begin on October 25th. We are hosting Echo Through the Waves, A New Vision of Art with 50 Entertainment and Brick by Brick in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. www.brickbybrick07.com www.50entertainment.com We encourage you to attend because the art featured is from Dick Simonsen, Yuri Arajs and Lonnie Lovness, some of today's most provocative and compelling artists.

The following night, October 26th, we are working with the Kitty Cat Club to sponsor Jenny Dalton's CD release party. Jenny is unveiling the Carbon Lily Remixes. We love Jenny Dalton. In fact, she is featured on the Sacre Bleu Wine Network podcast episode 4 coming October 4th. She sat down with us to talk about the project as well as her affection for Kate Bush and the recent collapse of an intimate relationship.

All of this leads up to our gala night on November 16th at the Varsity Theatre. www.myspace.com/varsitytheater The night is the brainchild of Ari Herstand who cleverly dubbed it The Unknown Order. Ari's concept is generous. The four top bands in Minneapolis appear on the same bill with no pre-ordained headliner. The bands agree to pull a name out of a hat 10 minutes before stage time and go on in random order against the pure chance of the draw. It struck us as pure selfless fun. No egos. Just chance. So Sacre Bleu wines are sponsoring The Unknown Order, a line up that includes This World Fair, The Alarmists, Ari Herstand and White Light Riot. This may be the Minneapolis equivalent of a Thanksgiving holiday SXSW, Woodstock/Lollapalooza soiree. Whatever one chooses to call it, our wine will be there with you.

Add it all up and Fall 2007 is going to be immersing. It is an honor to have the brand aligned with so many talented artists and an absolute joy to watch its growth inside this amazing environment. Cheers!

The Unknown Order