holly + flora

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The Storm Cellar

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// hello //

I’m Jayme, a sommelier-turned-farmer, and I live in a small town out on Colorado’s Western Slope. My husband and I own and work on a vineyard together, where we make high-elevation white wine and rosé, under our label, The Storm Cellar. I share my cocktail explorations, travel stories, vineyard life, and wine musings here at holly & flora.

You can read a little more about me here.

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hollyandflora
Want my favorite celebratory cocktail that I like Want my favorite celebratory cocktail that I like to share with guests, especially if I’m strapped for time or don’t feel like batching for a large group? • Fruity Sorbet Sparklers 💥💥💥 • Anytime I have unexpected friends, family, or visitors stop by, I always have several fruit sorbets at the ready, along with a solid, tried-and-true sparkling wine. • 1️⃣ Make or purchase a few flavors of sorbet. I like to make peach, strawberry, or blackberry, especially when the season is cranking with amazing fruit. 2️⃣ If you don’t want to make sorbet, @talenti has some incredibly delicious options — a valid shortcut! 3️⃣ Find a bottle of inexpensive sparkling wine that you love. 💗 My favorite? @gruetwinery’s St. Vincent sparkling wine. It hits under $15 and is delicious. 4️⃣ Grow two or three of your favorite edible flowers, so that you can clip a few for an eye-catching and aromatic garnish. 5️⃣ Or find a friend (@peaandposy or @nicolemaret 👋🏼), who grows local edible blooms and support his or her business! 🌻 • When you’re ready to serve, just add a scoop of sorbet into whatever glassware you have on hand, top with bubbly, and garnish with a few flowers. 🌸🌻🌺 • I made these for a 60-person dinner that we co-hosted with @foragesisters in late July. Seeing some of the guests eat an edible flower for the first time was just amazing!! • I’m looking at you, Aunt Sharon!! 👀 • Do you have a favorite last-minute cocktail that you always have at the ready, whenever you have unexpected guests pop by? • TELL ME!! 🤩🤩🤩
Do you immediately swap your whites and rosés for Do you immediately swap your whites and rosés for reds, come Labor Day? 🙋🏼‍♀️ or 🙅🏼‍♀️? I’m especially curious about this because my winery specializes in white and rosé wines, and I drink them all. year. long. • It’s not necessarily the color of the wine that pairs well with a dish — a lot of times, it’s ACID or body. • Think - - - enjoying a sip of crisp, sparkling Riesling with roasted pork and grilled peaches. The acid cuts through that savory fat and lets the peachy tones in the wine and fruit take center stage. • My friends Jen and Gene of @1331kreative captured this video over Memorial Day weekend, the official kickoff of summer — or, when a lot of people think that white and rosé wine season begins. • Tell me —> are you a fan of all-colors, all-styles, and all-seasons, or do you only drink certain wines at certain times of the year? • Be sure to check out the first link in my profile for a preview of a streamable series, where @big_zen and I share the behind-the-scenes story of our farming, winemaking, and hospitality journey at The Storm Cellar @stormcellarwine. 💥 More like this to come!! • Big ups to chef @brandtbishop and chef Joe Kerns @entourdesaveur for making that weekend a delicious and memorable one!! 💗 • 🎥: @1331kreative
I’m celebrating four things today!! • 1. We fi I’m celebrating four things today!! • 1. We finished bottling our 2020 @stormcellarwine Field Blend! 🥂 2. We found out that one of our @stormcellarwine rosés is part of the @coloradowine 2021 Governor’s Cup collection!! 💥 MORE ON THAT! 3. I processed over 35 pounds of local peaches and tomatoes over the last few days. 😛 4. I wrote a post on the blog and have a new recipe for you! 🌿 This is my favorite update! • Yes, I’m *that* blogger. 😏 You have to pay to play, meaning - - - I don’t just share a recipe. I share the story behind the recipe. Because the story is sometimes way more exciting and memorable than the resulting cocktail or dish. • Where’d we get, as a society, where every quality thing is free and accesible without a form of “payment”? Sometimes, you need to dig deeply or actually cultivate a relationship or read a story to get the treat. • In my latest blog post (link in profile), I share my reasons for making culinary souvenirs a MUST on trips, my thoughts about detaching from social media (à la @mygiantstrawberry), and the recipe for my spicy-sweet-savory cocktail, featuring CUCAMELONS!! • It’s a mashup of the following goodness: • 🥒 @spring44distilling gin 🥒 @chartreuse.fr yellow 🥒 cucamelons 🥒 @delmagueymezcal Chichicapa 🥒 lime juice 🥒 serrano pepper honey syrup • Get the recipe, make this drink, and savor these delicious remaining weeks of summer. And detach and soak up the analog and physical relationships in your lives. • Soak up that juicy juice. 💦😎😘 • HUGS from me in my living room, where I’m doing some late-night jarring-up of the last of our foraged, dehydrated mushrooms and dreaming of what we will make next with them! • • • • #HollyAndFlora #BloggingIsLife #Cucamelon #CucumberCocktail #CraftCocktails #GinCocktail #FeedFeed @thefeedfeed.cocktails #F52Grams #Kitchn #ImbibeGram #GardenToGlass #🥒 #BHGStylemaker #BHGDrinks #CocktailBlogger #ABMHappyHour #Gardenista #LiqPic
I’m thrilled that spirit-free cocktails are havi I’m thrilled that spirit-free cocktails are having their well-deserved moment in restaurants, home bars, and publications. It’s long overdue but very much appreciated. • I get excited when my friend Stephen (@stephenroehler 👋🏼) stops by the tasting room. I get to be creative, since he doesn’t drink. Non-alcoholic cocktails have come a long way since the basic (and cloyingly sweet 😝), syrupy, fruit-and-soda concoctions. • How can you make a better spirit-free drink? • Here are my five favorite tips - - - • 1️⃣ Bring the bitter and tannic. 🤩 Don’t shy away from making a strong-brewed tea or using a bitter amaro-like non-alcoholic spirit. Just like a regular, boozy cocktail, the bitter brings the flavor-and-texture backbone. • 2️⃣ Don’t 86 the sugar. 🤩 Make a few simple syrups and infuse them with seasonal fruits and herbs. Just a 1/2 ounce or so will bring texture, flavor, and depth to your NA drink. • 3️⃣ Remember the acid balance. 🤩 Citrus is your friend. Keep fresh lemons and limes on hand and use them to bring a bright kick of flavor and brightness. • 4️⃣ Think — TEXTURE. 🤩 Alcohol imbues weight and texture to cocktails, so to make a complex and compelling cocktail, sans spirits, you have to make up that weight, somehow. Strong-brewed tea, kombucha, or a well-made spirit-free distillate is your friend. • 5️⃣ Find some solid NA spirits with which to experiment. 🤩 My top three spirit-free distillates are @wilderton_free (innovative, complex), @seedlipdrinks (the OG, fresh and lively), and @lyresspiritco (insanely close to the real deal — thanks for the intro, @_valcohol — post coming soon!). • 6️⃣ The garnish is EVERYTHING!! 🤩 Bring out the edible flowers and herbs, unabashedly. • What’s your favorite go-to spirit-free cocktail? What are your favorite spirit-free distillates or accompaniments? • Big thanks to @riedel_official for these perfect G+T glasses and to @peaandposy for the crazy-gorgeous edible flower garnishes. • • • • #HollyAndFlora #ImbibeGram #SpiritFree #NonalcoholicDrink #LANADrinks #SoberCurious #DrinkNoLow #WildertonFree #SeedlipDrinks #CraftCocktails #ZeroProof #LiqPic #GrapeVarietalSpecific #MyRiedel
I’m sending out a vineyard update tonight. 🌱 I’m sending out a vineyard update tonight. 🌱 It’s not the full rundown, but it’s a glimpse at what’s happening here. As many of you know, we are seeing a 100% loss of crop for the 2021 harvest season. As in, *zero* grapes. • As a small business, under five years old, we can’t attempt to survive without making wine this year. • That topic, in its entirety, is for another post, but in this little “IG news square”, I’m sharing about the positives we’ve had this late-spring and early-summer season. • We planted over 1,600 dormant, grafted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines in early June. The temperatures were unseasonably hot, but we had ample water, so we watered the $&%# out of those vines. At times, we hand-watered them, listening to drum-and-bass, with a hose in hand, for hours. 🤪 • In a year that is filled with so many losses and challenges for us, we are celebrating the victories that come to us on a daily basis. 🥂 And we are celebrating them on a daily basis. • I’ll post a proper vineyard update. It’s been quite the ride. I’m happy to say that despite the grave loss, within our vineyard here in Colorado and within our Colorado grape contracts, that we’ll still be able to pull in 40 tons of fruit this harvest season, with grapes sourced from stellar plots from around the country and within our home state. • Steve and I are super stoked to get our hands on some #FLXwine Riesling, Washington Pinot Gris, Bien Nacido (🤯!!!) Chardonnay, and some funky cold-hardy Colorado grapes, among others!! • Keep fighting. • Honestly, it’s a choice — either keep pushing and enjoy the ride or give up and die with remorse. We are choosing the FORMER. 💥💥💥 • • • • 📷: @1331kreative 💗💗💗 #HollyAndFlora #StormCellarWine #WinemakersLife #VineyardLife #TheFutureIsGrafted #Vintage2021 #Vintage2021🍇 #HighElevationVineyards #HighElevationWine #DrinkColoradoWine #ColoradoWine #CoWine #SommelierWinemaker #SommLife #FIVEColorado #KeepPushing @big_zen is my #RideOrDie 🤩 #ColoradoWinery #ColoradoWineCountry
Okay, question - - - how does hospitality play int Okay, question - - - how does hospitality play into your daily life? I posted this a couple of days ago and then had a tech difficulty. So, here we are again because I love this topic! 🤩 • How do you “wow” the people you come into contact with? 💫 Do you see everyone as a potential customer or lasting relationship, even if you don’t—at that moment—see the transaction happening? • Every. Person. Deserves. HOSPITALITY. • What does that mean to you? • Tell me - - - > • How do YOU show hospitality to your followers, your visitors, your clients, your friends, or your first-time exposures? • H E R E - - - > • Before we were able to share our newly bottled 2020 wines, we wowed our guests with Riesling-soaked sorbet, drizzled with sparkling wine, and garnished with edible flowers. • That is HOSPITALITY. 💫 • This was our favorite part of our pre-season tastings. Last weekend, we kicked off the holiday with THREE versions of #SommPops, our frozen, wine-drenched, adult “otter pops,” fresh and fruity, dry and sessionable. • I hope you enjoyed a celebratory holiday weekend. I flew out to Florida to visit my sister and her two kids, and we sneaked in a beach visit, lots of coloring sessions, and two pizza nights. They’re moving to Germany next week, and I’m so glad I slowed down enough to get some quality niece-and-nephew (and sister!!) time. • And Monday night’s visit to Fort Walton Beach was pure medicine for me. It had been four years, since I’d taken a dip in saltwater. 🤩 • • • • • #StormCellarWine #WestElksAVA #ColoradoWine #DrinkColoradoWine #WineSorbet #WineCocktail #SommLife #SommelierWinemaker #HighElevationWine #DrinkColoradoWine #HollyAndFlora #ImbibeGram #ImbibeGram #FIVEcolorado #liqpic #FrozenWineCocktails #WineSlushy #TTCcocktails #ABMHappyHour #Kitchn #FeedFeed @thefeedfeed.cocktails
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