Great Online Boutique Recommendations-Holiday Season 2009

Telluride Truffle: The Best Cookies for Santa in the World

What? You’ve done all your shopping? Lucky you! Well, I’m sure you can still find a few tasty treats below for your holiday feasts.

But if you’re at all like me, you’ve barely put a dent in your shopping. So I’m here to help. Plus it’s cold across much of the country and the parking lots are beginning to fill up at the mall, so why not settle in and visit my hand-picked selection of charming Internet boutiques?

Old Chatham Sheepherding Company: It's Nice to Know the Provenance of Your Cheeses

This year’s lineup once again favors many delectable food items that make great gifts for your friends and loved ones. (And don’t forget yourself!) Let’s start with cheese, typically the last course in France before dessert but here in America we eat it at all different times. I like fresh, artisanally-made cheeses that are good enough to be the focal point of a meal composed of just bread, salad, cheese and wine. No processed food here. I was thrilled to re-connect recently with the wonderful cheeses from Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, an exceptional cheesemaker not far from my roots in upstate New York. Made from fresh sheep and cow’s milk, their award-winning Hudson Valley Camembert, melts in your mouth. Be sure to order their Ewe’s Blue, made in the Roquefort style, and these wonderful whole wheat Petits Toasts that they also sell that go so well with any kind of cheese.  (Love their nutty flavor!)  Consider their sheep’s milk yogurts as well. If you’re not a fan of all those sugary yogurts available in the market, you’ll love Old Chatham’s slightly sweet, ever-so refined yogurts that come in a variety of flavors including maple and ginger. Type Bonjour Colorado into the gift message section to receive your 10% discount.

Coach Farm Goat Cheeses

For the Cheese Lover in Your Life

Let’s not forget the goats. I recently discovered Coach Farm, a company specializing in goat’s milk cheeses and yogurts. Situated within the Hudson Valley, this purveyor supplies many of the top restaurants of New York. One taste and you’ll understand why. Their goat’s milk yogurt, made with live active cultures, just might become your tasty health remedy for 2010. Be sure to visit their Web site as well for many terrific recipes. Coach Farm also produces fresh and aged heart-shaped goat cheeses for Valentine’s Day; these must be pre-ordered by December 30th. Who ever thought cheese could be so adorable?  Call and mention Bonjour Colorado to receive free shipping.

Contact Vermont Butter and Cheese Company for your most refined creamery needs such as mascarpone, fromage blanc and sea salted cultured butter, a near delicacy that enhances any repast tenfold. They offer fine goat cheeses as well along with an extraordinary crême fraîche, a must for any serious cook’s fridge. I love adding a dollop of this most flavorful cream to my puréed winter soups.

Prime Meats from Lobel's

You must select some nice wines to accompany your extraordinary plateau de fromages. But let’s not break the bank. I have found some lovely ones, from Blackstone Winery, that represent an excellent price/quality relationship. Their Sonoma Reserve Merlot 2007 typically retails for $19.99 and their SonomaReserve Chardonnay 2008 rings in at $14.99.  For something more celebratory, seek out some sparkling from Cupcake Vineyards, bubbly wines (Blanc de Blancs Chardonnay and Brut Rosé Pinot Noir), from the Loire Valley of France.  They, too, are exceedingly affordable at $15.99 per bottle.  Don’t you just love the name?  Sounds like they’re another must for those looking to inject a little more romance into their lives.

Don’t know what to give that special man on your list?  How about sending him a package of steaks?  Don’t go ordinary though.  Check out the offerings at Lobel’s of New York, purveyors of dry-aged steaks, USDA prime and more gourmet items since 1840.  They, too, have some delicious recipes on their site.

Telluride Vodka: Spirit of Our Mountains

Here’s another great gift idea for guys although gals have been raving about it, too.  Order a bottle of Telluride Vodka, a spirit made from corn and our pristine mountain waters of T-ride.  Its taste is as refined as its packaging.  Contact Brad and mention Bonjour Colorado to receive $5. off every bottle you purchase.

The holidays would not be truly festive without chocolate.  Telluride Truffle still gets my vote as the finest chocolatier of the Rockies and their packaging is so gifty that you know receiving anything from this fine purveyor of treats will make anyone smile.  I’m crazy for their cookies, which, loaded with almonds, pecans, raisins and Belgian chocolate chips, strike a yummy combo between crunchy and chewy.  Type in promo code Paris10 in the Redeem Coupon Box to receive a 10% discount on online orders.

Alpen Schatz is another Telluride institution of sorts.  Owner Mary Dawn DeBraie showcases alpine treasures, superior quality products from the Alps that integrate the mountain spirit into our lives in her Telluride boutique and online store.  From handmade Swiss belts and dog collars, to boiled wool hats from Austria to hand finished silk Italian scarves, Alpen Schatz offers an array of original gift ideas for men, women, teens and children.  Can’t go wrong with Old World charm and tradition. Type in Bonjour upon check out to receive your special 10% discount.  Click on the play button below to hear Mary Dawn talk about Alpen Schatz.

Alpine-Inspired Silk Scarves from Alpen Schatz

Imperial Torte from Vienna

Telluride Gift Baskets rounds up many artisan-style food items in Colorado including jerky, jams, honeys, mustards and more.  If you mention Bonjour Colorado, you’ll receive a complimentary Chocolove candy bar with your order.

Looking for the nec plus ultra in gift giving this year?  Send a Viennese Imperial Torte to the globetrotting chocolate-lover in your life.  Confectioned from mocha cream, sandwiched between six crispy layers, and then surrounded by an exquisite marzipan and enrobed in dark chocolate, these jewel-like creations are shipped directly to you from Hotel Imperial in Vienna.  The packaging alone transports you to this elegant city where refinement and tradition reign supreme.  And if you don’t wait too long, there’s still time to order for Christmas deliveries.

Still in search of something unusual, perhaps a collectible that won’t be gobbled up in one meal?  I discovered The Autograph Source on a recent trip to Aspen and have become a fan of both their boutique and online store ever since.  Do peruse it—it’s great fun.  You can find all kinds of cool stuff from one of Eric Clapton’s guitars, signed by “the man” himself to an autographed photograph of President Obama. Mention Bonjour Colorado to receive your 10% discount here.

Eric Clapton's Signed Guitar from The Autograph Source

Are you still in search of something out of the ordinary, a fun and totally affordable little gift idea?  Why not gourmet sea salts?  In flavors such as lavender rosemary, bloody mary,  niçoise olive and cherry pistachio, Secret Stash Sea Salts will turn you on to something new.  And if you really want to express yourself in your gifting, go for the coconut or almond cardamom.  Now that’s what I calling adding some zest to life!

I’d like to round out my recommendations with two French favorites:  Spirit of Provence and Quel Objet. The Provençal olive oil imported by Spirit of Provence has been flying off the shelves of the finest boutiques in Aspen and Vail.  (Yes, Margie, the owner, is a Coloradan, based in Boulder.)  Check out her Provençal pottery, too.  You’ll find French gift ideas galore at Quel Objet including superior quality tea towels and tablecloths, lovely soaps and creams, French market baskets and bouquets garnis, perfect for stews and soups, which you’ll find you can’t live without.

I think magazine subscriptions always make for great gifts, especially if you match the right publication to the right reader.  I have two favorite publications about France that I enjoy receiving:  France Today and France Magazine.  They’re both offering special holiday gift subscriptions for Bonjour Colorado readers. France Magazine will include a free issue with every gift subscription; click here and type in PRO7G.  Click here for France Today and enter promo code CORP09 to receive 20% off.  They also publish France-Amérique, a publication in French (great for honing your French language skills).  Click here for that subscription and be sure to enter the CORP09 code to receive your 20% discount.

Since I’ve simplified your shopping, I hope you’ll be able to find some time to read a few of my many stories about travel, beauty, shopping, food and wine and more here on my blog.  Shopping needn’t be so tiresome.

Visit my Shopping Page to read more about some of my favorite purveyors.

Baaaa-est Tidings from All of Us!