The famous Auction Napa Valley hosted by the non-profit Napa Valley Vintners trade association is expanding its bidder base by adding an online auction component to the annual event. More than 150 lots ranging from small offerings of wine to large collections of wine ideal for cellar building will be offered for people from around the world to bid on. Already the world’s most successful charity wine auction and in its 31st year, the auction to date has raised nearly $97 million to scores of non-profit programs.

“We look forward to bringing these great wines and wine experiences to Napa Valley wine lovers around the world. We have put together some incredible offerings in more than 150 lots. It’s a never-before-seen, really amazing global outreach that brings together the best of Napa Valley–and all for great causes that support healthcare, youth services and affordable housing non-profit programs” said Andy Schweiger of Schweiger Vineyards, who is leading the online component of Auction Napa Valley this year.

Lots are available for preview now at www.napavintners.com/anv with bidding beginning on Sunday, May 29 at 8am and continuing until Sunday, June 5, at 6pm Pacific Daylight Time, when lots will close and winning bidders will be notified.

If you’ve been left out in the past because you couldn’t make it to Napa, here is your chance to bid on some unbelievably incredible wine.

This week’s installment of The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess brought to you by the Small Screen Network brings you the Monkey Gland cocktail, which according to Robert Hess, “Back in the day, men used to attempt amazingly misguided, ill informed shenanigans with the goal of increasing their virility and longevity; like taking monkey testicles and implanting or grafting them in to their own bodies. Thus, the Monkey Gland cocktail was created by Frank Meier, of the Ritz Hotel Paris (April, 1923).”

MONKEY GLAND COCKTAIL

• 2 oz Beefeater 24 Gin
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1/4 oz grenadine
• dash Absinthe

Regular Mutineer Magazine columnist Dan Dunn and author of the new book Living Loaded was recently on on the Conan O’Brien Show where Dan showed Conan how to make some Cinco de Mayo cocktails using Hornitos Tequila. Though Conan’s “cocktail” was pretty much just a lot bell pepper and a lot of tequila, the drink itself was bell Jalapeno-infused Hornitos tequila, bell pepper, celery bitters, pineapple juice, lime juice, a dash of hot sauce and shaken with ice and strained into a salt-rimmed shot glass .. and in Conan’s case, more tequila .. and then, more tequila.

The next drink would be rimmed with maple syrup and bacon and then a shot of Hornitos Añejo tequila

Mutineer Magazine’s creative agency, Plumbline Studios, is beyond awesome with the house and subscription ads they create for us. We’ve given Plumbline free-reign to create whatever they like as long as it revolves around beverage and they have knocked it out of the park with multiple award winning advertisements created exclusively for Mutineer by way of original illustrations to custom tattoo art to photography. Their work is insane and we are so humbled to have them on this epic fine beverage journey with us and having just seen the ad for our July/August issue of Mutineer, it is just as mind blowing as the rest. Best of all, the folks at Plumbline are just as passionate about beverage as we are, which is evident in their work for us and Robert, Design Director for Plumbline, goes on to say “I love beer. What would you do for someone you love if they said, “whatever you want to do this weekend, is fine with me.”? With no restraints and a proverbial empty bar seat available, that’s what working on this campaign for Mutineer has felt like. Did I mention I love beer?”

If you nerd it up on Twitter, they are definitely #FollowFriday worthy from us at @PlumblineStudio or find them on Facebook.

Click on the ad to see a larger version.

Joining the exciting mobile food revolution, Freixenet USA announces the launch of the Freixenet Tastings & Tapas Truck this June. The “Black Bottle Bubbly” will visit five east coast cities to introduce the first food truck created to share the beauty and versatility of cava, Spain’s sparkling wine, one glass of Freixenet at a time. As the first sparkling wine to go mobile, Freixenet recognizes that the food truck culture provides a unique and perfectly matched showcase to make sparkling wine accessible for everyday enjoyment, to highlight its fondness for food, and share Spain’s love of nightlife.

Each bottle of Freixenet takes a minimum of three years to create from the grape to the glass and is made using the traditional method (the same process used for champagne) and the latest technology to ensure consistency. Even with this unwavering focus on quality, Freixenet is still very wallet friendly, which, with its versatility, makes it the perfect wine for every day. And lest you think sparkling wine is just for celebrating, Freixenet is a “wonderfully unexpected” pairing with spicy foods, barbecue, sushi, fried foods like pommes frites, and even popcorn.

In just over a week, the Brewers Association will host SAVOR, their annual beer and food pairing event at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. For those fortunate enough to have already purchased tickets to the incredible sold out two-day event, they will have the privilege to try the collaboration beer from Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery called SAVOR Flowers. It will only be available to attendees of the event who will each receive a cork and caged 750ml bottle of the special brew to bring home with them and it will be available to sample at the event as well.

Both Sam Adams and Dogfish Head have continuously pushed the envelope of what beer could be and they have steered away what beer should be and I am so excited to have received a bottle of this and I can’t wait to try it. As we know, beer is made from four main ingredients – yeast, hops, barley, and water – and all but one, water, have been messed around with to create new and exciting beers. For SAVOR Flowers, they have decided to change this. Through an age-old distillation process, they created rosewater which would serve as the base liquid of the beer and this in turn inspired them to continue exploring the use of flowers and eventually dried lavender, hibiscus, jasmine and rosebuds would be introduced into the brewing process to create SAVOR Flowers. Also to be used would be a new hop breed simply known as #369 that is known for its intense floral notes which Jim Koch would acquire 30 pounds of from Yakima, Washington.

The beer would then be aged in Barrel One, the same bourbon barrel Jim used to age the premier batch of the first “extreme beer”, Samuel Adams Triple Bock in 1993. According to Sam Adams, Barrel One is the first barrel originally used for spirits which was then used to age beer and for the last 18 years it has been filled with Samuel Adams Triple Bock.

According to Jim Koch of Samuel Adams, “Sam and I had a great time gathering these ingredients, and I am excited to collaborate with such an innovative brewer on this beer for SAVOR. Sam’s originality and imagination are endless – he came up with the creative idea of distilling rosewater for this brew. We share the same intense passion for pushing the conventional definition of what beer can be and we put that same passion into our beers.”

Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head continues, “Jim is the godfather of craft beer, and he’s got unbelievable ideas about what beer can be, along with the knowledge and palate to make those crazy beer dreams come true. I am with him on his philosophy and thrilled to be working together on this groundbreaking brew. We share a commitment to elevating beer to its proper infinite height, as both a beverage and a pairing for food.”

As beverage journalists, we have had the opportunity to sit down and chat with some of the most influential beverage rock stars of our time from Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to Jonathan Goldsmith of Dos Equis’ The Most Interesting Man in the World fame to Mr. King Cocktail himself Dale DeGroff. But we’ve also had the chance to sit down with a real life rock star when we visited Maynard James Keenan at his Jerome, Arizona winery Caduceus Cellars. Famous as the front man for rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, his first wines were launched in 2004 and this is his story.

Mutineer Magazine: What drew you to wine?
Maynard James Keenan: It’s just a complex art form that requires that you get involved, developing your own senses, developing your own awareness.

How is creating art with grapes similar to creating art with music?
It’s very similar, of course it all depends on the winemaker or the musician. As far as my process, it’s definitely a process of listening…a game of awareness basically. Just listening to what’s happening in the room, listening to what’s happening in the glass, in the barrel, listening to what’s happening in the vineyard, and moving accordingly.

How does your music background change your approach to wine? You’re coming at wine from a unique angle.
But a lot of people do. A lot of people that have vineyards or are making wine, there’s a significant percentage that come to it from a different perspective because maybe they’re successful in some other area and now they have a little bit of cash that they, well, the cliché is that if you want to make a small fortune in the wine business, you have to start with a very large fortune, which is cliché, but it’s true. But you end up having to explain that the small fortune is more consistent and sustainable and it’s a quality of life choice. Probably the lifestyle that you had before was very stressful to make that kind of income and required a lot of headaches and sleepless nights, sore backs, or whatever. A large portion of making wine is labor. People don’t understand it’s not just tasting wine, it’s a lot of work, but it’s wake up at a decent hour in the morning and you go to work, and you’re in your own bed that night.

It’s just experience. A writer writes, and a drinker drinks. You just have to be open to what you’re experiencing.

How did you develop your palate and explore the world of wine?
It’s just experience. A writer writes, and a drinker drinks. You just have to be open to what you’re experiencing. A lot of the education comes from contrast and comparing, so if you have some friends and can open up some bottles of wine, just make sure you taste them in a relatively right order and with food. See how they go with food and how they go with each other. Depending on the wine you’re drinking, you might have an awkward experience with a wine you’re not ready to taste. Some people are into the heavy big cabs, and then they try and taste a pinot noir after that and they don’t understand what they’re experiencing, because the heaviness and the fruit bomb from the California cab interrupts the process, so it’s a matter of education. And you know, another education is to open a bottle of wine, let it breathe a little bit, taste it on its own, wait a little while later, have it with some basic foods, some meats or cheeses, taste it again, and then eat something super sweet, like drink a Coca-Cola and eat a Snickers bar, and then taste the wine again, and you’ll see that the wine tastes like shit, because the sugars and all those things kill the experience of the wine.

Yes, $26.6 million. With an amount this big it’s made pretty obvious that Stone Brewing Co. has been doing quite well for themselves since their creation in 1996 and with them being the 14th largest craft brewery in America. If their beautiful Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens wasn’t enough with its outstanding food, lush one-acre outdoor garden, and rotating line-up of 32 taps and 100+ bottled craft beer selections for guests to enjoy, their new additions definitely will be.

So, what exactly are they adding?

A new production building directly adjacent to the south will bring an additional 55,000 sq. ft. production facility adjacent to the current brewery, essentially doubling the existing space for brewing, fermentation and packaging.

As if all that wasn’t enough to occupy their time, get ready for an estimated 50-room Stone Hotel set to open sometime in 2013. “There’s no better way to wrap up a day filled with good eats and craft beer than with a plush bed and a comfy pillow,” asserts Stone Brewing Co. CEO and Co-Founder Greg Koch. President and Brewmaster Steve Wagner adds, “Plus, I’m pretty sure that we’ll have arguably the best darn mini-bars in the country.”

More of a kinesthetic learner? This video will give you the 411 and blow your mind on the transformation that Stone is about to embark on.

Looking for a job? Stone is hiring in a ton of positions.