Karena Giveaway - Wine & a Basket

I received a sweet email from Karen of the Art by Karena Blog and was so interested taking a tour around her blog. Little did she know that I used to spend a lot of time in her backyard, Overland Park, Kansas to be exact. And I ate up her post on the Nelson-Atkins expansion, and absolutely can't wait to see more of her Rothko-esque paintings. Karen is a very talented artist and I admit though I love art she is the first "Art" blog that I am following.

Karen wanted to do a giveaway, but since this will coincide with my trip to France this week, I am going to add in some thing(s) from France to sweeten the deal. She recently did a giveaway of Cristal Champagne; since the crowd ate that up, I will bring back a bottle of my favorite Champagne from Larmandier-Bernier (you can read about them HERE); Champagne travels well and is always correct, so that will be one of the choices of the winner. Guaranteed you will not be able to find the bottle I will bring back anywhere in the U.S.

Here is an organic tea being sprayed on Larmandier-Bernier's chardonnay grapes by an acrobatic pilot; yikes~ I will spend most of this trip in Beaune, which is the heart of the Burgundy wine region. The production of Burgundy wines is very small, smaller than Bordeaux wines, but you will know the names as they are among the best in the world, including Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Vosne Romanee and Chassagne-Montrachet. Whereas most Bordeaux wines are red and made from Cabernet or Merlot grapes, Burgundy produces red and white wines, primarily Chardonnay for white wine and Pinot Noir for reds. I will be blogging about French wines while I'm there. Here is a bottle of Burgundy red in a little Eze basket~
Burgundy has amazing produce and foods, and in Beaune we also have our own Mustard Factory as we are not far from Dijon. I always bring home these big crock jars of stone-ground mustard, made in town since 1840:

in my suitcase on the return is also Kusmi tea, which is sold at our Cheese store in town; yeah, I know it is Russian tea, but it's the best black tea you will ever taste and in town I can get these large tins, which I can't find in the states. Maybe I will also bring some Marriage Freres tea too, equally good!
And last but not least, I bring home about 20 of these each trip: hand-culled French sea salt; the name of the person who gathered it is always labeled on the top; this is a special-edition label so the one I bring will look slightly different~

So, the winner of Karen's contest will get their choice of a bottle of Burgundy wine or Larmandier Champagne and a basket; with the option to swap out for other items. Something tells me the winner will stick with the wine or Champagne, but let's see what their tastes are at the end of the month!

To enter, please select a basket from my website, and go to Karen's blog HERE to post your comment on which basket. Remember that I have a LOT of merchandise that is not on the website but is on my blog or otherwise in stock. I will also have sample baskets that I will be buying in France this trip. Value will easily exceed $100 for the package.

Bonne chance a tous~ Good luck everyone!!