[FRIDAY FAVES] Beach Dreams, Pretty Pét-Nats, and Picnic Plans

Photo: Nemanja O. via Unsplash

Hello, it's the weekend! Here's a list of goodies to prep you for relaxation.

FRIDAY FAVES - 3.26.21


- Lucy Laucht's photos of foreign beach scenes are just the thing to defrost your dreams of travel.

- Check out this sleek, reusable cutlery that would be perfect for a picnic basket! 

- And OH MY GOSH, this cloudy and unfiltered sparkling Furmint from Slovenia would be such a great picnic companion this spring! Its citrusy, beer-like flavor profile shines alongside salty things like hard cheeses, potato chips and olives. 

- If you have kids (or even if you don't!), check out Netflix's new show Waffles and Mochi. It's an adorable, food-focused show featuring a couple of cute puppets, lots of famous food folks, and Michelle Obama herself.

- Tasty tips for preventing soggy sandwiches on your next outdoor lunch!


See you next week!

 

Skin Contact Wine, Demystified

Photo: Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash

Right now, in June of 2020, the words skin contact might totally freak you out. Social distancing is a thing, staying extra safe is on all of our minds, and the thought of touching another human being is suddenly a frought thought indeed. 

But we're not here to talk about that! On THIS blog, we're talking skin contact as it applies to wine. Wine! What a happy topic. 

Soooo, what is skin contact wine, anyway?

It's super simple. Skin contact wines are white wines that are made more like red wines.

The big difference between making a white wine and a red wine lies in the fermentation process. With a white wine, the winemaker presses the grapes and then removes the pomace (all of the residual solids, like seeds, grape skins, etc.)  before fermenting the juice in a tank or other vessel. When making red wine, the winemaker will allow that pomace to hang out in the fermentation vessel with the juice, giving them more time to macerate. All of those lovely seeds and skins impart several things...

Stranger Wines For Halloween

Photo: Netflix

October is the perfect time to binge watch (again) season three of Netflix’s Stranger Things. I mean, what could be more Halloween-adjacent than a little weird and retro romp through Demagorgon-infested Hawkins, Indiana? Exactly.

Season three of Stranger Things brings the advent of The Mall, that glorious beacon of the 1980s. It’s new, it’s flashy, it’s...strange! Everyone in Hawkins loves it and the Starcourt Mall is really the center of some of the juiciest, most climactic moments in the season.

In the final scenes of the season, the Stranger Things gang splits up into smaller groups to more effectively kick the Mind Flayer's butt. Each group gets a code name to communicate with the others over walkie talkie: The Griswold Family, The Scoops Troop, and Bald Eagle (of course!). So, in the spirit of trying new and strange things, I’m recommending a super off-the-beaten-path wine to pair with each of the Stranger Things factions that face the Mind Flayer in this spooky and totally rad...

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