Winc: Wine Subscription Service Review & Free Bottle Code!

We love to get mail. Who doesn't? We also love wine. Also, who doesn't? We recently wondered why we had not tried out one of the many wine subscription services, we really had no good explanation. We are members of many Carmel Valley wine clubs and get most of our wine locally but we rarely try wines that aren't local let alone produced outside of California. We decided that trying out a wine subscription would be a great way to try something new, and have the excitement of waiting for the mail to arrive as well!

First up on our quest to find the best wine subscription service is Winc (formerly known as Club W). 

Winc is a L.A. based start-up winery who's mission is to provide the world with stellar wines at reasonable prices. Working directly with vineyards and winemakers, and distributing directly to the consumer (us), they keep prices down so we get these wines at a great price!

To get started, you sign up and take a quick quiz to identify your palate profile. Then they suggest several wines for you based on your profile and you can either keep the selections or pick from the ever changing range of wines on offer.  

We ended up selecting our own wines, some of them were matched to us from our profile, and some were not. We were SO excited to get the package...we actually ran right out to the delivery man when he came. The package includes the wines and cards with a description and a recipe to pair with each bottle. You can also get these recipes on the Winc website. 

First up: 

2015 Copycat Barbera

Paso Robles, CA

We adore this label! A cat in a triceratops costume, what could be cuter?! We thought the wine was very light for the color of wine and had no lingering finish. It tasted of red cherry and raspberry with a touch of herbs. Overall we would drink it again but we wouldn't go out of our way to purchase it. 

2015 Cocomero Rosé of Barbera

California

The label is fun and definitely eye catching. It grabs our attention but it also makes us a bit weary since fun girly labels tend to be on the sweet side. In this case it was not sweet. This was definitely a darker rosé in color. The flavor matched the color, it was a very flavorful rosé. It really tasted like drinking a bowl of fruit salad (a lot of things going on). Overall we thought it wasn't that great of a rosé. We like our rosés on the lighter side with less complexity. 

2015 Wildest Dreams White Blend

Central Coast, CA

We really love the labeling on this wine. Ivy also like the name because it reminds her of Taylor Swifts song "Wildest Dreams". The label is definitely "trendy' and has a really cute heart stamped on the top and bottom of the cork. The wine itself was our favorite of the four. We liked its crisp acidity, and that it was pretty dry. Their were flavors of peach and honeysuckle with a little bit of lemon. We could see ourselves drinking this with our nectarine and burrata salad or even a thin crust veggie pizza. It's a great all around white wine. 

2015 PYT Malvasia Bianca Pétillant Naturel (called Pét-Nat for short) 

Paso Robles, CA

This wine style has recently become popular in the wine industry although its one of the oldest ways to make sparkling wine. The reason its becoming more readily available is for two reasons, the first being sparkling wine is becoming really popular to all wine consumers, second being this is the simplest and most cost effective way to make a sparkling wine (more on this at a later time). 

Being sparkling wine lovers we decided we should give it a try and see what the rage is all about. The label itself is pretty and would stand out well on a shelf. When we opened it, as warned on Winc, the bottle fizzed out the top of the bottle all over our hands and counter. We quickly poured it into our glasses. The color of the wine was straw yellow and hazy because there's no filtering involved. The taste was a little tart with a lot of melon, honey, and lychee flavors. While this isn't our typical favorite sparkling wine we thought it was fun and festive to drink.  We are looking forward to trying a few more Pét-Nats in the near future. 

Overall we thought this wine shipment was good, we will likely try it again once more to see if we find wines that better fit our personal preferences. We would recommend this wine subscription to new wine drinkers or people looking to try something different. We wish they would give a bit more background on where they source their grapes from. One of the wines just said it was sourced from California. Bonus: Winc definitely wins for having the cutest wine branding. 

If you are interested in trying Winc out for yourself use our code to get a free bottle of wine with your shipment (worth $13!). 

Use the code: https://www.clubw.com/iqabcrvz0wi

xxx Ivy & Eve

Joyce Vineyards Winery Party

For the past few months we have been anticipating the opening of our nearest and dearest local winery's new tasting location; Joyce Vineyards Winery Tasting Room in Salinas! (Ivy's boyfriend happens to be the assistant winemaker here!) Although it's location is not as convenient for us as their Carmel Valley tasting room which we told you about here, the new location is at their winery! This location is awesome because it gives the enophile's and devoted club members a chance to peer into the making of delicious wine. Although it would not be our first time visiting the winery, we were still very excited to see the changes they had made to the facility since the last time we visited. As soon as the date was announced for the 'Open House', we marked our calendars and crossed off each day in anticipation. The open house was free for club members and $40 for nonmembers. This ticket included 3 glasses of wine, and unlimited food. What a great deal! 

The location of the winery is in a warehouse in Salinas, California. From the outside you would never know there was wine nearby. When we stepped inside the winery's large processing room, there was a long table for people to stand and eat with additional tables around the edge of the room. Along the sides were barrels full of wine and stainless steel tanks ready for this years harvest. Within the big room there were two wine tasting bars set up. Each bar was pouring something different. One area poured the reds, the other poured special estate wines under a canopy of moody bistro lights. Off to the left was a room which is going to be the new tasting room. This bar was pouring white wines. In this room they also featured Buzz Light Beer from a wine barrel keg in the wall by Alvarado Street Brewing, which happens to have their brewing facility and new tasting bar open just down the street.

 The food at the event was amazing! Hawaiian food truck Pono served seaweed salad, manapaul (steamed pork bun), Kalua pork sliders, and pork or shrimp tacos! Catering company Tasty Solutions, with Chef Marc Jones served up the best tri-tip sandwiches, grilled corn on the cob, quinoa salad, and a large assortment of other delicious grilled veggies. Plus he served the most heavenly blueberry bread pudding cobbler with stone fruit and blueberries topped with a lavender chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Seriously delicious!

Outside, they had our friend and local artist Casey Frazier playing tunes for everyone sitting outside enjoying the wine. They also had a cornhole game set up for people to play in the sunshine! 

The event brought in over 250 people from around the area. This new winery tasting location plans to be officially up and running for weekends and special events sometime after this years harvest. There is a lot to be done at Joyce Vineyards between now and then. They not only have harvest just around the corner but they also are moving their Carmel Valley tasting room to another location down the street. Definitely keep an eye on this winery. They have big and exciting changes coming soon! Be sure to follow them on Facebook for the most up-to-date info on the upcoming changes and events! 

xxx Ivy & Eve

Brothers Todd (left) and Nick (Right [Ivy's wonderful boyfriend]) pouring a selection of red wines offered at Joyce.

Looking towards the estate wines tasting corner among the barrels

Music in the sunshine

The entrance to the winery

The DELICIOUS cobbler!

Seaweed salad and pork bun...and lots of wine!

Tri-tip, grilled veggies and grilled corn

Inside the winery

Awesome chalk map and beer on tap (left)

Santa Lucia Highlands Gala

The Santa Lucia Highlands Gala (also called the SLH Gala) is an event put on each year that showcases 40 plus local wines grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA (American Viticultural Area...fancy talk for a grape growing region). On top of premier wines, the event has small bites of some of the best local flavors. This year the event was held at Mer Soleil Winery and Vineyard. Surrounded by vineyards and sunshine, it was the perfect setting for a wine party! This event is really unique because only wineries that produce wines from grapes grown in the SLH are invited. You can taste anything from dry Rieslings to bold Syrahs. Some of our favorite wineries attended such as Morgan Winery, Joyce Vineyards, Boekenoogen, and Scheid Vineyards. We found a few new favorites along the way though. The Odonata winery had a very dry riesling which was fun to try. While we were talking to the winemaker Denis, he mentioned having a sparkling wine down the road at his wine tasting room and winery. So naturally we stopped in for a glass on our way home, and left with two bottles. Oops! Here is a link to their online shop. 

As for the small bites, options ranged from a huge cheese table presented by the local Star Market grocery store, to waffles with fresh sweet corn topped with lobster from Chef Soerke from Basil. Just delicous! If you needed a break from the wine you could stop at the Bar Cart Cocktails Co. table where Katie was serving chilled herbal tea made from ingredients picked on the Apex Vineyard in the SLH. 

On our way home we stopped at Joyce winery to regroup with friends. We caught a glimpse of their new tasting room (scheduled to open this summer) and jumped in a few tanks before heading home. Shout out to our dear friend J for hooking us up with tickets to this event! It was fab!

xxx Ivy & Eve

What a view!!!

YUMM from Chef Todd at Tarpy's

Delicious Noodles from Shiho at Ocean Sushi

Eve used to work at a tasting room so when Morgan needed a helping hand, she gladly stepped in! Photo by: Morgan Winery

Katie from Bar Cart Cocktails Co. pouring some of her tasty tea!

Goofing off at Joyce! :)

Easter Bunny Approved: Wines and More

Our family always hosts Easter Sunday at our house. This included egg dying, Easter dinner, and of course, the Easter egg hunt. We used to have a lot of land, perfect for epic Easter egg hunt. As kids, we strategized and created alliances amongst ourselves in order to find the Golden Egg. Our Golden egg was usually filled with some sort of tasty treat, and money. This egg hunt was the event that dictated the rest of the day. All of the Dads would hide eggs for what seemed like hours and they were so good at it, we used to find old eggs years later! Now that we are older, we definitely still love the easter egg hunt, but we also have a greater appreciation for the gathering of family, near and far, to celebrate faith, food, and fun. 

This year, we have been tasked with our regular rolls of easter egg dying, and picking out the wines for our Easter feast. We happily took on these rolls and wanted to share both with you all! 

First off, easter egg dying. This year we cut it a little short and forgot to purchase the box kit for dying easter eggs. We googled how to do it with food dye, vinegar, and water, and it was SO simple we wondered why we ever bothered buying the kit. 

Ingredients per color:

1. Half cup boiling water

2. 1 teaspoon vinegar 

3. Food Coloring

4. Temporary tattoos (optional) we used Flash Tattoos 

We used this website to help create the colors we wanted, or just experiment and make your own! We dyed our eggs and let them sit and dry. Then we applied the temporary tattoos. You simply sponge them on the egg with warm water as you would on yourself.

Ta da!

Once we checked that off our list, we headed to the magical land of Bevmo. If you are lucky enough to have one of these in your town you should definitely invest some time shopping there. Be sure to sign up for a Bevmo card for super great deals, like their 5 cent wine sale. We selected four options for our Easter dinner to suit everyones tastes, and each goes well with a traditional easter dish.

Wine Details:

Bubbly Schramsberg Blanc De Blancs | Rose Gerard Bertrand Sauvageonne Ro | Pinot Noir Morgan | Cabernet Sauvignon Souverain

We picked bubbly to start off our Easter celebrations, we have mimosas in the morning and continue with bubbly throughout the day. We picked a bubbly that is crisp and zesty, and pairs well with the richness of deviled eggs. Bubbles also go great with chocolate, as we're sure you already know! Rosé is another great wine to have on your Easter table because its pretty and festive. A dry rosé pairs well with the Easter's centerpiece ham since it has light tannins and flavors work well with the saltiness of the dish. If you celebrate with red wine drinkers, pinot noir works equally well with ham. Lastly, if you have lamb on your table we suggest a full bodied red, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon. Lamb's strong flavors need an equally bold wine to pair with it. 

Before you rush off to prepare for Sundays festivities, here is some easter basket inspiration. We made these just incase the Easter Bunny forgets to bring the bubbly!

Happy Easter!

xxx Ivy & Eve