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

The Drink of Summer 2016: Frosé

You may have noticed a certain pink drink popping up on social media...no we don't mean the Pink Drink from Starbucks (although that one is delicious!) we mean Frosé!

Frosé is a slushy like drink made of...you guessed it, ROSÉ! As soon as we saw a photo of this magical beverage, we knew we had to try it. We haven't seen it on any drink menu near us so we looked at some recipes online and the recipes vary a lot. We picked up a bunch of strawberries from the farmers market so we thought why not add that to the mix? This recipe would also be great to make cheeky alcoholic popsicles as well. Enjoy!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Ingredients

1 bottle rosé

3 oz. sweet vermouth

1 cup strawberries

Agave syrup to taste (optional)

Mint to garnish

Directions

1. Cut the tops off the strawberries.
2. Place the strawberries in a blender (or food processor) and puree.
3. Strain the strawberries using a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Use the back of a spoon to push the puree through without pushing the seeds through. 
4. Pour the bottle of rosé through the strainer to help get the last bit of puree through the strainer and discard the leftover seeds and pulp.
5. If there are some seeds and pulp in the bowl you can strain once more.
6. Add the sweet vermouth and stir.
7. Taste test to see if you would like to add any agave syrup and add if you would like. 
8. Pour the liquid into a large glass dish or several ice cube trays and place in freezer until frozen (depends on the dish you use but this should take around 4-6 hours)
9. Once frozen, break up the frozen mixture with a spoon  and place in a blender. 
10. Blend until smooth, pour into glasses, garnish with a strawberry and some mint and a straw.
11. Serve immediately!

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)

DIY "Cheers" Cocktail Napkins + Printable!

We decided we wanted to add a little glamour to our bar cart and upgrade to linen cocktail napkins. They make any event seem fancier, plus they are good for the environment since you won't have to throw them away! Eve came up with the cute idea to make our own stencils with "cheers" printed in different languages on each napkin. 

Cheers around the world:

Cheers: English, means "good wishes"

Skál: Icelandic, equivalent to "cheers" or "good health"

Sláinte: Irish Gaelic & Scottish Gaelic, translates to "health"

Kanpai: Japanese translates to "dry glass"

 Prost: German & Austrian, in latin the translation for prost means "may it be good/beneficial for you!"

 Saluti: Italian, translates in english to "regards"

xxx Ivy & Eve

Materials:

Linen cocktail napkins - 6"x6" (we bought ours here)

Fabric paint (choose any color your heart desires!)

X-acto knife

Sponge brush

Cardboard

Newspaper

Our paper stencil (here) 

Directions:

1. Print out our paper stencil HERE!
2. Cut out each card (follow the black lines)
3. Once you have 6 separate cards use the x-acto knife to carefully cut out each letter.
4. Prepare an area for painting with newspaper 
5. Place stencil on the napkin where you want the word printed
6. Sponge fabric paint lightly till each letter has been filled in with paint, be careful not to move the stencil while painting.
7. Let dry for 48-72 hours.
8. Hand wash recommended to prevent fading.

Cheers ! Skál ! Sláinte ! Kanpai ! Prost ! Saluti !

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! :)

Rosé Roundup + Free May Calendar!

May is just one of those "happy " months. The weather is warming, the flowers are in full bloom, and the days are getting longer. When the days get warmer and longer, we love to come home after work and enjoy a glass of rosé together on our patio. Rosé has become very popular in the past few years. Many wineries have come out with crisp, dry, and minerally rosés which we LOVE! If you haven't tried rosé yet, we dare you to test some of our favorites! 

To go along with our pretty pink drink, we have paired some of our favorite rosy fashion favorites. Ivy designed the tote, and we can't wait until we get the samples in! 

Ivy also made the adorable and FREE printable calendar. We both have one pinned at our desks at work to remind us that life is better when seen through rosé colored glasses. Print it out and enjoy!

xxx Ivy & Eve

** Calendar not available anymore

Bubbles and Bites: Pebble Beach Food and Wine 2016

For the past nine years, Pebble Beach plays host to over 100 top chefs and 250 wineries at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine, making it the West Coast’s premier food and wine event. Over four days, there are countless events such as cooking demos, wine tastings, and dinning events. We had the good fortune of getting tickets for Sunday’s top two events, The Big Bottle Bubbles champagne seminar, and the Lexus Grand Tasting. 

We started off at the Inn at Spanish Bay for our Big Bottle Bubbles seminar at the early hour of 10:00 AM. Held in the Grand Ballroom at the Inn, we arrived stylishly late (some confusion about the location on our part) and sat down to a beautiful spread of nine champagnes to taste! We quickly knew we were with hundreds of like minded folk when the host of the seminar opened the talk with saying that 10:00 AM is a perfectly acceptable time to be drinking nine glasses of champagne because: 

“Champagne is breakfast in a glass.” - Kim Beto

All of the champagnes we tasted were from magnum bottles, which is 1.5 liters (equivalent to 2 regular 750ml bottles). This size is preferred for aging by many winemakers and sommeliers. This seminar was super fun and we learned so much that we will be doing a longer post on all the great info we got from our sommelier hosts. So stay tuned! We also found our new favorite champagne, Lanson, which happens to be one of the oldest champagne houses. More on this also to come!

After the seminar, we headed straight to the Lexus Grand Tasting.  We met our wonderful parents at the door, and began our 3 hour culinary adventure! With over 300 wines to sample and 30 top west coast chefs’ bites to try, we made a game plan to stick with bubbles and sample as many bites as possible. Limiting ourselves to one type of wine helped us to not ruin our palate by switching from reds to whites constantly. Plus, we love bubbles (obviously).  If we go back next year, we will definitely go for both days! It was impossible to try everything in the 3 hours. Next year is the 10th anniversary and we are sure it will be an event not to be missed!

Here are a few fun facts we learned at the events:

• Over 1 ton of butter was purchased for this 4 day event.

• One sommelier suggests drinking champagne with In-N-Out burgers. 

• Chocolate covered chicharrones are now our favorite bar snack thanks to Tarpy's chef Todd Fisher.

Be sure to check out our outfit details over on the Style page up now here!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Pop Fizz Clink Repeat: DIY Champagne Flutes

Its FriYAY, time for a restorative glass of champagne!

We received these cute confetti glasses a few months back and take them out any time we pop open a bottle of bubbly. The only down side of these glasses is that we only have two! So we decided to make similarly festive flutes to go along with them whenever we have gatherings. Its super easy to make your own and we suggest you run out and get the supplies (only two things!) you need for this fun and glitzy craft! Once you make these babies, you will be inviting everyone over for a restorative glass of champagne! 

xxx Ivy & Eve

P.S. We got our favorite motto from our only reality tv guilty pleasure, Made In Chelsea. Mark Frances is our spirit animal. :)

Above: Marc Frances preaches the good word of Saint Dom (Perignon)

Materials:

Champagne flutes (we purchased ours at Bevmo)

Gold glass paint marker (available at most craft stores, here is the one we used)

Steps:

1. Clean flute surfaces with glass cleaner.
2. Shake glass paint marker well.
3. Write on flutes: "Pop", "Fizz", "Clink", "Repeat".
4. Allow glasses to dry in a ventilated area for 8 hours.
5. Once dry, bake in oven at 375° F for 40 minutes in non-preheated oven.
6. Let flutes cool in open oven.
7. You are now ready for a restorative glass of champagne! 

Note: glasses are dishwasher safe.

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

Pony Party: DIY Cocktail Stirrers

We like to make any occasion a celebration and the easiest way to achieve that is to add a bit of whimsy and sparkle! We have loved horses since we can remember and pony parties have always been a go-to party theme. These little cocktail stirrers add a bit of fun to any cocktail party big or small, and are super easy to make! You can switch it up and use any plastic toy to top these stirrers. Next on our list to make are cats, dogs, and dinos! Yay!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Materials:

Cocktail stirrers (Amazon)

Plastic horse toys (Amazon)

Gold spray paint

E6000 (or any permanent craft glue)

Drill with drill bit that is slightly larger than the diameter of the cocktail stirrers (this beaut was provide by our Dad haha)

Newspaper

Steps:

1. Gather all materials together and cover workspace with newspaper. It is best to do most of this DIY outside.

2. Take drill and drill holes about 1/8 inch deep in the center bottom of the horses bellies. Test to make sure the holes are large enough to insert the drink stirrers.

3. Spray one side of the horses at a time with spray paint; making sure the entire surface is covered. You will probably have to do two coats. Allow to dry a few minutes between coats. (Make sure you do this either outside or in a well ventilated room)

4. Once the horses are painted and dried, apply a small amount of adhesive into the drilled holes and insert the drink stirrers.

5. Allow to dry a few hours before use.

Cheers! 

At the End of Our Rainbow: DIY Glitter Champagne Bottles & Printable!

With Saint Patricks Day looming, it got us thinking about reaching the end of a rainbow. What would we find? As kids, we would have wished for unicorns, magic wands, and Hogwarts letters. Although we're still waiting for our Hogwarts letters (we're convinced that our owls are just lost), we also wouldn't mind finding some of these bottles of bubbly! We will be celebrating the Luck O' the Irish with these glittery treasures.

xxx Ivy & Eve

Here's how to make your own:

Materials:

Can of spray adhesive

Glitter

Bottles of your favorite bubbly (we used mini bottles, but any bottle will work)

String

Print outs of our printable

Tin foil

1. Cover work surface with newspaper (we did this DIY outside)

2. Cover neck of bottles with foil, to prevent adhesive and glitter sticking to it. 

3. Spray bottles evenly with adhesive. (make sure to pop ay bubbles that may appear)

4. Sprinkle glitter on bottle until covered, shake off excess.

5. Let bottles dry.

6. While bottles dry, print and cut tags. Punch holes and thread string through the tag.

7. Slip tag over neck of bottle. 

8. Taa-daa! That simple!

Champagne Friday: Champagne Cocktail Edition

First off, Happy Champagne Friday!!! We have all successfully made it through another week and WE think that is grounds for celebration! 

If you want to dress up your Friday bubbles, but still want it to taste like sparkling wine, a classic Champagne Cocktail is the perfect solution. This simple yet chic cocktail is always well received. Our first memory of this classy glass is of post-shopping lunches with our parents in San Francisco's Neiman Marcus Rotunda Restaurant. They would always start off the lunch with this festive drink. We were, of course, too young (darn!) to partake in the toast back then, but the fond memories have stayed with us. The classic way to make this cocktail is to add a few drops of Angostura aromatic bitters to a bought sugar cube, and pour in the bubbles. Our house never has sugar cubes on hand (who's does?) so we decided one day to make our own. On a whim, we tried adding the bitters to the sugar mix and they turned out splendidly! We hope you enjoy them as much as we do and create your own fond memories. 

Cheers! 

xxx Ivy & Eve

Aromatic Bitters Sugar Cubes

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon Angostura aromatic bitters (or specialty bitters like Bar Cart Cocktail Co. Summer Bitters)

Silicone sugar cube tray (found here on Amazon)

1.     In a bowl, combine the sugar and 1/2 of the bitters. Mix until the bitters are evenly distributed and all sugar is colored. Add more bitters as needed. You want the sugar to be damp, not wet.

2.     Pack the sugar mixture into the silicone cube tray.

3.     Microwave for 30 second intervals until hot and steamy.  (All microwaves are different but we usually cook ours for two 30-second intervals).

4.     Let cool and dry.

Store your cubes in an airtight tin or baggie.

Champagne Cocktail

Makes 2 cocktials

1 bottle brut sparkling wine chilled (such as Charles Ninot Blanc De Blancs which is a tasty basic, whose flavor is enhanced by the additions below)

2 champagne flutes

2 lemon peel twists

2 or more aromatic bitters sugar cubes

1.     Add 1-2 aromatic bitters sugar cubes to each flute

2.     Slowly fill the flutes with sparkling wine. The sugar cubes will cause the sparkling wine to fizz extra so pour slowly to make sure there are no spillage!

3.     Top with a lemon twist

4.     Cheers!