Growing up in Nebraska, I always considered summer to be the one season of unabashed pleasure and easy living. Winter was brutal, fall was revered but unpredictable, and spring was fleeting. But summer? Summer meant long, lazy evenings spent chasing fireflies; lips stained red from just-picked strawberries that were en route to becoming sticky sweet jam; root beer floats — but only after my mother finished the hot work of mowing the grass. Summer was a stolen season of easy indulgence.

Here, summertime is an intense landscape for serious fun: boating, swimming, rafting, beaching, barbecuing, resting. It’s the time of year to gather up your closest friends, spend a minimal amount of time fussing in the kitchen and head out to the pool.

We did just that on a recent Saturday as the temps climbed steeply into the 90s. In Swirl Girl summer style, we uncorked a few fabulous bottles and whipped up some easy food pairings. We feasted on fruit gazpacho, orzo salad, summer tomatoes, shrimp cocktail and tropical fruit salsa and chips.

Favorite friends, easy food, cool wine — what more could you ask for?

Perhaps a slight breeze … Read the full story

Spring is in the air and we’ve been receiving plenty of new releases to sample for review. We’ve received a surprising number of quality wines recently and it’s time we shared our thoughts. Our strict SG policy is that if we try a wine sample, we have to write about it, whether we liked it or not. And of course, honesty is always the best policy!

So here’s some we liked, a few we didn’t and a bunch more that made us sit up and take notice: Read the full story

There are certain situations that completely dictate my wine choice. Lobster for dinner? Chardonnay, day or night. Big, juicy steak on the grill? Something red and heavy. A bad day at work where all you want to do is curl up under a blanket with a glass of… anything? Well, that’s a personal matter.

So when I was invited to a pool party one hot Saturday, I made sure to zoom past Total Wine and pick up a dry Rose. I’ve really enjoyed Roses this summer and couldn’t think of a better drink for an afternoon by the pool.

I got the 2008 Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rose ($12.99). A South African Rose made from Cab Sauv. grapes, It comes from the Stellenbosch region. Until apartheid ended, South African wine simply wasn’t available to wine lovers in the U.S. because of trade embargos. So even though South Africa has been making wine for 350 years, we’ve only been enjoying their wine in the states since the 1990s. Read the full story

I’ve been hearing for a while how great Crown Wine & Spirits tastings are. Crown has more than 30 locations in South Florida. They host a wine tasting at a different store every Friday and Saturday evening. On Friday, July 24, I finally made it to one in North Palm Beach.

This was by far the biggest and busiest local tasting I’ve attended. I paid my $15 entry fee and was presented with a list of more than 50 wines, all available for sale that evening at up to 20 percent off their normal cost. It was the perfect excuse to add to my growing collection. Here were some of my favorites:

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Hopefully, by now you know Roses can be as different from White Zins as Daniel Craig is from Spencer Pratt.
 
If not, let me tell you: Today’s rose’s are not your mama’s White Zin’s. They can be dry, refreshing, crisp, and a darn-tooting good wine you should be proud to drink.
 
The Swirl Girls received this Rose with a couple of other Rose’s to review for the paper. It’s been a great way to expand my palate by learning the differences in Rose’s and what I like (a little sweeter please) and what I would probably not buy (too dry…pass!). This one retails for $14. Read the full story

I just spent a long weekend in one of my favorite places – Key West – and dined at one of my favorite restaurants on the quirky island – Mangia Mangia.

If homemade pastas (choose from long, short, flat, round, spinach!) with a delectable selection of homemade sauces (marinara, meat, pesto, alfredo, yum!) set on an outdoor brick patio lined with lush, tropical trees isn’t enough to lure you there, then most certainly the 43-page, worldly wine list will.

Would you like wine by the glass? How about a Chianti, Super Tuscan, cabernet, malbec, grenache, zinfandel or pinot noir? Prefer a glass of white on a steamy summer evening? Try a pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay or riesling. Read the full story

Occasionally, our food blogger gets wine-related things sent to her for review and has been kind enough to pass them on to one of the Swirlers to review for the paper and this blog. When I got an email from her saying she had received some wine and did I want to review it, I ran to her desk, grabbed the box, and literally ran out of the building.

I unpacked the box and found several beautiful rosés staring at me, almost begging for a summer soireé. So I invited over the Swirlers and set about to find the perfect food pairings.

I consulted Dry-Gwen, who consulted her books about food and wine pairings and together we came up with a menu specifically designed for the rosés.

We started out on my back porch in true summer-sipping style with the 2008 El Coto Rioja, a blend of Grenache and Tempranillo and a goat-fig cheese spread with fresh bread. It has a suggested retail price of 12 dollars. We were all blown away by the color of the wine. It was truly one of most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen in a wine. Pink, cotton candy and a hue that said “savor me.” I made each Swirler give me her impression, so based on what sort of wine you like, you know whom you can trust. Here goes: Read the full story