A selection of sparkling, white and rosé wine to keep your summer well hydrated. 

Summer is the time the wine glasses come out in abundance. Warm weather encourages relaxing, and what better way to relax than with a glass of wine – rosé wine perhaps? – in your hand? Yes, this is the season of long dinner parties and entertaining, and you have to keep it well fueled.

We’ve gathered up a few of our favorite bottles for summer, all from wineries that care about their farming and grape growing practices.

1. Montinore Borealis 2013

Situated in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, Montinore is a certified Demeter biodynamic estate, and all their wines are noteworthy, but the Borealis deserves a special mention. The Borealis is a special blend of Muller-Thurgau, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris. The result is an aromatic, floral wine, that brings the perfect pop to a summer evening.

2. Frey Organic Agriculturist 2012

While you shouldn’t buy wine for the label, the Frey Organic Agriculturist would be pretty hard to turn down. Fortunately though, the wine inside is also well worth the purchase. The white blend has an ability to pair with a variety of flavors, making it the perfect dinner party wine.

3. Montevina Pinot Grigio 2012

Employing sustainable practices in their vineyards, the Montevina winery has owl boxes to encourage natural removal of pests. That means you can feel good about drinking this Pinot Grigio, which with its aroma of pears and summer peaches, makes for a good basic summer white that will please a crowd.

4. Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2013

Made by renowned vintner Charles Smith, this Riesling pairs well with spicy dishes, like a good Thai curry, as well as grilled seafood. All of the Charles Smith vineyards use recycled water and the most minimal pest and disease controls.

5.Domaine Carneros Brut Rosé 2012

Organic bubbles you want? Organic bubbles you will have. And why not have pink bubbles? At $37 a bottle, this Brut Rosé may be on the pricier end for some, but if you’ve got something to celebrate this summer, it’s a good option, particularly since Domaine Carneros grows their wine grapes on certified organic vineyards.

6. Cline 2013 Mourvèdre Rosé

A black skinned grape, Mourvèdre is a common grape in the French Rhone region as well as Alicante, Spain. In fact, it’s what added to Spanish cava to get cava rosé. But you don’t have to cross the Atlantic to get it. Try a bottle of this rosé wine from Cline Cellars in Sonoma, who employ a variety of sustainable farming practices in their vineyards.

7. Frei Brothers Reserve Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2010

Some can’t go a summer without a glass of Chardonnay. If so, this wine’s for you. You have a bit of apple and citrus flavors, followed by an oaky finish. Frei’s grapes are all sustainably grown, and they even capture and reuse rainwater in their vineyards. 

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Image: Robert S. Donovan

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Slather on the gravy…2012 style.

In the 8th edition of McCall’s Cooking School, which was published in 1981, an advertisement for Wyler’s Bouillon cubes presented a rice and gravy recipe. Despite its simplicity, the gravy calls for ingredients that put a dent in your diet and health. Here is a better, vegan alternative to gravy that keeps the creamy, buttery goodness without all the preservatives, simple starches, and hydrogenated fats.

Most bouillon cubes are high in sodium and contain monosodium glutamate (MSG). One cube has nearly 600 milligrams of sodium and MSG is a potentially dangerous additive that can cause an host of symptoms, such as heart palpitations, headaches, and numbness. There is often a large amount of preservatives in bouillon cubes as well.

And while margarine is a cheaper substitute for butter, it’s a fat you should steer clear of. During its production, vegetable oils are heated at levels that completely destroy antioxidants in the oils and virtually make them them cancerous. Then the margarine is hydrogenated, using hazardous chemicals that remain in finished product as well as create fat molecules that are unnatural and unknown by the human metabolism. White flour is also an empty substance in the human body and is hard for it to process.

We can do better. By keeping the ingredients real, we take one step, but by keeping them vegan, we go a mile. Here’s a vegan gravy recipe that’ll satisfy even the most skeptical of palettes.

Vegan Gravy

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups crimini mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon vegan butter (Earth Balance)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1.5 tablespoons vegan butter (Earth Balance)
• 1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 cup almond milk (or any other vegan milk)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• Fresh thyme for garnish

Directions:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the 1/2 tablespoon of butter and add the crimini mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook down until the volume has reduced and the liquid from the mushrooms is cooked off.

In a separate pot over medium heat, melt the 1.5 tablespoons of butter, add to it the flour and nutritional yeast, and stir until evenly combined. This will prevent clumping later. Next add the milk, wine, and soy sauce. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continuously stir until the mixture thickens.

When the mixture thickens to desired consistency – it should drip in clumps, not drizzle, from a spoon – add the cooked mushrooms and dried thyme. Stir over medium-low heat for 1-2 more minutes.

Garnish with fresh thyme and serve aside rice or whatever you’d like.

Bon Appetit!

Images: JB Curio, Aylin Erman

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post Vintage Recipe Revamp: McCall Cookbook’s Gravy (2012 Style) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Red, red wine.

Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures. -Michael Broadbent

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle. -Paulo Coelho

Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know. -John Keats

I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food. -W. C. Fields

Wine is a living liquid containing no preservatives. Its life cycle comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death. When not treated with reasonable respect it will sicken and die. -Julia Child

Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance. -Benjamin Franklin

A gourmet meal without a glass of wine just seems tragic to me somehow. -Kathy Mattea

Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age. -Pope John XXIII

The wine-cup is the little silver well, Where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell. -William Shakespeare

Artists and poets still find life’s meaning in a glass of wine. -Joy Sterling

Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages. -Louis Pasteur

I think it is a great error to consider a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxury. On the contrary, it is a tax on the health of our citizens. -Thomas Jefferson

One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters… But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk. -Charles Baudelaire

Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine. -Joan Collins

I like on the table, / when we’re speaking, / the light of a bottle / of intelligent wine. -Pablo Neruda

Wine to me is passion. It’s family and friends. It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It’s culture. It’s the essence of civilization and the art of living. -Robert Mondavi

Like human beings, a wine’s taste is going to depend a great deal on its origins and its upbringing. -Linda Johnson-Bell

Compromises are for relationships, not wine. -Sir Robert Scott Caywood

Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil. -Lord Byron

Either give me more wine or leave me alone. -Rumi

Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing. -Ernest Hemingway

A bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in the retrospect. -Robert Louis Stevenson

[Making wine] is like having children; you love them all, but boy, are they different. -Bunny Finkelstein

Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it. -Anonymous

I love how wine continues to evolve, how every time I open a bottle it’s going to taste different than if I had opened it on any other day. Because a bottle of wine is actually alive – it’s constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks – like your ’61 – and begins its steady, inevitable decline. And it tastes so fucking good. -Virginia Madsen as Maya in Sideways

Beer is made by men, wine by God! -Martin Luther

Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin. -Napoleon Bonaparte

Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, gives being to our hopes, bids the coward flight, drives dull care away, and teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes. -Horace

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink, I feel shame! Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this wine, they might be out of work, and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver?” -Jack Handey

Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy. -Alexander Fleming

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Image: Michael Johnson, Derek Gavey, jenny downing

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