Outfit Details:
J.Crew Top, Anthropologie Skirt, Tabitha Simmons Flats
We have quickly realized that summertime in the South can be pretty extreme, so we’ve discovered that the most ideal time to be outside is in early mornings and late afternoons/evenings. Since moving to Charleston, our intake of chilled wines, compared to other alcoholic beverages has definitely increased. With the hot days and warm evenings, who wouldn’t want a refreshing drink at the end of a long day?! For this evening picnic, having a chilled drink and keeping it that way were our goals. Being out in the garden constantly, there’s something to be said about not having to run back in the house to continuously grab things.
We made this delightful Summer Sangria utilizing local, fresh, in-season fruit and Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio. For our fruit, we selected watermelon, peaches, lime and strawberries, then muddled those with some mint. Instead of ice cubes, we blended some watermelon in our Vitamix and poured the juice into large ice cube trays and froze over night. As a fun summer surprise, we are also giving away a *Vitamix blender and the bee glasses used in the post to a lucky winner (read the entire post for details on how to enter!!!). On its own, the Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio has a light fruity flavor to it without being too sweet or acidic, so we selected these fruits to enhance the flavors of the wine. The large frozen watermelon cubes not only keep the sangria colder longer, but as the cubes melt the flavor changes, making sure it’s not too sweet or watered down. It’s important since we didn’t add any sparkling water, which some sangria recipes call for. For full details on how we made the sangria, you can visit Ecco Domani’s website.
We knew that our guests might not want to have only sangria, so we created our own DIY outdoor cooler and filled it with ice and extra bottles of Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio. Before letting you know how we made the cooler, I wanted to first mention how cool the new special edition Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio label is. Designed by Christian Siriano, I just love how the shades of pink and green work together. We felt inspired by the colors of the bottle, so we painted pink stripes around a terracotta pot which we had previously painted white. Believe it or not, Thomas came up with the idea of turning a terracotta pot into a cooler, after painting over 20 pots earlier in the year for our garden! It’s really a simple process, which you can get all of the details on right here.
How cute are these matching bee glasses & pitcher? The house we rented in Provence had everything from this collection, so when we got back we bought some for ourselves. I love everyday items that are also unique enough to use for special occasions. Lucky for you, you have the chance to win this set of the glasses and pitcher as well as a Vitamix blender, a kitchen staple, which is perfect for making summer concoctions. In order to enter, visit this page and complete the form. One winner will be selected in 3 days from this post date!
Thank you to Ecco Domani for sponsoring this post.
*Vitamix is not associated with nor a sponsor of this giveaway.
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