Gorgeous!

I gave blood today so I'm not supposed to have any alcohol. But then six years ago someone told me you get drunk super fast after you give blood and I have to go to Rite Aid later so I just opened this stunning bottle of rose!

Also check out the amazing pillow the charming Zoe Chao got me for my birthday. It makes cravings happen and my head feel nice, just like wine does! Girl gets me.

This wine smells nice, a little floral and a little mineral-y and I feel like people often talk about tasting cranberry in roses? Honestly, I love a nice, tart rose but I have trouble getting the aromatics promised. But I'm really into how pretty they are. And this one is gorgeous! It has lovely salmon-pink color and it comes in this curvy bottle with a lavender and gold top label or whatever it's called. It's like Barbie's wine, but hip. And apparently it tastes good, cause I'm enjoying it and my cool black friend in the Trader Joe's wine department highly recommended it.

This is an aspirational wine. It's the kind of wine you buy and you're like, no way am I going the whole summer without being invited to a garden party with this baby waiting in the fridge! I will learn French in the car! I will roller skate when doing errands and become "that girl who roller skates everywhere" and notoriety will become me! I don't feel faint because of my blood donation.

I do. I feel faint. I don't know what a garden party is.

Victory....?

The real win here is my mom saved my soccer trophies because she loves me.

This is off topic but amazing

Food is like wine right? And easy things are great

Have I posted this yet?

It is pretty and helpful
Hurray!

Fresh start

I'm moving!

Some dear, dear friends with a stunning, stunning home asked me to move in. Though I'll miss living alone, I'm thinking having two super smart, creative, productive guys around might shame me into not watching 17 illegally streamed episodes of "Friends" in a row on a Wednesday afternoon. It also means I'll get to taste more wines because I'll always have friends to help me finish the bottle! Might blog less when I have people to actually talk to though. Oh, the possibilities!

It'll be 5 years in LA this August and I'm excited for the change. I'm also excited because omg look at this place

Living Room part A (peep the fireplace, y'all! you can change who you are, y'all! I'm counting on it, you guys (I can't pull off y'all))

Living Room part B (yeah, that's a record player. I'm cool by association. Having Mom send her old records. Stressed that Chipmunks Christmas was top priority. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, LOS ANGELES)

Mega gorgeous dining room with melty candles and mural

Oh yeah. They made a Banksy.

The deck at the top of the backyard

The view from said deck

The view of the yard. Hi, Paul!

Didn't have a photo of my other roommate David SO I MADE ONE. See? Their creativity is already rubbing off!

In honor of my new home (don't worry -- the gold cat statues have been cleared to move in with me), I decided to try a new kind of wine: Gruner Veltliner. This dry, Hungarian beauty is as light and tart and sweet and sour as moving (give me some leeway on the term bittersweet here, it's not bitter but you get it).

My selection was the Floriana 2011 Gruner Veltliner from Trader Joe's. Cheap and sassy, this white peach-lemon-candied violet (I don't know, something like that, it's delicious) coquette of a wine tells you right upfront it's not going to sugar coat it. Seriously, I love when the label tells you the dryness. Why don't all wines do this? How else am I supposed to know what to pair with my Rite Aid 'Thrifty' frozen Greek-style yogurt? Man the switch to CVS is gonna be rough.

This label tells you what to pair it with, what temperature to serve it at... it's a roadmap to drinking! I wish life were like this. I wish I could know moving was the right decision. A part of me worries that the homeless guy who camps out next to my current parking space when it rains might actually be my soulmate and I'm missing out. But if that's he case, why hasn't he made a move?

But generally, it's nice to guess with wine. And life. Even if you guess wrong, you and most of your guests will still praise the pairing. You'll make it work. Because after all, nothing doesn't go with good conversation.

So yes. I toasted no longer living alone alone, with a super dry, tart, bitchy, complex Hungarian that embodies everything I long to be but am not. But who knows? Maybe I'll stop being so friendly when I bite the bullet, buy a bike, and move into the nicest place in Silverlake with the greatest guys around.

Congratulations, youth!

I was introduced to Vinho Verde in my wine class. It's light, zippy, cheap and full of petillance. Plus, unlike most of the wine I drink, it's from a far away exotic land and I'm not even talking about a different part of California. It's from Portugal! And if there's a place called Portugal, California, that is not the one I mean! For a summer afternoon full of good news that will lead into a potluck The Voice finale situation, I cracked open my bottle from real Portugal, the country, and celebrated both my youth and its. And Rhett and Scarlett's.

This dry, refreshing, delicate wine has hints of green apple and peach on the nose and so much fizz on the palate it could nearly be champagne. It's fresh and fun and zingy and topical, like Selena Gomez music in your mouth!

Check out Casal Garcia Vinho Verde, or really any Vinho Verde. Good ones run about 8 bucks, and while they tend to be simple and straightforward, they have more complexity than a garden variety Pinot Grigio of the same price. Change up your light summer wine lineup and toast with almost-sparkling... to youth!

In my youth I was kind to my brother.

dun dun DUN!

Whatup true love!

Yup it's a dating website devoted to wine lovers aka the best way to find an alcoholic husband everrrr

Fan mail

You guys Brittany took my challenge from yesterday, applied it to my blog and wrote me a poem!!!!!! THE DAY IS GREAT

In-home dance party

I finished my puzzle!!! 4000 pieces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

FYI, the last day I worked on it, I spent the whole time singing whatever snippets I could remember of this oldie but greatie. Omg get ready to FEEL!

Wine withdrawal

NO!

I'm doing a 10-day cleanse, so no new wines this week. The lack of wine means "Mistresses" is about 80% less compelling than I once thought, but otherwise I haven't noticed much of a difference. Also "Mistresses" is still amazing. Everyone watch "Mistresses." There are ghosts.

Wine withdrawal isn't as bad as I thought it would be. That could be because I'm only two and a half days in, or because there are so many worse parts of this cleanse (no sugar including most fruits, no refined flour, no caffeine) all of which I'd rather use a cheat on (and have).

What I miss most about wine is the sensory engagement. The taking a break from my day to truly relish something, as opposed to guiltily procrastinating. The being drunk.

But all these things actually make it easier for me to go without wine (or any other booze, and I've just started getting good at cocktails) than carbs, sugar and caffeine. I don't appreciate those things. I don't take advantage. Instead, I take them for granted, which makes missing them all the harder. I wasn't prepared! I wish I'd created a blog all about plums before I was without them and it was too late. Don't it always seem to go... And I only have to give this stuff up for ten days. Being old means having to give up delicious things for like, ever.

So here's my challenge to you for today: enjoy something you take for granted. If you dig your mid-afternoon oatmeal, write it a poem. If you enjoy your nightly dose of reality TV, laugh and cry and feel just a little bit harder. If you are a boy in a relationship, tell your girlfriend she is beautiful in a cool and specific way. Seriously, I don't get why guys don't do that more? Every girl likes to hear it. No matter who she is or how long you've been together, give her compliments. This is crucial. Also, guys, flowers. Come on. So easy. Trader Joe's has them for like 4 bucks. Your girlfriend will appreciate it so hard. I'd make such a good dude.

Ooh, I am so going to buy flowers for my next bottle of wine. It's so pretty.

Love this!

A fantastic little cheat sheet!

In-home dance party

One of my jobs is in music, and I get the privilege of working with awesome new artists. Check out a great remix of Cody Longo's "She Said" here!

Celebrity wines

Ok, I get that I can't have a celebrity body, in any interpretation of that phrase. I get that I can't have a celebrity lifestyle. But when they make a wine? Well, the Coppolas have made it clear I can at least have that.

But oh no. Brad and Angie have to win this one. You can imagine my excitement when I saw this in my inbox:

Followed by my utter disappointment when I clicked the link and this popped up:

I mean fuck you! I know it sold out back in March, but I thought this was my chance! Then I found out that wine distributors like Shelby Ledgerwood were buying it all up. When asked if she'd tried it, Shelby said she didn't have to. Everyone wanted it, even without her opinion, so she just sold it off. Why waste a bottle? 

I think it's kind of unfair that celebrities get to have wine we can't have on top of everything else. Which means there's only one thing to do: saturate the market for celebrity wine. Below are some suggestions I have for some new celebrity wines:

Heidi Montag California 2009 Red Blend

This full bodied wine is a mish-mash of all your favorite reds. Heady aromas of strawberry and petrol entice you to take a sip, at which point you don't like it but you can't quite articulate why. It should be great, but it's a petty, ugly little wine.

Carrot Top 2011 Rose

Brilliant pink color with slight petillance. Bright and acidic with angular, precise aromas of tangerine and meth. A fine, drinkable rose perfect for wasting an entire afternoon.

Dame Judy Dench Grand Cuvee

This dusty but magnificent sparkling wine goes with everything. Stern and delightfully fungal with notes of gooseberry and flint. A treasure.

Carson Daly 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon

A star vintage that declined in the early 2000s and is now picking up an extraordinary bottle bouquet of perfume and peppy rose petal aromatics. The wine that just won't quit.

Champagne tutorial

Opening champagne can be hard. Or it can be adorable, as evidenced by the ultra-charming Sarah Streicher. Watch below and learn! And for more of Sarah, click this link right HERE.

The best sangria that can be

White sangria is the dreamiest of summer drinks. Try this one at a movie picnic like we did and let all your dreams come true!

Step 1 of this sangria is to get a portable jug from Target and then never trust that it is closed. Seriously, this thing will pee from all sides all over your life. But it's really useful if you stay hyper vigilant.

White sangria kills it when you use bright, tart, fruits like green apple and especially peaches, nectarines and apricots, which will impart their juices on the wine. You'll be drunkenly reaching into the top to snack on the fruit even before the wine is finished! Even before it's started!

Ok, so you take your jug and pour in your booze. First off, Triple Sec is crucial for white sangria. 1/3 cup for every bottle of wine is good. So 2/3 of a cup to go with my two bottles of bright, grapefruit-y Sauvignon Blanc...

But no Triple Sec is needed to balance the 3 glasses (1 cube) worth of this sweetie sweet, fab floral little Moscato from Target...

Then chop up your fruit in pretty little slices, drop it on in, and let it soak overnight!

To recap:

Plenty of tart fruits (green apple, nectarine, apricot was used here. Also try cherries, raspberries, peaches and even a little candied ginger)

1/3 cup of Triple Sec for every 750ml bottle of dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio are best here, but a dry Riesling or fruity Gewurztraminer would be a darling experiment)

Sweet wine (such as this Moscato from Target) to taste (optional)

Soak overnight

Final step: have a beautiful friend hold up the jug for the world to see!