How to celebrate National Wine Day in quarantine.
Photo by Tyler Darden
On National Wine Day, there’s plenty of ways to celebrate that include more than just uncorking a bottle. Social distancing makes it hard to not able to go out to your favorite restaurant to be wined and dined. However, there are several stay at home options that are easily available. Here are our picks.
Pair Up
One fun way to celebrate is to have a pairing dinner. With a pairing dinner, you can enjoy a savory meal with a wine that compliments its best features.
For helpful tips on pairing drinks with dinner––as well as bite-sized appetizers––click here. These recipes range from shiitake-kalamata olive flatbreads paired with cabernet franc to sriracha-lime shrimp paired with sparkling rosè. Enjoy these meals with family and friends with social distancing rules in effect. An easy way to achieve this may be to meet up and have a picnic and bring along the appetizers, dinner, and of course—the wine!
Illustration by Michał Bednarski
Impress Your Friends
If you do plan on meeting with friends at an outside gathering, or even if you just cook dinner at home, you can still impress with some new tips and tricks you picked up for National Wine Day. Curious about which wines taste best in which glasses? Click here. Learn tricks when preparing to serve your wine, like how to cool your wine quickly, or even how to make old bottles of wine taste better. For boozy tricks to impress your friends, click here.
Wine to Go
Even though wineries may not be open to visit, their wines are still available for pickup! Check out this article for several wineries that provide a wide selection of wines for pickup. This is a great way to support your local wineries during quarantine.
For the cocktail lovers, many restaurants are even offering cocktails to go. Read about it here.
Online Wine Activities
There are several ways you can enjoy your wine online as well! Several wineries offer online wine tasting sessions where you can preorder the wine and follow along in the comfort of your own home. Some of locations even deliver the wines to your home for free. Check out this article from Washingtonian Magazine, which features a list of several wineries offering online wine tasting. You can also participate in an online painting class while you sip through Painting with a Twist.
Photo from Hunker.com
Get Crafty
Ways to celebrate national wine day aren’t just limited to drinking wine. Get in touch with your creative side with several crafts made from wine bottles, including lampshades, flower vases, a DIY bird feeder, succulent planters, a charcuterie board, and tiki torches. More of these ideas and how to craft them can be found here. You don’t have to stick to just using the wine bottles either—you can create a wine cork trivet or even a wine bottle rack, as featured on DIYNetwork.com.