This time of year is the perfect time to be outdoors. It’s that warm temperature you’ve been yearning for all winter long, but it’s not too hot yet, and you can feel that mix of sun on your face with that cool breeze that keeps it comfortable, and it just makes you want to be outside!
A couple of years ago my son Nate went on a hike with his pre-school, and had asked us to then go on a hike together as a family. We were never really big into hiking, but ever since Nate suggested it, we started getting into it more and more and just like to get our there from time to time and do some exploring together. Overall, it seems like whatever Nate loves doing, he ends up making us love it too…we just love seeing his excitement when he’s out enjoying his favorite activities.
We like hiking, but definitely not enough to take a 4 hour hike. And when we do hike, we always like to make sure there’s some sort of reward at the end. Whether it’s a lake, a beautiful view, or in this case, a waterfall, the end prize definitely keeps us going! LOL It’s also starting to become a tradition of ours to pack up a picnic that we can also enjoy once we reach our destination. For our most recent hike, we thought it’d be fun to bring a bottle of wine with us to kick our picnic up a notch, and have a little celebratory toast at the end!
For this hike, we brought a bottle of our El Vinculo Crianza from Ribera del Duero. It’s the perfect red wine for any occasion and has a full-bodied taste on the palate with big fruit flavors that soften the tannins. Did I mention it’s 14.5% alcohol? For me, that’s enough to get that nice & warm feeling from one glass! 🙂 Since we were hiking and had to carry everything, we kept our little picnic simple with apples, grapes and cheese and crackers. This wine pairs well with aged cheeses, but to me, I don’t care what cheese it is (cheddar in our case, my wife loves cheddar), it was the perfect wine to be sipping in our picturesque setting and water falling acoustics. For some reason, this hike seemed a little more exciting. Reaching such a beautiful destination, the falls, and then being able to enjoy a nice glass of the Tempranillo, while we relaxed and snacked, was the perfect way to end our hike. Since Nate can’t really sit still for more than a second, it was more like my wife and I relaxed while Nate hopped across stones until his feet were drenched.
The mix of family exploration, our little picnic complete with snacks and our El Vinculo, mixed with good conversation and lots of goofing around, made our day almost feel more like we were camping, than just being on a local hike. I have to say, the wine idea at the end of the hike might definitely be a new tradition. It just made our little adventure feel that much more special!
Next time you’re looking for that ample bottle of wine for your grilling, roasting, or a hike like us, try a bottle of the El Vinculo Crianza from Ribera del Duero. It’s powerful, yet balanced. You can look for the Ribera del Duero logo on the back of the bottle when visiting your local wine store or order directly from www.wine.com. I’m actually sipping some now as I write. Blogging, like hiking, is also better with wine! 🙂
There’s not too many things I can think of that I really enjoy when trying to relax, other than a glass of wine. As of lately, it’s becoming my go-to drink when the lady and I are enjoying a drink at home. We both started getting into wine the last few years, and I was actually shocked when I found out that it has such a high alcohol percentage…usually 10% – double the amount of a normal beer! When we first started drinking wine, we were pretty cliche. We thought that whenever we had a glass it had to be on a special occasion, or it would always be with dinner and always with Italian food (LOL). I think that was because we were newbies in the wine drinking game! I now realize that a glass of wine doesn’t have to be shared over a candlelight dinner for it to be a special moment together. Whether it’s paired with dinner, on the couch in the evening during a family game of Trouble, or while I’m on my laptop in my zone of blogging, I definitely appreciate a nice glass of wine to make these everyday activities feel cozy and complete.