wine tasting – Exploren with Lauren

Why We’re Proud to Pour These Eco-Friendly & Sustainable Wines

October 6, 2021Posted in wineTagged bees, cocktail, coral reefs, drinks, environment, environmentally friendly, Food, lauren and the foreign, laurenandtheforeign, organic, oysters, pollinators, save the planet, wine, wine pairings, wine tasting, winoLeave a comment

It’s probably clear that we really like a good wine. Who doesn’t like a good wine? But what if there was a way to drink a wine that’s not only good quality and tastes good, but also is doing good and making positive change in our world?

Well, we found a wine company that is doing just that: Proud Pour. Their wines are made from organic grapes that are sustainably grown, and each wine is dedicated to a specific cause to help make our world a better place for everyone.

Their sustainable wine lineup features a Pinot Noir for bees, a Rosé for reefs, a Syrah for soil, a cider for sea turtles, and a Sauvignon Blanc that supports the restoration of wild oysters.

We love all of Proud Pour’s wines, and are thrilled to support all of these causes, but if you’re not sure where to start, we wanted to share a couple of our faves.

Lauren really loves the Rosé for Reefs, not just because it looks pretty and tastes delicious, but because every three cases sold grows and plants a new baby coral to restore damaged reefs! Coral reefs help support 25% of all marine life, and provide a livelihood for millions of people through fishing and tourism.

Julia’s favorite is the Pinot Noir dedicated to helping save bees. Every bottle of this lovely red wine plants 35 sq ft of bee habitat on farms across North America, with over 90 acres of wildflowers planted to date! Bees are obviously important pollinators for our flowers and crops, and they actually pollinate one-third of the food we eat, from blueberries, to pumpkins, to watermelons, to tomatoes.

No matter what varietals you enjoy or what environmental causes are close to your heart, Proud Pour has something for everyone. No matter your choice(s), you can pour these wines knowing that you’re making a difference!

Best Door County Wineries for a Girls Trip

July 28, 2021August 17, 2022Posted in midwest, TravelTagged bachelorette party, cherry donuts, chocolate wine, door county, door county cherries, drinks, Featured, ice wines, lauren and the foreign, laurenandtheforeign, road trip, summer activities, Travel, vineyard, white wine, wine, wine and cheese, wine flights, wine pairings, wine slushies, wine tasting, winery, winery tour, wisconsin, wisconsin wineryLeave a comment

Wine-loving ladies, this one’s for you! Get your girl gang together and get ready for a road trip to remember, filled with wine tastings, cheese samples, and Door County cherry donuts that are absolutely to die for!

Lauren recently road-tripped to Door County with some friends for a bachelorette party and we winery-hopped all weekend long, working our way up the peninsula. Our first stop was Door 44 Winery, in Sturgeon Bay.

Door 44 was an absolutely beautiful location, with a lovely outdoor patio, an expansive green grassy area to picnic or hang out with your pet (there were several dogs there!), and rows of grapevines to wander through or stop for a picture.

Lauren among the grapevines at Door 44 Winery with a bottle of wine

Lauren’s favorite wine here was the Frozen Tundra White, which is a Frontenac Gris blend with notes of peach, tropical fruits, and honey. It’s actually also one of the top 40 wines in the world, ranking among wines from France, South Africa, Tuscany, and Napa Valley! Despite this prestigious ranking, we managed to score a bottle for just $14.99. Cheers to that!

Winery number two was Door Peninsula Winery, also in Sturgeon Bay. We had so much fun tasting wines here we forgot to take any pictures, but they have an immense selection of wines (guessing somewhere close to 80!) and lots of fun fruity varietals to try! The highlight was definitely getting to taste two of their ice wines, Frostline and Cherry Frost. Most wineries in the area charges between $5-10 for a tasting, but Door Peninsula offered theirs for free and included ice wines that often are extra, even in a paid tasting. Both the Frostline and the Cherry Frost were a real treat, and we couldn’t help walking away with a bottle of the Frostline.

Our third stop was Harbor Ridge Winery in Egg Harbor. This winery had the most expensive tasting, coming in at $10, but it was probably our favorite. Their wines all have very clever names like “Gimme One Good Riesling” and “Call Me a Cab.” “Carmen’s Last Dance” was a favorite among our group, but it’s a “dangerous” one, tasting like grape juice, while somehow still having a 12% alcohol content! Be careful, or it might be your last dance too!

Lauren’s personal favorite was the Chocovine Chocolate Wine, particularly the Whipped Cream variety! It was so rich and creamy and decadent, it really takes dessert wine to the next level, and you know we had to take home a bottle of that as well.

In addition to some really fantastic wines, Harbor Ridge had an incredibly adorable patio area with private domes to sit and enjoy some wine and snacks with your gal pals.

Lauren sipping on her wine flight at Harbor Ridge Winery

Our last (but not least) stop, was Lautenbach’s Orchard Country Winery in Fish Creek. After all the wine at the last three wineries, Lauren decided to switch it up and go for a cherry wine slushie, along with some delicious Door County cherry donuts.

We had an absolutely amazing weekend, and if Door County isn’t on your list of places to visit this summer yet, it’s time to plan a trip!

Wine Tasting with Karl (PRP Wines)

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020Posted in lauren, LifestyleTagged charcuterie, charcuterie board, cheese, Cocktails, drinks, family, Food, foreign, friends, lauren, lauren and the foreign, laurenandtheforeign, wine, wine making, wine tasting, yumLeave a comment

Last weekend I got to try 9 different wines and a delicious Loud coffee liqueur from PRP Wine thanks to my colleague, Karl Barton. PRP Wine produces high quality, exclusive wines from 65 wineries in 13 countries around the world. Karl delivers a fantastic, professional, educational, and entertaining wine tasting experience.

We started off with a nice white wine that they call the “Porch Pounder” because it’s a great summer wine and easy drinking. It was absolutely delicious. Next was a Hungarian wine nicknamed “Naked in the Pool.” Clearly also another great one for summer! The other two white wines we tried were a German Riesling and an unoaked Chardonnay.

Then we had the reds. Before this tasting, I did not consider myself a red wine drinker, so it was perfect when Karl brought out the Chevalier de Bayard (or Red Chevy) which he described as the red wine for white wine drinkers. It was actually really nice and not quite as intense and tannic as some of the reds I’d tried in the past. We also tried a Pinot Noir from Chile, a red Zinfandel from Lodi, and Tres Magi which is a Spanish red blend made from Merlot and Grenache.

So here’s the crazy part. After the Red Chevy, the other red wines were much more bold and tannic and full-bodied. And I liked them ALL. Clearly I just wasn’t drinking the right kinds of red wine before, but I am definitely a red drinker now. I even poured myself a glass of red and enjoyed it with dinner last night.

One of the other amazing things about these wines is that there are no added sulfites. When you get a headache from drinking too much wine, it’s often caused by sulfites. There will always be some present in wine because they occur naturally during the fermentation process, but bigger wine producers add them in to maintain consistent flavor year to year. All of PRP’s wines are single vintage and the producers do not add sulfites in as a part of their wine-making process. Clearly, I had a decent amount of wine at this tasting and I got no headache whatsoever. Not that night, and not the next morning.

We finished with an Italian dessert wine and the Loud coffee liqueur, both of which were absolutely delicious and truly the icing on the cake to a wonderful evening.

Huge thanks to Karl and PRP Wines for helping create such a wonderful evening of good food and drinks with family and friends. If you’d like to have a wine tasting at your home with Karl, leave a comment below and I will put you in touch!

-Lauren