Ah… Wine.

Perfect for those pesky neighbors and their pounding techno beats to which dance my angry stompy feet. Because I cannot turn down the uncontrollable volume of his lovely beats, I turn to my friend, Natura Wines to soothe my fraying nerves.

It only takes a few glasses for the peaceful bliss to settle in and my raging heart to calm. Before I know it…I can dance along, a serene smile on my face, my cats a little confused.

While all this is true… it is not the only reason I turn to Natura Wines on a warm spring evening. Natura Wines are the perfect companion to a delicious pasta dinner and side of dessert. (Caramel Cake, anyone?) With a great variety of flavors and luscious, tasty ingredients, Natura Wines are palatable and delicious treats on any evening. From their White Rose, with a gentle sweetness of strawberries and black currant, to the darker, riper flavor of the plum, raspberry and vanilla Merlot, Natura is sure to please.

We had the pleasure of sampling the Natura Rose, Natura Merlot, and Natura Carmenere.
Each had its own distinct flavor, and individual deliciousness. As a rule of thumb, I personally have a tendency to enjoy white wines, and I loved the fruity sweetness of the Rose. However, both the Carmenere and Merlot are excellent companion wines to any simple dinner from my Butter Garlic Tilapia to a simple Carbonara Pasta. If you are less of a sweet tooth, I’d heartily recommend any of the darker wines.

Natura has a wonderful variety available on their website.

One aspect of Natura Wines that I found pretty awesome was their dedication to sustainablitiy of Earth and nature. They are the world’s leading organic, biodynamic, sustainable and carbon-neutral winery. They believe that proper organic practices result in healthier and more productive vinyards which helps to produce the awesome product they make. They are also partnered with the Keep America Beautiful project, which includes local beautification projects.

In Honor of Earth Day, check out these awesome wines from Natura Wines Emiliana Vineyards in Chile. Tune out that neighbor, tune up the love.

Natura Wines Website is waiting for you here!

To begin this article I must issue a disclaimer: I know nothing about wine. In fact, I can count the times I’ve partaken of wine on 2 fingers. Keep this in mind as I do my best as a wine sampling novice to convey the deliciousness of Pacific Rim Riesling wines.

When I received my beautiful box of Pacific Rim Riesling wines and Sara Lee recipes, I marveled at the packaging. They were so lovely with their colorful labels and detailed bottles. I felt fancy just looking at them. I set them out on my mantle so I could admire them for a bit while I decided if I was supposed to chill them, or not.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that if I liked my coffee cold, I’d probably like my wine cold as well and I placed them lovingly in the refrigerator door. While they chilled, I went on a New York grocery store adventure looking for Sara Lee products to sample with my wine. Living in Midtown, grocery stores are few and far between but I eventually found a nice market with a wide selection of Sara Lee products and I chose an apple pie, pumpkin pie, and coffee cake. Setting aside the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I popped the apple pie in the oven and whipped up some Spaghetti for dinner.

While I cooked, I sampled the different offerings from Pacific Rim. The dry Riesling was fruity, stark but still smooth. For me it was more of a companion wine that would enhance a good dinner or dessert. I sampled it with both the spaghetti I made as well as the apple pie, and it was an excellent match. For someone who doesn’t like really sweet drinks, the dry Riesling would be good choice.

The regular Riesling was sweet, a bit fruity with a little bit of a zing to it. It sparkled on my tongue longer than the dry and was a good wine with or without a dinner or desert to accompany it. That said, it wasn’t too sweet with the Sara Lee pie, and it complimented both the spaghetti and the chicken salad sandwiches I made the following night.

The sweet Riesling was definitely my favorite of the three. It was sweet on the tongue and tingled like soda with a fruity taste. It is definitely a wine that I can sip on its own and would taste excellent paired with any dinner or Sara Lee dessert. I suspect it would be an amazing match with cheesecake and it complimented the coffee cake perfectly. I definitely plan on serving it with our Thanksgiving dinner.

As for the Sara Lee baked goods- Sara Lee is always a quick and delicious alternative to homemade baking. Growing up we often purchased different Sara Lee pies and cakes. Although now I really enjoy baking my own desserts, it was kind of nice to kick up my feet, enjoy a glass of Pacific Rim Sweet Riesling and let Sara Lee do all the work for me while my spaghetti sauce simmered.

Unfortunately, I’m in a transitional state in a new apartment and it was only after I had baked the pie that I realized I didn’t own any hot-pads to remove the pie from the oven. As I maneuvered the pie out with a towel, the top surfed off the hot-molten apple deliciousness inside and plopped on the bottom of my oven. Because of this, I would recommend baking the apple pie on an old cookie sheet and definitely be prepared with the proper baking tools to remove it from the oven!

Although the top went sliding, I was able to arrange it back on top of the pie without too much trauma and I covered it with some extra home-made caramel I had begging to be used in the fridge. The result with any of the aforementioned Rieslings was amazing! I went to sleep a little full but feeling light and happy thanks to the Pacific Rim and Sara Lee combo.

As I mentioned before, Pacific Rim and Sara Lee sent me some recipes featuring interesting adaptions for Sara Lee products. Again, because I’m still getting settled, I don’t have a lot of kitchen tools to make the yummy-sounding toppings so I simply used what I had in the fridge. However, you too can try your favorite Pacific Rim and Sara Lee recipes to be paired with each of the wines just by checking out their holiday specials on the Pacific Rim website! I myself can’t wait to try them out in the near future!

Check out their recipes and more on Pacific Rim’s Website! Pacific Rim and Sara Lee would make an excellent and classy addition to any holiday celebration this season.