The Best Wine & Cheese Pairings For Happy Hour
There are few things more classic, awesome, and primed for Great Times than cheese and wine. Whether you’re entertaining your Flock or enjoying your own personal happy hour - some of our best moments have been made over wine and cheese.
We’re breaking down our go-to pairings for each Sea Bird Wine varietal so you know exactly what to grab when you’re snacking and sipping.
When pairing wine with cheese, or really, any food, the things that will taste the best will be things that have a little bit of similarity. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “what grows together goes together,” this applies perfectly! If you’re drinking regionally, it helps to choose cheeses that are grown geographically close, if you can. If you can’t get that in-depth, try to identify nuance in the food that may come from spices, herbs or minor ingredients. This can be things like olive, fruits, bacon, etc…then select a wine that contains similar features like herbal notes, for example.
Chardonnay
Sea Bird Chardonnay (like our 2017 Courtney's Vineyard!) tend to be medium bodied, which pair perfectly in the “medium range” of cheese. Work your way down the list depending on the vintage. Newer vintages should pair with the top of the list, and if you’re drinking the Chardonnay young, could even venture into a salty, more crumbly cheese (feta, Cotija, Halloumi) and as it develops (2015 Robert's Road, anyone?), move further down the list into more buttery and then into harder, nuttier styles with age.
Avoid anything particularly pungent with Chardonnay - which means, sorry guys but blue cheeses is off the menu.
If you're looking for a more sour style of cheese, pair with:
- Sour cream
- Ricotta
- Havarti
- Chèvre
Charodonnay also love buttery, delicate cheeses like:
- Brie
- Camembert
- Burrata
- Device de bourgogne
If you’re looking for something more on the harder, nutty style to go with your older vintage Chard, go for:
- Aged gruyere
- Comte
- Provolone
- Emmental
Pinot Noir
Hard, nutty styles of cheese are the perfect pairing with a Sea Bird Pinot Noir (looking at you, 2013 Sonoma Stage Vineyard). Our Pinot Noir style is light bodied, more of a Burgundian style that captures the essence of California terroir. As a result, choosing a cheese too creamy, salty or pungent would take over your palate.
Head for the harder, nutty style cheese including:
- Aged gruyere,
- Comte
- Provolone
- Emmental
- Smoked Mozzarella
- Scamaroza
Merlot
You at me at Merlot! Aphrodite is the newest addition to our Flock - a plush, decadent Napa Valley expression with a kiss of oak makes for the happiest of hours. When sipping, opt for nutty, hard cheese or cheeses that have more of a fruity or umami quality which could be anything from:
- Aged gruyere
- Comte
- Provolone
- Emmental
- Smoked Mozzarella
- Scamaroza
- Cheddar
- Smoked Gouda
- Muenster
- Colby
- Ossau-Iraty
Cabernet Sauvignon
Our Cabernet Sauvignon styles of wine (most notably, Poseidon or Broken Rock from Napa Valley) are full bodied, and express the boldness of California terroir with the balance that holds age incredibly well. The bigger and bolder the wine, the more it can lead the show.
When sipping a Cab, avoid anything too sour or creamy - leave the ricotta and chèvre on the table. Cheese that play with fruity, nutty or umami flavors are your go-to, including:
- Cheddar
- Smoked Gouda
- Muenster
- Colby
- Ossau-Iraty
This is officially your permission to have wine and cheese for dinner. Have a particularly favorite pairing we need to know about? Tell us over on our Instagram page and tag us while you're enjoying Great Vines to Great Times with a bottle of Sea Bird.
4 Fun Ways To Enjoy Wine At Home
Bored at home? Never! We’re pouring up a glass of our favorites wines and keeping things fresh and exciting at home. Here’s a few ways to enjoy wine at home, all paired with a Sea Bird Wine to enjoy along the fun.
Chardonnay + A Bubble Bath
Chances are, you’ve had a long, hard day, no matter what you’ve been doing. If you’re working from home these days, it might be hard to draw the line between “home” and “work” life. So indulge in some self-care by sipping a cool glass of our award winning Sonoma Coast Chardonnay in the bath. You’re here to treat yourself, so make the most of it by:
- Grab a magazine or a new book to read while you soak
- Set the mood by turning on some ocean waves in the background
- Take some tips from Lifehacker and give your bathroom major spa vibes
Pinot Noir + Indoor Picnic
Ahhh…the great Indoors! Bring a little life to your living room and turn a Friday night into an at-home picnic! Bring the whole bottle of this Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir to your picnic spread and set the vibe with flameless candles, plenty of pillows and blankets, and finger-food only (no dishes, than you!). Here are some of our favorite things to picnic with our Robert’s Road Pinot Noir:
- A prosciutto, fig, and arugula sandwich on a baguette.
- Salty, kettle cooked chips with Manchego cheese
- A thin-crust pizza (ordering in is a total YES)
Cabernet + Get Crafty
A little bit of wine really helps those creative juices get flowing! Pop the cork on a bottle of 2013 Broken Rock Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley and gather your supplies for a fun night of creating something new and unexpected. Here are some ideas to get you started!
- Take an online painting class for your very own at-home Sip & Paint
- Learn how to letter for this year’s Christmas cards
- Get crafty with some old corks you’ve collected
Poseidon + Themed Movie Night
Take your Netflix & Chill vibes and give it a twist with a themed movie night! Open up a bottle of Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon and take a deep dive on some ocean cinema. Here’s a list of our top 10 sea-inspired movies to sip along with including:
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Castaway
- The Life Aquatic
- Jaws (the original)
- The Perfect Storm
- Waterworld
- Titanic
- The Poseidon Adventure
- The Cove
- Chasing Mavericks
Read All About It! | The Vintner Project
"Vineyards are humble, rustic places that bring us back to our connection to Mother Earth.”
The Vintner Project is an online sourced dedicated to exploring the diverse world of wine in an approachable way, focusing on the stories of wineries and the people behind them. It’s something that’s close to our hearts and we are excited to dive deep into the story of Sea Bird Wines and our dedication to preserving marine wildlife by taking great vines to great times with every bottle!
In this article, Joe Campbell and our Winemaker Patrick Durbin share some behind the scenes insight into our passion for the ocean, coastlines and marine wildlife. It’s this passion that inspires us to share our story and our wine day after day. As a native East Coast-er, Patrick spent his summers on the New Jersey shore. But year after year he noticed less wildlife and more trash washing up on the beach.
When Patrick and his wife Becky decided to explore their passion for wine by launching a new wine label, they knew that the wine would be great, and the profits from the wines would do good in the world too. When you buy a bottle of Sea Bird Wine, we give back 100% of the profit to marine wildlife non-profit organizations dedicated to preserving the coastlines. It’s a great reason to sip on with your loved ones!
Without a healthy coastline, we couldn’t make great wine. As an artisanal micro winery, we source our grapes from premier vineyards across California Wine Country to make limited barrel productions each vintage. Each vineyard in California benefits from the Pacific Coast influence, lending foggy mornings, warm, ripe afternoons and cool evenings that develop the most iconic California wines year after year. We currently produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast AVA and Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.
Click Here To Read The Full Article On The Vintner Project
Retail Therapy | Chardonnay Edition
We’re at home. There’s wine. And the whole world wide web of shopping is at our disposal. Sounds a little dangerous? It’s ok, it’s the kind of risk that we’e encouraging you to take while you #StayAtHome because nothing cues our dopamine sensors like a fun purchase and a glass of wine!
In our first Retail Therapy release, we’re popping a bottle of our 2015 Robert’s Road Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. This Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is a delightful one; aromatic with notes of white pears, tropical fruit and touch of vanilla, it shows off great fruit and acidity characteristic of the Sonoma Coast region with ripe yellow apples, nectarines and honey. Thanks to a warm, dry spring, 2015 brought us an early harvest with low yield and full concentration. It’s delightfully sippable with structure and balance abound.
You don’t have to take our word for it though! The San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition awarded this wine a Double Gold Medal (96 points) and the International Women’s Wine Competition gave us Double Gold & Best of Class (97 points) among others!
Thanks to the acidity and minerality of Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, we see a gloriously long drinking window for this bottle all the way through 2023. But why wait that long? Pop that cork and settle in to do a little online shopping for a few of our favorite things….
Cork Yoga Mat from 42 Birds
Perfect for all of those online Zoom fitness classes you’re hitting up (…right?) or for bringing outside to lay down on the grass and drink wine. No judgement. We are digging this natural cork yoga mat because not only is it anti-slip, cork contains natural anti-microbial properties that ward off mildew or any weird smells. *adds to cart*
Blonde Wood S’well Bottle
It’s no secret that we are big fans of S’well bottles. We prefer to opt in for the 25oz bottles (because hi, that holds a full bottle of wine!) and allows us to keep the perfect temperature wherever we roam. Our big ambitions are telling us to hit the trails for a hike with a picnic on top. The Blonde Wood is part of the Wood Collection that “imitates the charm of raw materials and natural fibers in the world’s most picturesque forests” which is adorable and really fits our vibe. Whether you’re truly outdoorsy or just a patio sipper, this is perfect for keeping your Robert’s Road Chardonnay at a crisp 50 degrees.
Chardonnay Grapeseed Bubble Bath from Napa Soap Company
Have your wine and soak in it too. We’re pouring a crisp glass of Chardonnay and soaking into this luxurious bubble bath made by our local Napa Soap Company. Made from Chardonnay Grapeseed Oil, it’s just an added perk that these ingredients protect skin from free radicals, moisturize and balance and reduce inflammation. It’s basically a detox-to-retox formula that we can get behind again and again.
Pate Sampler from Olympia Provisions
More than ever we are looking for small businesses to support and Olympia Provisions in Portland is one we definitely want to keep thriving. Order up their Pate Sampler for the perfect pairing with a glass of Robert’s Road Chardonnay. It comes with a trio of pork liver mousse, pork rillettes, and country style pork pistachio pâte. The bright an vibrant acidity of our Sonoma Coast Chardonnay plays a refreshing foil to these seriously rich charcuterie pairings and is perfect to make a meal out of with some crackers and a mixed green salad.
3 Reasons To Buy A Magnum
3 Reasons To Buy Large Format Bottles
Large format wine sizes are hard to come by, but always worth adding to your cellar in for so many reasons. Here’s why we’re always down for a big bottle:
Age With Grace
This one is pure science and we’re here for it. As wine ages, oxygen moves in and out of a cork. It is a natural product after all! If you think of a magnum versus a 750ml, think about surface area: you’ve got the same cork size, but less surface area transfer! That means that the bottles age at nearly half the speed of their standard size brethren.
Stay Safe, Buy Big.
Bigger bottles mean thicker glass as you’ll notice when you pick up your standard size next to one of our magnum bottles. Sea Bird Wines magnums are bottled in thicker, darker glass that allows even more protection and room for the bottle to age slowly and gracefully…just the way we like it.
Yes you could save up that wine and store if for the perfect investment. But you could also throw one fun party and bring out the big guys to show everyone a good time. These bottles are perfect for a mixed crowd, as the novelty is a perfect conversation starter and a great chance to lure in a new wine friend who might have passed up a sip otherwise. Wine is always better when shared!
We’ve bottled just a select few magnums of the powerful 2014 Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon that are perfectly poised for sharing with a crowd or laying down in the depths of your cellar to mature into greatness.
Do you know your bottle sizes? Here’s a cheat sheet for the Big Boys ranking in order from Tiny to Mighty...
187.5ml – Piccolo (aka a Split)
375ml – Demi or Half bottle – perfect for when you just want “one-ish” glasses with dinner
750ml – Your ride-or-die standard size bottle.
1.5 L – Magnum, which holds two standard size bottles if you’re feeling into math
3.0 L – Double Magnum (you guessed it, that’s 4 standard size bottles or 20 glasses of wine)
4.5 L – Jeroboam, which is 6 bottles (this is also where we start getting into Biblical King Naming Territory)
6.0 L – Imperial – 8 bottles worth of wine, or a very good dinner party.
9.0 L – Salmanazar – 12 bottles or a full case of wine, however you want to look at it
12.0 L – Balthazar – 16 standard size bottles
15.0 L – Nebuchadnezzar – Fun Fact: this bottle was named after the King Of Babylon which assuredly was a very good host if he was serving up this beast containing 20 bottles of wine
The Perfect Day In Napa Valley
No matter the season, a visit to Napa Valley is always ready-made for a fun adventure. Outside of just wine-tasting (which we fully support) here’s how we spend the other parts of our day enjoying all that our home in Wine Country has to offer.
Take A Sunrise Hike
Starting the day with a little bit of exercise will build your strength for the real work of the rest of the day (eating and drinking) so muster your eyes open for a early morning hike to get the blood flowing. Grab a coffee and head out to a local go-to trail at Skyline Park and watch the sunrise over the hills.
Start With Breakfast
Ok so maybe you won’t be heading to the French Laundry (or maybe you are, in which case, still go here) but you won’t want to miss out on visiting the iconic Thomas Keller locale, Bouchon Bakery in Yountville. Centered in the quant downtown Yountville, grab as many croissants and pastries as you can. You’ll want to try them all. But get there early, because the line is often out -the-door once the other wine country visitors rouse themselves for a day of tasting by 10AM.
Snap a picture by the Welcome To Napa Valley sign
Yes, it is ok to bring out the touristy side of yourself here. As you’re driving up Highway 29 the iconic Welcome To Napa Valley sign is posted on the left side of the road, just after you pass the town of Yountville. Pull on over and snap a selfie to make everyone back home jealous of your perfect day in Napa Valley.
Try Your New Favorite Bottle Among The Vines
Breakfast was important, but don’t let anyone fool you. Snacks are the most important meal of the day in wine country. And while Napa is seemingly filled with places to eat….the minute you start heading out on CA29, there is definitively no snacks and we can’t have that.
If you’re making the rounds tasting at wineries, stock up on treats at the legendary local Oakville Grocery for sandwiches, waters and plenty of delicious artisan snacks. We are also digging the new Gary’s Wine and Marketplace in Napa that boasts an impressive cheese selection!
Finding a place to picnic can be challenging, as often Napa Valley land use restrictions prevent wineries from allowing picnicking on the grounds. But a select few places in Napa will allow it, including the grounds at V. Sattui and a list of a few others will let you bring baskets to your heart’s desire
Keep Your Eyes Peeled For Iconic Vineyards
What we love about Napa is the equal parts glamour and humble grounds, as you’ll see some of the most iconic wineries as you pass by along the side of the road doing what they do best: serving guest and growing vines. Keep your eyes peeled as you drive by the scenery and you might recognize your favorite vineyards.
We love the G3 Vineyard in the Rutherford region of Napa, where we source Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon from. Our Broken Rock Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon also yields from Napa on the eastern side of the Valley near Soda Canyon and Atlas Peak. The fruit from these regions are plush, deliciously ripe and juicy, and walk a delightful balance of ready-to-drink or perfect-to-age. If you’re driving by, be sure to tag us on Instagram, we love seeing our vines in “the wild!" on your day in Napa Valley!
Dinner in Downtown
There are certainly no shortages of great places to dine in Napa. If you’re finding yourself ready to indulge in a super special night, make reservations at The Charter Oak or Farmstead and Long Meadow Ranch for a truly Napa Valley fine dining experience.
Going from something more casual? Bounty Hunter Rare Wine & BBQ in downtown Napa is available seating is first-come-first serve (get the beer can chicken) or Gott’s Roadside for a great burger and fries.
If you’re feeling completely stuffed from a full day of eating and drinking (hey, it happens) make dinner some light appetizers on the rooftop of the Andaz Downtown with views of downtown Napa from below. You can also head to a local’s favorite spot, La Taberna for tapas and maybe catch a peek at a famous local winemaker enjoying a break.
Whether you’re in Napa for a couple days or a week, this recipe is the perfect rinse and repeat for as many days as you need to feel fully indulged in Wine Country Lifestyle and your ideal day in Napa Valley.
A Very Sea Bird Summer Beach Guide
You can’t make great wine without a little ocean influence. It’s a motto we live by, and it shows in every bottle of Sea Bird Wines. This summer, make the most of your beach time with these top tips for enjoying Sea Bird wines at the beach!
Grab A GoVino
Single use plastic cups are out, reusable wine glasses are IN! These reusable wine glasses are perfect (and lightweight) and make the perfect companion to your beach cooler. Pour it up and kick it back to relax- minus the trash.
Beach, Please.
You can catch us at these Sonoma Coast beaches on the West Coast with our toes in the sand and some wine in our hands. The Sonoma Coast AVA itself encompasses about 2,000 acres of vineyards and includes the lands that we source the fruit from for our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The region itself is best known for these Burgundian varietals thanks to the cool morning coast fog that covers that vines over the growing season.
Watch Us Sip On Chardonnay(nay)
Our Sangiacomo Robert’s Road Chardonnay is the perfect beach beverage. With notes of tropical fruit and a bright and lively acidity grab a bottle (or two) to throw in your cooler. Even better if you can pair it with some fresh oysters off at Bodega Bay, or pack up a picnic with some of these easy beach-inspired pairings:
Lemon Herb Asparagus Potato Salad
Pressed Italian Picnic Sandwiches
Creamy Avocado Dip + chips!
Mango Basil Summer Spring Rolls
Don’t Forget Sea-Safe Sunscreen
If you’re heading to the ocean, make sure you’re not bringing anything unwanted into the water. Ocean research has shown that common sunscreen ingredients such as oxybenzone and octinoxate are the main culprits in reef damage, along with cosmetic preservatives like methyl paraben and butyl paraben. Keep your skin safe along with the ocean reef by choosing a reef-friendly sunscreen.
Cheers to sun, sand, and the perfect summer day from us at Sea Bird Wines!
Need to stock up? Here’s our top pics for Summer Sipping:
What To Drink Now: A Vintage Report Update
Our winemaker, Patrick Durbin, fondly notes, “I love watching my wines grow up.” And for good reason. At Sea Bird Wines, we believe in relaxed wines to enjoy with friends and loved ones. That kind of wines that are as interesting as they are easy-drinking. Vintage after vintage report, we stay dedicated to taking Great Vines To Great Times with ever bottle. To make choosing your next bottle even easier, here’s a peek into our cellar with a vintage report update to see if you should hold or drink your favorite Sea Bird Wines bottles with our easy guide.
2013
This was an ideal growing season all across California. Ideal growing conditions offered moderate temperatures all throughout the growing season without rain or extreme temperatures.
What you need to know: Napa
• Dry conditions and a long sunny summer resulted in Cabernet Sauvignon that steals that show over all varietals.
• Patient growers were able to moderate soaring sugar levels to cultivate a Cabernet Sauvignon with balance, bright fruit and robust tannins that lend to long aging potential for years to come. Or, if you’re a tannin fiend, a tight, grippy wine ready to impress with structure.
Hold it: 2013 Broken Rock Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa Valley
Located on the east side of Napa near Soda Canyon and Atlas Peak, this vineyard produces bright fruit with a balanced acidity thanks to the volcanic mountainside soils. The structure of this Bordeaux inspired blend representative of the best of Napa Valley results in black cherry and cola notes, nuanced vanilla and a touch of white pepper that will continue to evolve in your cellar. These last five years have just started to soften the edges of the fine tannin structure, but can easily go about 3-5 more for a luxurious expression of this iconic vintage to come.
What you need to know: Sonoma
• The growing season was off to an early start in Sonoma with abundant sunshine and moderate temperatures similar to neighboring Napa.
• Quality AND quality abound! Pinot Noir in particular grew large crops offering a volume of premium wine.
Drink it: 2013 Sonoma Stage Pinot Noir - Sonoma
The Sonoma Stage vineyard is nestled between the Petaluma Gap and Los Carneros as the south end of the Sonoma Coast AVA. Cool morning fog and warm winds cultivate a Pinot Noir with classic red fruits, dark cherries and touches of cocoa and leather for a balanced Pinot ready to drink now. Enjoy a glass now as the delicious tertiary flavors have developed beautifully.
2014
Drought in the winemaking world is a delicate balance. However, it struck the perfect cord in 2014 offering lower yields, but higher quality. Sprinkling with a few well-timed rains over the growing season offered a sunny summer and a ripe fall.
What you need to know: Napa
• The perfect blend of 2012 and 2013 was the best way to describe 2014.
• Bright red fruits, balanced acidity and lower yields delivered a dreamlike vintage, especially for Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.
• An early harvest still delivered deep color, intense aromatics and lively acidity across the board.
Hold It: 2014 Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa Valley
This was the perfect vintage to showcase our show-stopping Poseidon Cabernet Sauvignon. Aptly named after the kind of the sea, it is comprised of the “king of grapes,” Cabernet Sauvignon from a premiere Napa Valley vineyard. The G3 vineyard is home to some of the most prestigious fruit in the Valley in the Rutherford AVA. Polished tannin, wild berries, and a hint of Rutherford Dust this wine can easily rest its trident for years to come in your cellar.
What you need to know: Sonoma
• Early season come in slow and steady with
• The drought season was still going strong. For now, it allowed for high quality and reduced yield…perfect for premium vineyards.
• The warm weather paired with little rains resulted in higher alcohol wines that overall had a welcoming ripe aroma and flavors, and softer acidity…perfect for wines that are drinking well sooner than later!
Drink it: 2014 Sangiacomo Robert’s Road Pinot Noir - Sonoma
This family-owned vineyard is the ideal Sonoma Pinot Noir site. Long slow growing seasons thanks to the coastal Sonoma influence offer fog until mid-day and warm sunshine for even ripening. The bright red fruits of this vineyard shine in this Pinot Noir with a bottle ready to pop now!
Enjoy summertime drinking with our current release wines, all available to purchase online. And stay tuned in the Fall for our upcoming vintage report update and releases coming soon!
Memorial Day Weekend Fun with Sea Bird Wines
It’s the best long-weekend of the year as Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer. It’s the perfect time to kick back, pop open some bottles, and enjoy time with friends and family.
Need some inspiration to curate a backyard BBQ that will really kick off the best summer yet? Here’s our top tips for a Memorial Day party filled with fun and, of course, great wine.
Ditch The Plastic
Opt for simple clean-up that’s easy on both you, and the environment with alternative green disposables like these bamboo cutlery sets and eco-friendly compostable plates.
Red or White?
Trick question. It’s both! Keep both options available to guests for easy drinking and pairing with everything on the menu.
A smooth white wine with bright acidity like Sea Bird Wines 2015 Sangiacomo Robert’s Road Chardonnay is a great option for a bright warm day. Keep it at cellar temperature (that’s a cool 52 degrees!) and sip all day long.
For red drinkers, opt for a wine with lighter tannins and a fresh vibrant red fruit profile like Sea Bird Wines 2014 Sangiacomo Robert’s Road Pinot Noir.
The best part of bringing out a few bottles of Sea Bird Wines is not only showing your guests a boutique, small-production wine they might not have heard of (yet!) but also knowing that the proceeds of our wines go back to supporting marine habitats. It's an easy excuse to open another bottle...or two!
Mix Up Your Grill Options
We’re not saying cut it out entirely…but it’s hard to argue with the facts. The dramatic effects of reducing red meat consumption even one day a week could save as much as 900 gallons of water, and the energy equivalent of 5 weeks worth of driving fuel. Take the opportunity on Memorial Day Monday to sub in extra veggies with fun recipes like this Mixed Grilled Vegetables with Fontina Fonduta.
Even better? Take advantage of your outside grill to serve up a sustainable fish in place of red meat! Use a reliable source like Seafood Watch – funded by the Monterey Bay Aquarium –
to consciously shop for a low-impact seafood source to fire up on the grill.
Graze Away
Keep the hangry at bay, with the summer fun and guests arriving at different times it can be hard to pin down everyone for a sit-down meal. Instead, keep a grazing board stacked with a variety of fruit, cheeses, crackers and charcuterie to make sure that everyone has something to keep them fueled through all the fun.
Trade Screen Time For Green Time
Whether it’s a grown-up party or we’re bringing all ages out, a sunny summer day is the perfect time to leave the screens inside and get out on the grass to play.
There are two times when “bigger is better”: when it’s a magnum bottle of Sea Bird Wine, and when it’s a life-size version of yard games! Super-size your lawn game fun with Jumbo Jenga, Giant Wood Rolling Dice, or even this Collossal Size Checkers Rug to bring out everyone’s competitive side.
Raise a glass and a toast to spending time with friends and loved ones…and the start to the best summer yet.
Having fun with us out in the world? Don’t forget to tag your glass with #seabirdwines and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more tips and summer fun all season long!
4 Ways To Save The Environment This Holiday Season
We have a lot to be grateful for this year at Sea Bird Wines. Great wine, great company to share it with, and a beautiful place on Earth to enjoy it…what else can you ask for? As the holiday season approaches, there are so many opportunities to be a conscious consumer and shop with boutique brands that are contributing to a more sustainable footprint on the world.
The CDC reports that Americans throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve than any other period of the year. The plastic and paper waste is overwhelming and impacts our oceans the hardest. Our every-day ecosystem depends on the resources from our coast in ways you might not expect; a healthy coastline gives us everything from the food we enjoy, clean air to breathe and (most importantly) great wine grown with coastal influences from regions like Napa and Sonoma. That’s why this holiday season we are bringing you more ways to help preserve the planet while still serving up the fun.
Ready for some inspiration? These are a few ways that members of The Flock can help create a more sustainable holiday season:
- Volunteer for coastal cleanup
Around the holidays, there is an abundance of opportunities to serve your community and give back. Some of the most overlooked volunteer opportunities can be clean-up work. The pollution of our oceans impacts the health of our communities inland. Search for volunteer opportunities from coast to coast through a non-profit resource like Ocean Conservancy.
- Reduce wrapping waste by using eco-friendly wrapping paper
If every American family wrapped only 3 presents in recycled materials, we could save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields this year. Zero-waste wrapping paper is trending this year, and is not only great for the environment, but extremely chic when done tastefully. Save items such as newspaper, scrap fabric, a patterned men’s button-down or a vintage scarf for wrapping material. Up-cycle items like strips of scrap fabric, hemp, or leather cords for ties, and utilize fresh herbs and greenery like pine branches or rosemary for a finishing touch.
- Get creative with a gift for the kids
Kids get an excess of toys for Christmas, and most of them are mass-produced products made with plastic and packaging materials that lead to waste. If you’re gifting for a child this year, consider a gift that doesn’t come with batteries. Get creative with the gifts you have to offer and remember that time and memories are the best gifts you can give.
Your favorite book, a trip to the zoo with you, or a special date night voucher for a movie (their choice!) are presents that are unique, thoughtful, and are low-impact on the environment.
- Drink Sea Bird Wines
With so many options for wine to adorn your tables during the holidays, it can be a challenge to choose one that everyone will enjoy. By selecting a boutique California brand like Sea Bird Wines to shop with, you are able to show up your average grocery store purchase for a crowd-pleasing selection with a story to tell. Mom can enjoy a glass (or three) of Robert’s Road Chardonnay and Cousin Joe will tell you all about the tasting notes of our silky-smooth Sonoma Stage Vineyard Pinot Noir (we hear he’s a Level 1 Sommelier).
Impress your friends and family with our award-winning boutique production wine while you sip and swirl with confidence, knowing that you made a mindful choice this season. The core value of Sea Bird wines is crafting a more sustainable future for us all. That’s why proceeds from every bottle are donated to non-profits dedicated to protecting and preserving seabird habitats on coastlines all over the country..
Contributing to a better environment can be as easy as buying a few bottles of your new favorite wine.
And let’s be honest, by the time the holiday season arrives…you’ll be ready for easy.