Having Fun 101 With Our Favorite Sommelier
Oh hey, Women’s Month. Slipping right on by.
Listen. Women's Month is important. Making space to celebrate, acknowledge, and affirm that contributions of 50+% of the population is critical. Ask yourselves, lovers, is a month enough? My four semesters of Women's Studies work at Vassar says no.
Anyhow, raise your glasses, ladies, allies, countrymen! Quickly! Before the calendar hits April.
As a female owned and operated brand, we take pride in two things all year round: uplifting and empowering other women and throwing a damn good party. Luckily for us, our friend, who we chose to highlight this week, is not only a world class wine maker and business owner, but an incredible entertainer as well.
Jordan Salcito, the founder of Drink RAMONA, turned her years of experience in the restaurant and wine industries into her own line of premium yet accessible organic Italian wine spritzers. Her mission is simple: to bring fine wine to the masses with delicious flavors and fun design. Jordan has countless recognitions of her own, including passing her Master Sommelier Blind Tasting exam on the first try and being named “Most Original Wine List in the World” from World Of Fine Wine for her curation at David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants, as well as multiple James Beard semi-finalist nominations and four Double Gold Medals and one Gold Medal in the world-renowned San Francisco International Wine Competition for RAMONA. You could say she knows wine.
For this week’s Feste Practice’s, read Jordan’s take on what makes the perfect party—and the perfect bottle of wine. She shared everything from her dream dinner guest (Sara Blakely of SPANX!) to her wildest soiree yet.
GET THE PARTY STARTED
I always like to have a few beverage options - a bottle of Champagne, or ingredients and mise en place for a cocktail made à la minute (spritzes, margaritas in warmer months, and whisky sours in the winter are some of my go-tos).
Set yourself up for success with The Scene: No Bar Like Home.
HIGHBROW, MEET LOWBROW
It’s hard to beat potato chips and caviar.
Serve it up on a vintage ornate silver tray and embroidered caviar cocktail napkins.
EXTRA TOUCH
I am a big fan of personalized parting gifts! For fancy dinners I love to use engraved wine keys as place settings. For less fancy dinners, sometimes I'll pack a to-go bag of frozen cookie dough I've prepared earlier in the day so that guests can bake them on a whim when they're craving cookies at home.
We like sending guests home with a personal card or matte gold bottle openers.
TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK
I have some very old bottles of Hermitage from Domaine Jean Louis Chave at home right now, as well as some beautiful birth year vintages from Domaine Dujac. Usually we wait for a group of friends that loves wine, including the families that made them! And we wait for birthdays to drink the birth year wines.
Turning another year older can be fun with a glitter happy birthday garland, classic party hats and balloon cake topper.
OVER THE MOUNTAIN TOP
Our wedding in Aspen,Colorado approximately 100 years ago in 2008 was the craziest party. We just went all out, with a kilo of caviar from a friend in the caviar business, wines served out of jeroboam from our favorite producers, vegetables that a chef friend planted months in advance for the big day, a meal created by the brilliant team at Frasca Food & Wine, and the most glorious cake in the world, created by our friend Margaret Braun.
Try our In the Name of Decadence scene for your next indulgent bash.
WINE BE A LADY
Marie-Christine and Marie-André from Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg are some of my favorite ladies in wine, and they are now working with their daughters, Lucie and Marion, to pass the baton. They were the first domaine owned and run by women in Burgundy and their wines are extraordinary. I also always love any and everything that Diana Snowden Seysses makes, from the wines at Domaine Dujac (Burgundy) to her family’s winery, Snowden, in Napa, to a new project, Cousins, she is making with her sister and cousins in California. She has long been a proponent of biodynamic farming and is the smartest person I know when it comes to proactively addressing climate change. I also love the wines in Mary Taylor’s import portfolio, including Anamaria Salva’s Sicilian rosso. I could go on for ages - it's so exciting to see so many women making decisions in the vineyard and winery these days. OH! Moreau-Nader from Chablis. Those wines are exceptional, reasonably priced and always crowd pleasers!
Have your wine and drink it too from ribbed colored red wine glasses or classic white wine glasses.
Love RAMONA? Shop here.
