Backyard Shindig With Santa Margherita Wines (and a contest!)

You may remember last year’s collab with Santa Margherita Wines — one of my very favorite brands of vino. We designed a she-shed with them and we were thrilled when they came back for more Jungalow fun this year. Their Pinot Grigio is my absolute fave and since I lived in Italy for a million years I’m pretty picky about my Pinot. It’s light, crisp, and very delicious.

To kickoff the summer, and to satiate my missing of Italy (which happens to me every year around this time), we decided to host a little Italian-inspired shindig in my yard at the Jungalow.

We invited over a few neighbors and friends and made some easy Italian-inspired ‘aperitivi.’  An aperitivo is an Italian cultural phenomenon. Basically, after work, people meet up for a cocktail and hors d’oeuvres. When I lived in Italy I loved going to aperitivi at local bars because I would order a cocktail and eat enough free ‘aperitivi’ snacks to call dinner. It worked out for my starving artists’ salary.

For our cocktail we made a “Jungle Bougie” which is a Bougainvillea Basil drink. (Did you know that Bougainvillea flowers are edible??) I only recently learned that!!  Here’s how to make the cocktail:

Jungle Bougie 

Ingredients

.5 oz basil syrup

1.5 oz vodka

2 oz honey dew melon juice

Santa Margherita Prosecco Superiore Di Valdobbiadene D.O.C.G.

 

Basil Syrup Recipe

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 bunch of basil

Bring water to boil. Stir in sugar until dissolved (it takes a few minutes for the sugar to dilute). Pour over basil into a separate container and let sit for at least an hour. Strain and bottle. 

 

Add syrup, vodka, juice and ice to shaker. Do a little Jungle Boogie while shaking ingredients.

Pour into glass, top with Prosecco Superiore and garnish with basil leaves and bougainvillea petals.

Salute!

We also made a jungalicious ice bucket out of ice!! Yes, eventually it will melt on a hot summer day — but it’s kind of like an ice sculpture or a face-the-foliage portrait, it’s gorgeous and a great conversation piece while it lasts–and then it goes back into nature.

Here’s how to make the ice bucket:

​Supplies:
​1 8 qt circular bucket (such as Cambro brand)
1 4 qt circular bucket ​ (alternatively you could use a large water bottle, as long as wine bottle could fit inside)
Flowers or leaves. Save some extra for styling around your mold.
A few heavy rocks or stones

Step ​1​:  Fill ​the 8 qt bucket with​ 1 inch of water. Freeze for about 4 hours or until first layer is frozen.​ ​
Step ​2​: Fill​ smaller bucket​ or bottle with rocks ​and place inside ​the larger bucket. ​The rocks will keep it from floating as you fill the rest of the water. ​Fill the ice bucket up with water. Add flowers​/leaves​ to water. Freeze overnight.
Step ​3​: Take​ ​out of​ the​ freezer. Run warm water around outside of ​the larger bucket ​and inside the smaller bucket to slide your ice mold out.
Step 4: Before setting it on a plate on your table, place a napkin or cork coaster underneath to keep it from sliding around.

 

For the last part of the evening, we laid out a bunch of poufs and pillows on rugs in our yard and used the old sheet-as-movie-screen to show one of my favorite Italian films, Ladro Delle Biciclette. We set out low tables and trays amongst all the pillows. We put out popcorn and other stuzzichini (Italians have a lot of words for snacks!) and really invited folks to max out and chill. 

Once it was dark enough outside, we played the film and enjoyed watching De Sica’s masterpiece under the stars!

And no vino partnership would be complete without a really fun contest, right?

So here’s what you do: Follow @SantaMargheritaUSA on Instagram and show us how you’re enjoying a glass of SMA Wines by uploading a photo, tagging @SantaMargheritaUSA and including #SMSUMMERCONTEST. You can enter weekly (Thursdays-Sundays) and there are weekly Santa Margherita-inspired summer prize packs– the Grand Prize is $2,500 backyard makeover! Gotta do it!

(No Purchase Necessary to Enter or Win. Begins 6/15/17 at 12:00:01 p.m. ET, ends 8/6/17 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Open to 50 US & DC legal residents, 21+. Void where prohibited. For official rules visit http://ift.tt/2uCvWRK. Sponsor: Santa Margherita USA Inc.)

This Post was sponsored by Santa Margherita USA. I took all the photos which is why I’m not actually in any of the pics ;) The wine is delish, and if you’re 21+ you should hook yourself up!

from The Jungalow http://ift.tt/2vNpwNY