Pearls, Pinot, and Parmesan: Wine Glass, Wine Dress

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen that I've been traveling in Spain and Portugal for the past week and a half. I'm with one of my friends from law school, we both don't start working at our respective law firms until late September, so we figured we'd take a long trip while we have so much free time on our hands. Our first stop was Barcelona, but our flight was cancelled so we had to get rebooked for the next day, so we had to cram a lot of stuff in Barcelona into less days than we anticipated. It was a busy, but incredible few days. We saw all the major monuments and museums: La Segrada Familia, Park Guell, the Picasso Museum, Las Ramblas, and the Gothic Quarter to name a few. We didn't feel like we missed anything, and it was a high energy start to our trip. Our next stop was Rioja, Spanish wine country, and it was an incredible second stop.

We got into LaGuardia, the small town we stayed at in Rioja, in the afternoon and just spent the evening enjoying tapas and a bottle of wine, while taking in the gorgeous views of wine country. We spent the entire next day wine tasting and touring different wineries. We had a private tour guide pick us up and take us to three very different wineries in the area. She was an incredible guide, and told us to much about the history of Spanish wine and the Rioja region while we drove. The first winery we toured was called Cune, or Cvne, and it was a very traditional winery. It had been around for hundreds of years and some of their highest quality wines are poured at Spanish royal dinners and parties. They had a centuries old wine cellar, and some of the wine in the cellar was over a hundred years old. It was a winery that was full of tradition and history. Our second stop was a much more modern and smaller winery, called Tritium. The owner of the winery thought of himself more as a winegrower than a winemaker. His focus was on growing high quality grapes, because you can't make high quality wine from mediocre grapes. They had us try some wines that were new takes on traditional Spanish wines, and they were our favorite wines that we tasted. The third winery that we visited was a large, corporate winery called Marques de Riscal. The winery was a sprawling complex, with a five-star hotel connected to it, and beautiful grounds. However, the wine itself was pretty average, it was good wine but nothing special. There are hundreds of wineries in Rioja, and spending one day visiting just three made me want to go back and spend more time there.

I packed the perfect dress for a day spent wine tasting. This Gal Meets Glam dress from the July collection is incredibly comfortable, and the color is just like a glass of red wine. It appears to be a somewhat simple dress at first, but the details really make it beautiful. The buttons are a pretty pearly color, and the dress zips up the back so you don't have to actually use the buttons and there's less chance of the buttons gaping at the chest. The fabric has a gorgeous thick texture to it, which makes it fall beautifully and comfortably. An added bonus are that it has pockets! I love a dress with pockets, and I love that more designers are offering dresses with pockets. These pockets are slightly to the front, and the perfect size for holding an iphone or a pair of sunglasses. I paired this dress with a simple pair of nude Tory Burch sandals and pearl and gold earrings. For a date night this dress would also look great with a fun pair of black heels or booties in the fall. I think that I could also get away with wearing this dress to work since it has a high neckline and it's not too short. I would pair it with black pumps and a black blazer.