By Juliane – Sovio California

I was looking through some old pictures over the weekend and found some from the time when I travelled to Thailand with my best friend. I was 22. We spend a good four weeks at a beautiful beach in Ko Phang Gan doing absolutely nothing. Nothing being sun bathing, swimming, reading, or just being lazy in a hammock. What a dream.

There was this young guy from Bangkok who claimed to be a famous fashion designer. He said that his life became too stressful and that he had to drop out of society and live at the beach with his uncle. It was a good story, but we didn’t believe it. With endless patience he taught us the five meanings of “kao” in Thai. It can mean anything from rice to street to cow, depending how you pronounce it. We couldn’t do it and it was the funniest thing for him, but we didn’t really mind being his source of amusement.

His uncle was famous for those crushed ice watermelon-lime smoothies - one of the most refreshing alcoholic drinks I have ever tasted (I gave up worrying about ice after a few days, they were just too irresistible) and we drank them almost every night. Ever since I came back from this trip I have tried to figure out the drink recipe, but with no success. Luckily there are other fun summer drinks. 

I had a bottle of Sovio White Zinfandel with some girlfriends over the weekend. It can actually get quite hot in California, even in May, and a nice well-chilled wine is exactly what you want to drink on a day like that.  A bottle of bubbly, lovely and refreshing Rosé wine - just what we needed. Almost felt like vacation.  We ate a big bowl of sweet strawberries with it; they are in season right now – I highly recommend that combination.