Ciao, my lit­tle chick­adees, just back from a long week­end in Sonoma Val­ley. Can you think of any­thing more deca­dent than an entire sec­tion of the coun­try reserved for the pure plea­sure of lov­ingly nur­tur­ing the suc­cu­lent nec­tar of the gods-WINE! Talk about The Sweet Life!

As you can see from the pic­ture above, it was a Wine Diva Week­end! Thank my lucky grapes that my friends Angela and Michelle were expe­ri­enced wine coun­try pros. My dear diva-sister, Evette, and I sim­ply had to fol­low their lead. And lead they did!

Our first full day was spent being chauf­feured  by own our per­sonal wine tour guide, Gene War­ren of Healds­burg Win­ery Tours. With Angela’s cherry-picked itin­er­ary of winer­ies in vary­ing appel­la­tions and vari­etals there was no way we could have any­thing less than a wine­tas­tic day.

Did I lose you with my wine-speak of appel­la­tions and vari­etals? Well, it is like speak­ing another lan­guage. One in which I hope to become flu­ent. In Cal­i­for­nia, appel­la­tions mean a strictly defined geo­graphic area, like Drycreek or Russ­ian River Val­ley. Vari­etal means the type of grape from which the wine is made-Cabernet Sauvi­gnon, Pinot Noir, Chardon­nay, etc.

For those of you that have not had the plea­sure of vis­it­ing the wine coun­try, allow me to enlighten you fur­ther with my newly found exper­tise. Ahemmmm.…

I learned through­out the day that the tast­ing process itself is very casual. There will be some type of walk-up bar or counter that you stand at while you take notes on a pre-printed sheet the win­ery pro­vides with list of wines being offered. If the vine­yard pro­duces dif­fer­ent vari­etals, the barista (wine-pouring per­son, I “bor­rowed” this term from Star­bucks) will ask what you are inter­ested in tast­ing from the selec­tion they have avail­able. Some­times there is a set list that they pour from. You may taste one or all, it is up to you.

At most tast­ing rooms you are given a glass that will be used for the entire tast­ing. You are poured a care­fully mea­sured 1oz. of wine. That is where the drama begins! You can­not help dra­ma­tiz­ing comic exaltation’s about the nose, the bou­quet, the legs of this fab­u­lous wine! Then you begin to really enjoy the process.

Just like the 4c’sof buy­ing a dia­mond, there are 5s’s of tast­ing wine: See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savor. I won’t go into the com­plex wine-speak def­i­n­i­tion of each of these terms, mainly because I don’t under­stand. Here’s all you need to know: Unless it is brown– don’t worry– it is prob­a­bly drink­able. You should swirl your glass so that the wine is exposed to the air and the wine becomes more full-bodied or fla­vor­ful. Sniff or inhale the aroma of the grape, the bou­quet which reflects the wine-making process such as the smell of oak, and together these are the nose of the wine. Only a true wineiac would be able to really define the dif­fer­ence, just says it smells good. How­ever, inhal­ing the aroma, bou­quet, what­ever, really does enhance the fla­vor of the wine. Sip, yes sip just a bit. No need to gulp and swish. Sip and hold then…savor. you will hope­fully enjoy the dif­fer­ent lay­ers of the taste. A bal­anced wine will fill your mouth with fla­vor you might describe as pep­pery, spicy, jammy, fruity, yeasty (bub­bly), earthy, dry, nutty, but­tery, flat, watery etc. Of course, some of these words (the good ones) will be on the descrip­tive sheets you are pro­vided with..power of sug­ges­tion or just the mat­u­ra­tion of your palette? Hmmmmm…

There’s usu­ally a stain­less ves­sel and a pitcher of water on the bar. Once you fin­ish tast­ing the first wine, you may spit out what is in your mouth into a stain­less ves­sel (Yes– spit. I am proud to say none of the Divas spat.), you may fin­ish (swal­low) the 1 oz. ration, or pour it out into the stain­less ves­sel. The water is to rinse out your glass in between varietals.

Other vine­yards may present you with a tast­ing flight, which, in this casual sce­nario, is from 3–4 glasses from the same vine­yard and a related cat­e­gory of wines. For instance, all whites, all Chardon­nays, all reds, Pinots or Caber­nets, etc. The glasses are often placed on top of a sheet of paper which iden­ti­fies each wine and gives some infor­ma­tion about it. This for­mat allows tasters to com­pare and con­trast dif­fer­ent wines. If you are only given 1 glass but wish to com­pare wines-all you have to do is ask and the barista will gladly pro­vide a fresh glass and a new 1oz. pour of the requested wine for comparison.

These tast­ings some times come with a fee, some­times about $5.00 some­times $10–15. Usu­ally this fee will be applied to any wine pur­chase you make.

…to be con­tin­ued tomorrow.

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Have you ever read a book about wine? Yawn…I’m sorry, were you say­ing some­thing? Yes, I agree, in gen­eral read­ing about wine often leaves you feel­ing over­whelmed & under-educated, until you read Leslie Sbrocco’s,  Wine for Women: A Guide to Buy­ing, Pair­ing, and Shar­ing Wine. The title sounds like a sex­ist ploy to get women to fall into a trap that some­how this book is writ­ten in a lan­guage just for women..and it is. Not the sex­ist ploy part! No, no, no, cara mia, this is not a ploy at all. It is indeed writ­ten for women– or at least those that like to shop, love clothes and appre­ci­ate rel­e­vant descrip­tions in reg­u­lar words peo­ple use every­day instead of sound­ing like an episode of Frasier.

With chap­ter names like, Chardonnay~The “Basic Black” of White Wine, Merlot~The “Wrap Me In Cash­mere” Red, Dessert Wines~The “Paja­mas of Vino”, this book reads more like a fun con­ver­sa­tion with girl­friends where you all are able to fin­ish each oth­ers sentences.

Each chap­ter is orga­nized into 3 sec­tions, Buy­ing, Pair­ing and Sharing.

The Buy­ing sec­tion of each chap­ter gives a mood set­ting descrip­tion of the type of wine, which is related back to our clos­ets and directly to our hearts. Then Sbrocco goes on to explain the story of the grape, wine and region. The mean­ing of the labels or Label Links, “con­nect­ing taste to place makes wine buy­ing easy”.

The Pair­ing sec­tion offers advice on the pair­ing of food and wine. This is more com­pli­cated than it may seem, but it can make the dif­fer­ence between a mediocre meal and a fab­u­lous feast! Sbrocco guides you through this with full-bodied descrip­tions on the types, tex­tures and taste of the food to con­sider when pair­ing. There are even Design-a-Dinner menus and wine shop­ping guides.

Lastly, the Shar­ing sec­tion answers FAQ’s, about stor­ing, serv­ing and thought­ful gift-giving for many occasions.

This Diva’s favorite chap­ter is Chi­anti– The Sleek Ital­ian Heels. Here is an excerpt:

“While some say clothes can make the per­son, I say, what about the shoes? Many of us con­sider footwear the ulti­mate fash­ion neces­sity, espe­cially when it car­ries the dis­creet badge of honor “Made in Italy.“
I grav­i­tate toward styl­ish Ital­ian heels that mirac­u­lously seem to make any out­fit look ele­gant. Granted, it may take time to break them in, but it is a small price to pay for beauty. That’s the same way I feel about San­giovese, the grape respon­si­ble for pro­duc­ing Italy’s clas­sic Tus­can reds. These tightly wound wines often need time in the glass to soften up but show their true beauty when paired with food.
Unlike other reds that pum­mel you with power, Sangiovese-based wines seduce with style. Just like a pair of Ital­ian heels.”

Wine for Women is a won­der­ful book about wine, but after read­ing each chap­ter or even a page, Sbrocco writes with such a pas­sion and flair that you feel as if you have taken a mini-vacation to California’s Cen­tral Coast; Haut-Médoc, France; Brunello di Mon­tal­cino, Italy or Coon­awarra, Australia.

To quote Tony Coltrin of Seña win­ery, “Good wine tastes like a grape, but great wine tastes like a place.”

This Diva couldn’t have said it better.

Do you have a book about wine you would like to rec­om­mend? Leave a comment!

So you’ve been read­ing A Diva’s Guide to the Sweet Life for a cou­ple of weeks now. Sub­scribed to the blog. Told all your friends about it. Shopped at the Online Store. And yet– what is a Sweet Diva? Am I one?, you ask your­self.

Let me try to clear things up a bit. Being a Sweet Diva is not as gooey, sticky-sweet as it may sound. It is not the unat­tain­able state of being impec­ca­bly coiffed, beau­ti­fully man­nered, gra­cious to a fault, float­ing about in a fuzzy cloud of glam­our and sophis­ti­ca­tion, dis­pens­ing bon mots and life-altering advice from a lofty perch…really, how bor­ing, how ridicu­lous, how sublime…how do I become that Diva?  Okay, shake it off, we are liv­ing in the real world.

Back to real­ity. Allow me to state the Diva Mantra:

You, my Sweet Diva, are smart savvy, fun & fab­u­lous!
You have a pas­sion for life and liv­ing it with style.
Resilient & bold, you have the courage to chase your dreams & make them reality.

This Diva Mantra is our aspi­ra­tion and our inspi­ra­tion. Being a “DIVA” is sim­ple. Being a Sweet Diva takes hard work, con­sid­er­a­tion, patience, love and dedication.

As women, we nur­ture our daugh­ters, nieces and any young girl in our lives. We try to teach them to be strong, inde­pen­dent, proud and con­fi­dent. We cheer for them, encour­age them, sup­port them, com­fort them, guide them, love them. But is that enough? What hap­pens to all the sis­ter­hood and girl-power when we turn 30, 40, 50.…? Where’s that pat on the back or the out­burst of “Yippee!” from our youth?

We women, girls and Sister-Divas need to sup­port, encour­age and dream together through­out our lives. Sin­gle girls need to reach out to our mar­ried friends and remind them who they were when they were just our BFF from high school. Mar­ried women need to reach out to our sin­gle friends and include them in gath­er­ings. Treat any woman you come across with respect. They are each spe­cial with their own dreams, goals, achieve­ments, and disappointments.

La Dolce Diva means embrac­ing the mes­sage of self-empowerment and self-worth and pass­ing it on to Sister-Divas.

Now ask your­self again, “Am I a Sweet Diva?”…

Straw­berry Di Choco­lata is part of La Dolce Diva’s Dolce Div­ina Col­lec­tion.

The ulti­mate in deca­dent treats, straw­ber­ries and choco­late com­bine for a full sen­sory expe­ri­ence: the fra­grant smell, the vibrant red, the satiny choco­late, and then there’s that juicy first bite.

The scent of fresh straw­ber­ries dipped in a warm choco­late will sink into your skin and gen­tly remind you through­out the day, where you started.…..with dessert!

The Dolce Div­ina Col­lec­tion is also avail­able in Almond Bis­cotti, Gelato & Tiramisu-su-su! It is a com­plete line of Bath & Body prod­ucts such as Lux­u­ri­ous Shea Body But­ter, Body Pol­ish Créma, Body Wash, Body Lotion, Lip Balms, Travel Sets and more!

What’s your favorite edi­ble dessert or gourmand/foody scented beauty prod­uct? Leave a comment.

Yes, It’s true. Today is my birthday!

I awoke in my own home, my own bed, with my fuzzy-headed kit­tens, Piazza and Bellini “mak­ing bis­cuits” on my feet. *sigh* this is La Dolce Vita.

For the last 20 years I have spent most of my birth­days in Europe. OOOOOH, poor lit­tle Diva, you say. As glam­orous and che bella as that sounds, I was actu­ally work­ing. My job as a fash­ion designer took me to Europe a cou­ple times a year, in the Spring and Fall. Sev­eral times I was with co-workers, who were friends but most of the time I was by myself. Okay, you say, you were still in Europe. True. And it was great, I won’t deny it.

There is some­thing spe­cial about your birth­day that you enjoy being home receiv­ing the birth­day phone calls. Maybe men­tion­ing it to peo­ple a few times a day in order to hear Happy Birth­day! a few extra times. Per­haps gar­ner your­self a free latte at Star­bucks (like I did this morn­ing.) It’s funny that birth­days seem to be a uni­ver­sal bond that even com­plete strangers are happy — just for you — when they real­ize it is your birth­day. A smile usu­ally comes to their face and they light up a bit. “Happy Birth­day!” they say, even though every­one has one, it’s YOUR day today.

Through­out my trav­els I have had hotel clerks review­ing my pass­port sud­denly look up and say “It’s your birth­day!” and had pros­ecco and kumquats sent to my room. Immi­gra­tion con­trol has even smiled and wished me a happy day. Pretty much any time I showed my pass­port– which is a lot in Europe– my birth­day was acknowl­edged with gen­uine warm wishes. For a split sec­ond, that child­hood imprint of excite­ment of our “own” spe­cial day seems wash over each of us and “Happy Birth­day!” is auto­mat­i­cally exclaimed.

Because of shop­ping hours and travel sched­ules, I was usu­ally in Paris on my birth­day. I spent the evening sip­ping Kir Royales in the beau­ti­ful lobby of  Hotel Con­cord St. Lazare observ­ing the passersby bus­tle along the rue Saint-Lazare. Trés Parisi­enne! Some­times, I was lucky enough to stay over a Sun­day in Flo­rence and wan­der the cob­ble­stone streets of my adopted city. I would grab a pas­try sev­eral times through­out the day as mini birth­day cakes. A time or two, I have  stopped on the Ponte Vec­chio to acquire a birthay bauble. Each time I would mur­mur to my inner Diva how lucky I was to be able to spend my birth­days in Europe.

Now, I don’t go to Europe as often. When I do go, I am able to sched­ule the dates as I want. Even though it seems trés chic et trés bon to have spent birth­days in Europe, I am happy to be home today. With my kit­tens. Plan­ning a din­ner with one of my BFF’s and my Diva Mom.

It’s my birth­day, I must be home. La Dolce Vita.

Lemon Rasp­berry Tiramisu: Recipe by mcat49

Have you heard about BakeSpace.com? It is sim­ply the hippest cucina around! While other recipe based sites can be as dry as day old bread, Bake Space is a place where you “come for the food and stay for the conversation.”

Inno­v­a­tive and fun, it is a social net­work of food enthu­si­asts din­ing and dish­ing about their favorite food, recipes, tech­niques, books and any­thing food related.

Easy and inter­ac­tive, you’ll soon be click­ing away like a kid in a candy store. The metro-retro fea­tures and lay­out will imme­di­ately inspire and com­fort you. No high­brow chefs cluck­ing their tongue at you going on about mise en place.

Instead there’s the feel­ing of sit­ting around your kitchen counter with a group of friends, sip­ping a glass of vino, munch­ing on bruschetta, dis­cussing the best way to make cheese­cake, what is the newest tiramisu, should I buy Le Crue­set or stainless?

As Bake Space says them­selves, “Gath­er­ing in the kitchen is a uniquely social tra­di­tion that con­nects peo­ple from all walks of life. That’s because the kitchen is where we go when we’re hun­gry… not just for food, but for friends, fam­ily and great con­ver­sa­tion.“

A Diva never thought recipe –swap­ping could be so fun!

The Women (2008)

After the parade of botox, lip plumpers, Nar­ciso Rodriguez fash­ion and beau­ti­ful sets, all I was left with was this quote. “I am the man I want to marry.” Annette Bening’s char­ac­ter “Sylvie” smartly answers to Meg Ryan’s “Mary Haines” telling her “one day she would meet the man she would want to marry.”

That was the only mod­ern twist on this old gem of George Cukor’s 1939 Orig­i­nal. But this is 2008. Even the play’s orig­i­nal author, Claire Boothe Luce would be Diva enough to know it would take more than this to hold it’s own against Sex & the City.  To be fair, the new ver­sion of The Women had a lot to live up to. The orig­i­nal was such a land­mark pro­duc­tion. All female cast. Norma Shearer –the queen of Hol­ly­wood at that time-as Mary Haines and Joan Craw­ford as the ven­omous Crys­tal Allen. Ros­alind Rus­sell as Mrs. Howard “Sylvie” Fowler, the socialite that took joy in oth­ers prob­lems and couldn’t help but to stir the pot. Yes, to live up to a clas­sic is next to impossible.

The new ver­sion had 3 bits of per­fect casting.

Eva Mendes as Crys­tal Allen. She is Jes­sica Rab­bit come to life. The cast’s reac­tion to her in the movie is pretty much what I sus­pect any of us would do if we saw a crea­ture like this out­side of a mag­a­zine cover. Jaw-dropping.

Debi Mazur as Tanya, the man­i­curist, who blithely passes on rumors and gos­sip that shat­ters peo­ples lives while pol­ish­ing their nails Jun­gle Red.

Bette Midler who was totally under­used as Leah Miller, known as “Count­ess” in the orig­i­nal. When Ms. Midler’s unmis­tak­able voice was heard, I imme­di­ately thought, well here we go, this thing is start­ing now. But alas, she was on screen for about 5 min­utes. And that was poorly written.

I was really look­ing for­ward to this movie. It had every­thing going for it. Great trailer, sound bites, good cast, fash­ion, beau­ti­ful locations/sets…what could go wrong? I would sum it up into chem­istry. Annette gave it her best, but there was just no con­nec­tion to Meg Ryan. The writ­ing was uneven vary­ing from mod­ern to weak throw­back lines to the orig­i­nal ver­sion. They couldn’t decide how to go at this. Make a fresh new ver­sion, throw in a les­bian or two to seem hip or rely on the 1939 ver­sion of mar­riage and wifely duties– which actu­ally should have been good for a few laughs but instead fell flat.

I will say Annette Ben­ing looked the best out of all the “slightly” older actresses. She looked real. How often do you hear that about a Hol­ly­wood actress? Another great line she had ” This is my face, deal with it!”

Diva Ver­dict: Rent the orig­i­nal and catch the new ver­sion on cable.