If you enjoy wine in your glass, how about bringing it into the bathtub or in your mug? Epicure & Culture has rounded up an innovative list of DIY wine projects and vino products, giving old wine a new purpose.

1) Red Wine Spaghetti

When California-based, Michelin-starred chef Michael Tusk says he cooks pasta in red wine, he means it. This red wine spaghetti recipe calls for boiling spaghetti with two bottles to create a deep, robust flavor and a beautiful color you won’t find with just water and salt. You’ll benefit from using a good wine since the pasta absorbs the flavor. It’s even better when you serve the dish with the wine you cook with.
To help you pull off the recipe, video recipe platform Panna Cooking has released access to a handy video guide. Click here for the full tutorial.

Red Wine Spaghetti

• 2 Bottles Red wine
• 6 1/2 C Water
• 4 oz Extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Cloves garlic, split
• 1 C Assorted cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tsp Peperoncino (dried red chili flakes)
• 1/2 C Fino verde and opal basil, torn
• 1/2 lb Spaghetti, preferably Verrigni gold die cut
• 1/2 C Pecorino Romano, freshly grated
• Salt

1. Directions
   Place the red wine in a large pot. Add an equal amount of water and bring to a rolling boil. While the wine-water is heating, warm a 12-inch sauté pan over low heat. Add the olive oil and the garlic. Toast the garlic, and when it has lightly browned on all sides and infused the oil, discard it. Add the cherry tomatoes and peperoncino and gently warm. Season with salt to taste, and turn off the heat.
2. When the wine-water liquid comes to a boil, add the spaghetti and cook the pasta for 8 minutes, or until very al dente and slightly underdone. Add a ladle of wine-water to the tomatoes and gently stir to incorporate. When the time is up and the pasta is cooked, add the spaghetti to the pan with the tomatoes (do not discard the red wine-water). Cook the spaghetti with the tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil for about three minutes more, adding more of the wine-water mixture as necessary, until the spaghetti is cooked and a sauce has formed. Adjust seasoning. Because of the salt in the Pecorino Romano, be cautious with salt.

2) Chardonnay Body Lotion

A family vineyard in Napa Valley had a bumper crop of chardonnay winegrapes and bottled their extra product to share. When it was still too much to drink, they began to incorporate it into their Agribeauty product line. After a year, they developed a process that preserves the integrity of the wine in a Chardonnay Body Lotion. The fusion of fermented grapes, California plum oil and organic aloe makes this lotion silky and ultra moisturizing. It retains aspects of chardonnay with honey, citrus and floral notes. Click here to buy a 6-ounce bottle of this natural, organic lotion for $36.00.

3) Cork Necklaces

Sparkling Vine Design uses wine to make handcrafted, wine-inspired jewelry out of repurposed wine corks and wine-themed paintings paired with chandelier crystals. Not only are the handmade pieces wine-themed, but the artist often uses wine as paint to tint cork necklaces, offering an eco-friendly art fashion.

Click here to browse a variety of pieces. The cork necklaces in the image retail for $149 and the crystal piece is $109.

4) DIY Red Wine Body Scrub

WeKnowStuff has created a DIY Red Wine Body Scrub tutorial that will use leftover wine to make your skin feel amazing. To try it yourself…

DIY Red Wine Body Scrub

• 1 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

Directions

1. Using a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix together. If sugar scrub is too wet, simply add more turbinado sugar until you reach a consistency that you like.
2. Pour mixture into a pretty jar.
3. Go take a nice, long shower or bath. Be gentle when using sugar scrubs like this – turbinado sugar is very coarse (on purpose) and you should always use caution when scrubbing your skin. Don’t forget rough spots like the bottom of your feet and your elbows.

Click here for detailed instructions.

5) Herbal Teas Made From Wine Skins

Wine and tea? It may sound crazy, but it’s possible thanks to The Republic of Tea’s Sonoma Teas collection. They have created herbal teas made with fine Sonoma County wine grape skins — free of alcohol, caffeine and calories. The grape skins used in the Sonoma Teas collection also contain antioxidants, which contribute to a diverse and healthy diet. Choose from three iced tea varietals, including Sonoma Chardonnay, Sonoma Rosé, and Sonoma Cabernet, as well as a Mulled Zin Hot Tea.

Click here for more information. It costs $7.99 per tin of six pouches (each steeps six quarts).

6) Wine-Based Cocktails

Maven Cocktails is a new line of all natural, low calorie, low carb, low sugar and gluten free wine-infused craft cocktails. They mix vodka with  Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Central Coast of California, then add natural flavors to enhance the aromas and complexities found in a great glass of a wine. These libations come in a single serve, ready to drink frosted glass bottle, with 100% recyclable packaging sourced from sustainable origins.

Click here for more details and to purchase the product for $6.99 a bottle.  If you purchase through the online retailer Winfield Flynn, you can get 15% off four-packs or cases of Maven by using the discount code 4BTLS/$24.

7.  Mix-Your-Own Cherry Bellini

It doesn’t get much better than sipping New Zealand wine on a Southern Hemisphere holiday. The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs created a special cocktail to commemorate summer nights featuring local wine. The beverage made its debut at their Friday evening Pink Beach BBQs held during the summer months.

The Pink Beach Bellini substitutes traditional French Champagne for New Zealand’s own Cloudy Bay Pelorus and showcases other fresh New Zealand beverages.  They culminate in a crisp, tangy cocktail with a bit of a zing.

Pink Beach Cherry Vodka Bellini

• Fresh Cherries
• 4 juicy sweet cherries (pits removed and quartered)
• Add equally to four frozen martini glasses

Base

• 42 Below Vodka  – 100 mL
• Pasquale Armelin Apricot Tonic from Waitaki Valley –  100 mL
• NZ Cranberry juice – 100 mL

Directions

1. Add base ingredients together – shake over ice quickly.  Pour equally to the four martini glasses
2. Finish with 50 mL Cloudy Bay Pelorus Sparkling Wine in each,  top off and serve. Glass should only be half full once poured.   Makes four 125 mL drinks

8.  Lip Scrub

By Lydia Mondavi has harnessed the antioxidant power of grape seeds to create a mini facial for your lips.  Their First Crush Grape Seed Age Protecting Lip Scrub exfoliates your lips and prepares them for intense hydration.  Grape seed extract, coconut oil, apricot seed powder and shea butter further makes your lips smooth and full.  Click here for more information- you can buy this product at Target or online for $10.

9.  Prosecco-infused Margarita

Can’t decide between a glass of wine and a margarita?  Thanks to Margaritas Mexican Restaurant, you can have both!  This eatery prides itself on their margaritas, and through them has created a new use for Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine wine.  Their new and popular Proseccorita can be made either Raspberry or Mango flavored.

Proseccorita

• 1 oz Raspberry or mango puree
• 2 oz Sauza Blue Tequila
• 1 oz Triple Sec
• 1.5 oz Margarita mix
• 187ml mini/split bottle of Lunetta Prosecco

Directions

1. In a pint glass, add 1 oz of either Raspberry or Mango puree.
2. Fill the glass with ice.
3. Pour in 2 oz of Tequila (they recommend Sauza Blue)
4. Pour in 1 oz of Triple Sec
5. Top with 1.5 oz of Margarita mix
6. Cover glass with cocktail shaker and shake vigorously
7. Meanwhile, rim a margarita glass with sugar
8. Pour the margarita into the glass, but strain out a few ice cubes so it does not fill to the top of the glass
9. Place a margarita drink clip on the edge of the glass
10. Open a 187ml mini/split bottle of Lunetta Prosecco
11. Hold the clip with one hand and then carefully, but quickly flip the Prosecco upside down through the clip with the other hand.
12. Garnish with a lime wheel

10.  Wine Truffles

Take the work out of wine and chocolate pairings with truffles from Wine Country Chocolates.  This Sonoma County-based company started experimenting with hand-pressed wine and carefully rolled in a generous layer of dark chocolate.  They started by pairing the area’s wines with chocolates and found that zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon and Port wines best complimented their chocolates.  Then they started putting wine in their truffles. Try their Vintner’s Blend for a nice assortment.  Click here for more information.  Their 12-piece box sells for $23.99.

Have a DIY wine project or vino gift to add to the list? Please share in the comments below! 

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Katie Foote

Katie Foote may be a physicist by trade but she spent several years travelling the world as much as possible. After four years of semi-nomadic life, she spent a couple years in Auckland, New Zealand and recently moved to Vancouver, Canada. Despite living more traditionally, she has insight on how to travel the world on a graduate student budget (cheap!), explore off-the-beaten-path destinations and authentically experiencing new places by connecting to locals. When she's not doing physics or globe-trotting, she likes kickboxing, yoga and exploring her extraordinary new backyard of British Columbia.

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