The perfect evening: Curled up on the couch next to a warm fire, just after 20 of your closest friends left a fabulous wine tasting party, hosted by you. You’re sipping a leftover glass of red; expensive party-hosting heels on the floor beside you, while strumming your fingers on your beautiful iPad 2. Well, if any part of this sounds appealing, read on. Rioja has a giveaway to get that fire started. Three lucky Spa Week winners will be able to select the prize of their choice!

If you’re not familiar with the wine company offering such an insanely awesome giveaway, here’s the scoop: Rioja harvests thousands of wines in Spain, aged at the winery so you don’t have to wait to enjoy them. Whether you’re an amateur or wine connoisseur, Rioja is one of the most respected and well known brands in the industry with an extensive selection, offering the perfect wine for every style and budget.

So, all you have to do is join the Rioja community and you’ll be entered to win. The only problem is… how will you EVER decide!?

CHOICE #1: an iPad 2

The hottest item on everyone’s holiday list and Rioja is giving you a chance to win one for free. Delicious.

CHOICE #2: Manolo Blahniks

A $750 gift certificate to Neiman Marcus will let you live out your Carrie Bradshaw dreams and get your hands on a coveted pair of Manolo Blahniks!

CHOICE #3: Wine Tasting Party for 20!

Ever want to invite 20 of your closest friends over for a fancy wine party? Choose this option and let Rioja host a party for you. A Rioja team member will come to your home and bring wine and appetizers for your guests to enjoy. They’ll help turn you into wine connoisseur, educating you about delicious Riojas.

Sign up to win here.

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Starting Monday, Spa Week® launches its official takeover of hundreds of spas across North America! We hope you’re all ready to start relaxing and rejuvenating for just $50. While browsing the drool-worthy treatment listings on SpaWeek.com you might have noticed a list of our exclusive sponsors for this Spa Week season— as well as the multitude of giveaways and sweepstakes that come with them. We would be short of success if it were not for the tremendous support of our sponsors, each one an influential leader in its industry. We only partner with the best of the best!

2010 Title Sponsor and Exclusive Skin and Body Care: Dove Deodorant
Exclusive Media Sponsor: Allure Magazine
Exclusive Makeup Sponsor: Bare Escentuals
Exclusive Food Sponsor: Dole
Exclusive Wine Sponsor: Rioja Wine
Exclusive Wedding Sponsor: WeddingChannel.com
Exclusive Fashion Sponsor: Daily Front Row
Exclusive Spa Association Partner: International Spa Association

For good reasons, red wine gets a lot of love. Grape lovers know it’s loaded with antioxidants and resveratrols, anti-aging and super-health compounds which mean that glass of red you enjoy with dinner is actually good for you. As tasty and refined as it is, though, a plain glass of red wine can seem like an incongruous drink of choice for the summer, when tastes tend towards cooler, more refreshing drinks. Here are three cocktails that will take your wintry, warming reds into killer summer refreshments.

Sangria – Sangria is endlessly customizable, delicious, and, best of all, hard to mix badly. The base is simple to make, and you can build on it with any fruit you’d like to add. Start with oranges and lemons at the very least, but consider adding berries, apples, kiwi, grapefruit, and more – it’s hard to go wrong.

1 Bottle of red wine
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Shot brandy (optional)
 2 Cups ginger ale or club soda

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon and orange into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and add sugar and brandy, if using. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving. 

Kalimotxo – Another specialty from the Iberian peninsula, this Spanish/Basque drink is embarrassingly easy to make and even easier to drink on a hot summer day. The wine plays down the cloying sugar and brings out the spice of the cola. It’s also great way to enjoy a bottle of wine that’s been open for a few days or an inexpensive bottle that you might not want to drink alone. So, yes, this now means that bringing a 6-pack of Coke and a bottle of Two Buck Chuck to a summer picnic just became classy.

Ice
Red wine
Coca-Cola
Lemon wedge, optional for garnish

Fill a highball glass halfway to two-thirds full with red wine. Top with coke. If using, squeeze lemon and drop in.

Dolce Domani - This sweet, fresh twist on Merlot is a good way to enjoy a wine cocktail without straying too far from the more standard glass of wine.

½ lime
2½ teaspoons sugar
3 ounces Merlot
Lime twist to garnish

Muddle lime and sugar. Add wine. Pour with ice into a shaker and shake vigorously. Pour into a lowball glass and garnish with a lime twist.

And until Friday, you can enter to win an entire case of Rioja wine, all the better to practice your “winetail”-making this summer. (And you just might have some left over for next fall!)

The end of the month is creeping up on us – and that means time is running out to enter April’s fabulous giveaways. So your weekend homework is to enter ALL of these fabulous giveaways this weekend; yes, that means every single one. Click on the tile to be directed to the entry page!

Last night, over 400 guests joined us to celebrate the launch of the 12th bi-annual Spa Week®.

At the Prince George Ballroom in New York City, indulgence and wellness was the spirit of the evening at the Spa Week Media Party. The evening featured relaxing spa treatment cabanas, “make-unders” by Bare Escentuals, Vibrant Rioja wines of every variety, a decadent 3-tiered chocolate fountain with any food you could ever imagine dipping into chocolate, and a host of other indulgences. And the centerpiece of the evening that kept everyone talking (and feeling squeaky clean): The PitiCure™, the official spa treatment of Spa Week 2010, created by Dove Deodorant. And then of course there were those legendary Spa Week gift bags… In a perfect world we would have had a bag for everyone, but that’s why we have our Monthly Beauty Giveaways for you also.

For the first time ever, we live-streamed the entire night. From giant chocolate covered strawberries and live PitiCures™ to interviews with party guests, men who claim that men need the spa more than women, and the force behind fashion’s beloved DailyFrontRow.com… watch the Spa Week Daily UStream Video Log for everything we recorded live. Here’s a sampling:

Also, check out all the party photos on Guest of A Guest and some more on Socially Superlative.

Party guests with the Spa Week gift bag Dari Alexander and Dermatologist Debra Luftman of Dove Deodorant

Spa Week VP Lindsey Gockenbach, Founder Cheryl Reid, Spa Week Daily editor Michelle Joni Lapidos, and Associate Director Breanna Crowley

See all the Spa Week 2010 Exclusive Sponsors