Capsule x Villa Maria
At a loss for your next pop culture pick? Have no fear – thanks to Villa Maria’s glorious range of wines, we bring you the ultimate Capsule collection of the best things to see, do, what to watch and listen to for the month of June.
We’ve matched up this month’s pop culture highlights with a wine from Villa Maria to allow you to enjoy every moment perfectly!
We’re Watching: Easy, Delicious Shows that Let us Escape with Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir
Conversations With Friends
(Prime Video)
I do have a (slightly mean) joke that Sally Rooney writes fan fiction for mousy brunettes, but the screen adaptation of her – pre Normal People – most well-known book does expertly show how good she is at showcasing complex couple dynamics, where everyone is both a bit unlikeable but very compelling.
Conversations With Friends centres around four people: ex-girlfriends and current best friends Frances and Bobbi and the married couple, Melissa and Nick, they both become attracted to. Normal People was the surprise horny hit of 2020 and Conversations With Friends also has its fair share of chemistry – read: sexy sex scenes – between the various characters. But there’s also a trip abroad, gorgeous outfits, Nancy Meyers level home décor and enough character development to make you stick around.
Somebody Feed Phil
(Netflix)
The most likeable man on television is back and eating his way around a variety of countries again – bringing us the hottest two trends we’ve been missing in the past two years: overseas countries and food we didn’t have to cook ourselves.
Phil Rosenthal was the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond but now he takes viewers on a ‘goodwill eating tour of the world.’ While he lacks a bit of the rock-star sex appeal of the late, great Anthony Bourdain, Phil shares the enthusiasm that makes for good television and GREAT eating.
There are five seasons on Netflix – the latest season is brand new – and in each episode, Phil is somewhere beautiful, eating delicious things with wonderful people, from Nigella Lawson in London through to street vendors in South America. He loves them all equally and that’s what makes this utterly delightful, very kid-friendly television, and a show that’s perfect to snuggle in with a glass of Villa’s Private Bin Pinot Noir – a glorious little red that doesn’t come with a wild price tag because #costofliving, people.
Girls5Eva
(TVNZ OnDemand)
A one-hit wonder group from the 1990s reunites now – no longer are they teens but in their 40s and bringing great joy to their attempt at a comeback. With Tina Fey as an executive producer, this show has the one-liner brilliance of 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and it’s just a joy to behold actors like Saturday Night Live’s Paula Pell, Hamilton’s Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Sara Bareillis play pop stars who write songs about back pain. It’s as silly as it is well-written and you will not only smile while watching, you will cackle.
We’re Listening To: Careers and Catastrophes with Villa Maria EarthGarden Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon
If you’ve been turning to disaster movies for ‘comfort’ in these strange years, then this podcast is for you. Hosts Jordan Crucchiola and Amanda Smith cover a different disaster movie a week in GREAT detail – the Independence Day episode is over two hours long! – and whether it’s an A-List actor trying to outrun a lava flow, or a C-List actor punching a mutant shark in the face, Jordan and Amanda will find something to love – or to laugh about.
With the huge rise in women stepping of the career ladder for better work life balance, and the rise of chat about The Great Resignation, this is a podcast about quitting and BOY is it satisfying to listen to. It’s a real wine and whine moment with hosts Holly Whitaker and Emily McDowell as they interview a new ‘quitter’ each week about what they left behind and why they did it, and it’s as funny as it is inspirational. We’ve matched this one with the EarthGarden Merlot Cab Sav because, like the wine there’s a lot of depth to these chats – but boy, is it satisfying to consume!
There’s people who have quit jobs, relationships, acts (like lying and self-optimisation). It’s great food for thought and might just inspire you to say the two most important words in the world: I QUIT.
We’re Doing: Culture and Art Because We’re Obviously Arty People?!
Inside Dali
(Spark Arena Auckland)
Even your least arty art person will be blown away by the fully immersive experience of stepping inside the famous paintings by Salvador Dali. After the huge success of the Van Gogh exhibit last year, audiences will be given a fascinating insight into some of Dali’s famous masterpieces and a full chronological trip through Dali’s life in pictures; the Divine Comedy Room that will show Dali’s controversial commission for Alighiere’s Dante’s Inferno; as well as the Mirror Room where viewers will be exposed to Dali’s surrealist work in a 360-degree setting. But it’s a limited season so get in quick (the exhibit will be going to Christchurch in July, so the South Island can experience it too!)
We’re Reading: Friendship Foibles with Villa Maria Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
I’ll Be There (But I’ll Be Wearing Sweatpants) by Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnston
‘Is it just me? Am I the only one who’s lonely? Am I the only one without friends?’
We all know friendships are HARD, especially when the minutiae of life gets in the way and all your spare time is taken up with food shopping, cleaning and trying to figure out how to attach all of different little vacuum cleaner heads that no-one knows what they’re really for.
Authors Amy Weatherly and Jess Johnstone agree and through their hilariously written guide to friendship, they encourage, equip and reassure you that yup, building friendships can be tricky, but you can most definitely do it. This one’s with Villa’s Reserve Cab Sav because girl, if you’re delving into the depths of your own friendships, best have the best wine you get alongside you!
Alternating through so-funny-you’ll-snort confessionals through to practical advice, the book is a shining beacon of the strength of the sisterhood and talks through the lies you’ve believed about friendship, how to be a good friend even though you can’t be a perfect one, how to heal from a friendship breakup, and why you need to admit you need friends – and how to find them!
