Valentine Wine

Looking for some Valentine’s wine suggestions? Have you watched the webisode? You should do immediately.

We had fun shooting this one. The natural thought on Valentines day is to come up with a wine that you can sip by the fireplace with your valentine, perhaps while enjoying something sweet. That in mind, we chose a couple of desert wines that fit the bill: We opened a little bottle of Late Harvest ‘Arroyo Seco’ Viognier from our friends at Salamandre Wine Cellars in Santa Cruz as well as the ‘Charisma’ dessert wine from Tobin James in Paso Robles. Both were sweet and paired nicely with everything I had laid out in my impromptu Valentine’s Day spread: a Starbucks chocolate bar, Almond Roca, stinky cheese, sweet cheese, walnuts, two kinds of apples and a little pear. I particularly enjoyed the Viognier; I enjoy it as a refreshing, floral aperitif wine when it’s NOT late-harvest, and it turns out it makes an exquisite dessert wine… loads of honey… and it’s pretty cool to look at too- I had a nice golden hue emanating from my chilled glass.

In addition to the sticky wines, I popped a couple of bottles o’ bubbly open which also paired nicely with my V-day plate. I enjoy a glass of pink bubbles, and I’ve been loving every Cremant de Bourgogne that’s been poured into my glass, so I chose a bottle of Louis Bouillot Cremant de Bourgogne Rosé “Perle d’Aurore” for this Valentine’s extravaganza. Just because, I added a second sparkling bottle, this one from the Loire: the De Chanceny Cremant de Loire Rosé. Oh and by the way, both of these sparklers were fresh & tasty and neither topped the $14 mark.

Let’s be honest… you can open whatever you like on V-day. Hell, go crazy and open up a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps if you like, I won’t judge you. If you’re looking for a good read on pairing wine with a variety of desserts, check out this great article at TheNibble.com. While you’re at it, they’ve got one on pairing wine with chocolate.

Again, please watch the webisode for all the play-by-play. By the way, if you like that shiny heart-shaped bottle holder pictured at the beginning of the post, you can pick one up for your very own at www.ocupationgifts.com.