Month: February 2008

The e-mail message from Natalie MacLean pointed me to her book Red, White and Drunk All Over in case I was planning to offer some Valentine’s Day tips about matching wine with chocolate.

Of course, there is that. And we’ll get to it in a bit.

But my Valentine’s takeaway from her book comes from the part where she describes her travels in the region of France that conceived and produces that quintessentially amorous variety of wine, Champagne.

Specifically, I mean MacLean’s quote of Louis XV mistress Madame de Pompadour, who discerned that Champagne is “the only wine that leaves a woman more beautiful after drinking it.” (Let’s forgive Jeanne Antoinette’s indiscretion in helping to spark the Seven Years’ War, huh?)

And what man hasn’t felt a little James Bondish with a flute of Bollinger (or less costly bubbly)?

MacLean describes the sensation this way:

Champagne may be a celebratory drink, but it’s also an intimate ritual that transports you into a private world. There’s an adagio of the senses: the sweating cold bottle, the glinting stemware, the frothy pour, the small wrist action of raising the glass, the ocean-spritz on your face, the mouth filling flavor.

In other words, Valentine’s Day without Champagne is like the Fourth of July without the fireworks.

Speaking of Bollinger, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at The Washington Post suggest paring a bottle of N.V. Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut ($55) with shrimp cocktail as a starter for Valentine’s dinner. As they explain, with their own notable quotable:

We feel about Bollinger, actually, the way Lily Bollinger felt about champagne in general. As she famously said in 1961: ‘I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I’m thirsty.’

They cite a few other bubbly favorites, in addition to several non-sparkling wines for other phases of the meal.

At Wine Spectator Online, Laurie Woolever serves up four more sparkling selections, ranging from a Gruet Brut New Mexico NV ($14) to a Mailly Brut Rosé Champagne NV ($48). She throws in her own meal paring suggestions, including:

Roses, jewelry, chocolates—there are some occasions when it makes sense to stick with the classics, and Valentine’s Day is surely one of those times. If you’re taking the date-night dinner into your own hands, you can’t go wrong with a classic surf and turf, with some simple accompaniments and well-chosen white and red wines alongside.

And speaking of chocolate, here are MacLean’s top 10 wine/chocolate matchings for when you get around to dessert (her online matching tool supplies additional suggestions for you and your sweetie):

1. Dark Chocolate and Banyuls, France
2. Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and Recioto Della Valpolicella, Italy
3. Chocolate-Orange Cake and Liqueur Muscat, Australia
4. Chocolate with Nuts and Tawny Port, Portugal
5. Milk Chocolate and Tokaji, Hungary
6. Bittersweet Chocolate and Amarone, Italy
7. Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Icewine, Canada
8. Chocolate Ganache Truffles and Sauternes, France
9. Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Framboise, California
10. Chocolate Hearts with Cream Filling and Cream Sherry, Spain