Adding sparkle to loving night in
THE candlelit dinner, the bottle chilling in the ice bucket ... it has to have the edge on pizza in front of the telly.
But Valentine’s Day can be a testing time for couples – he loves me (he buys me Champagne), he loves me not (it’s Spanish Cava)!
Although forking out for the ‘right’ kind of bubbles is a sure sign of commitment, or lack of it, it’s not really fair to compare Champagne with Cava, for instance, which is generally a fraction of the price.
Certainly Champagne and a bunch of roses should guarantee Valentine’s Day bliss, but there are plenty of other sparkling wines that can hold their own. Lindauer (around £9) from New Zealand, or Moet and Chandon-owned Green Point from Australia (around £13) are good value alternatives.
If the Valentine staple aphrodisiac, oysters, are on the menu, Champagne again holds sway but Chablis, crisp Sauvignons from Sancerre or New Zealand, would do well. Guinness is also a prime contender – although a couple of pints somehow seems to miss the point!
The other Valentine winner – chocolate – is tough to match, but decadent sparkling Shiraz from Australia, like Wyndham’s Bin 555, or Banrock Station (both widely available around £8) deliver a foaming mass of sweetly ripe and spicy fruit that brings another dimension to chocolate.
Staying with indulgence, there’s a gamut of sweet wines that are crying out for a good drooling over – evocative Sauternes, Beerenauslese, Tokay, Oloroso, Madeira. Easy to find is Warre’s Otima tawny port (widely available around £12) – rich, nutty and in a stylish (almost sexy) bottle.
And finally, if there’s any manhood to be proved, there has to be a place for the most masculine of malt whiskies. Talisker reaches the parts other whiskies cannot reach – just the thing for Valentine’s Day!
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