All about wine
Men—be selfish on Valentine’s
Day
By KEVEN QUINN
Valentine’s Day! February 14
sneaks up on people. We’ve made it through the "Big Holidays," starting
to get back into some kind of comfortable routine, but no! The candy
makers, florists, restaurants and card makers of the world lift
Valentine’s Day into a "must do day."
Additional pressure seems to
befall the male half of the population who still must bear an unbalanced
responsibility to their significant others. My unscientific data comes
from the fact that at my restaurant 90 percent of the reservations made
for this special evening are made by men.
My selfish solution to this
dilemma is Champagne. It has always been associated with celebration and
special events. What says "I love you" more than a wonderful bottle of
bubbly waiting in a nicely chilled wine bucket, the maitre’d gently
easing that cork out and pouring the sparkling nectar into your glass.
Not only does your partner feel special but "you get to enjoy it too!"
Most of the world wrongly includes
all sparkling wines under the term Champagne. Champagne officially—the
French would say by law—can only come from a defined area of France east
of Paris. It may surprise you to know that in this very northern wine
growing region, 75 percent of the grapes grown in Champagne are red,
Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, with the remaining 25 percent Chardonnay.
Learning to enjoy these wines
starts with understanding the wines of the great champagne houses in
France, Krug, Salon, Pol Roget, Bollinger etc., and tasting their
nonvintage blends: Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label, Moët & Chandon Brut
Imperial, Taittinger La Français are all examples. The reputation of
each house depends on how skillfully they blend different batches of
wines from different years. The final blend should represent the
consistent style that each house espouses.
Additionally most houses also
offer both vintage wines in superior wine growing years, and their
prestige cuvées like Moët & Chandon Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot La
Grande Dame, Perrier-Jouët Fleur de Belle Epoque, Roederer Cristal.
These prestige cuvées come from specially selected vineyards in superior
growing years.
While normal nonvintage prices can
be quite dear, $35 to $75 retail, prestige cuvées are often double or
triple those prices. The great thing about these prestige cuvées is that
they are memorable, often unforgettable, and can demonstrably enhance
great celebrations.
Sparkling wines can be had for
considerably more reasonable prices. They’re made all over the world,
increasing in quality all the time. Italy, Spain and California do a
wonderful job. My favorite maker in California is Schramsberg, where the
Davies’ family has been making sparkling wine by the traditional French
method for nearly 40 years.
Whatever your final plans for
Valentine’s Day, start it off with bubbly—for the two of you.
Kevin Quinn is a wine writer,
enthusiast, instructor and managing partner and wine director of
Apricots Restaurant in Farmington, Conn. He was consultant for Ketchum’s
Evergreen Restaurant in the 1980s.