When it comes to celebrating Valentine's Day, we love nothing more than staying in, cooking a good meal, and opening up a great bottle of wine.
So if you're like us, you may wonder what type of wine to pair with your meal. Whether you're cooking up some fancy seafood or steaks, something vegetarian, or maybe just composing a charcuterie plate, we've got a few great Valentine's Day wine recommendations for you and your special someone.
After visiting wineries in Sonoma, we fell in love with one particular producer of Pinot Noirs- Arista.
We liked their Pinot Noirs so much that we joined their club, and after ordering many bottles we decided to expand our cellar to include some of the winery's acclaimed Chardonnays as well. One of the first ones we opened was the Arista Russian River Valley 2018 which shines almost as much as their acclaimed Pinots!
One of the perks of having a wine cellar is that sometimes we do not really know what we have in stock. We keep an inventory of our bottles, of course, but sometimes a few slip through the cracks and we forget about them for years.
Our Lamoreaux Landing Pinot Noir 2014 was one such bottle. We pulled it out not only to find that we had one at all, but also that it was pushing almost nine years old.
As we didn't expect this bottle to age too much longer, we decided to open it up and see how it was faring, and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found!
After going down the Champagne rabbit hole, we realized that there is Champagne and there is Champagne.
If you have had incredible Champagne, you know exactly what we mean about this. Strong acidity, pronounced fruit and lees notes, an incredible mouthfeel, and a finish that just hangs on.
While we generally like all bottles of Champagne that find their way to our table, only certain bottles are Champagne in this sense. These are often vintage or prestige blends that are some of the top of the line bottles from any producer and often come at a price to match.
Champagne Dumenil's 1999 was one such bottle for us. Although this one clocked in at one of the highest price points we have ever paid for Champagne (about $120 a bottle), oh was it worth it.
We don't often think of California when drinking Sauvignon Blanc, although this is a popular grape to grow throughout the state.
In our Naked Wines subscription, we got to sample Provare's Sauvignon Blanc as part of a mystery box and felt it was a relatively straightforward bottle for its price point.
We first stumbled upon Domaine Weinbach's incredible wines at Wine Bar George in Disney Springs (particularly one of their high-end Riesling).
Over time, and as part of our WSET studies, we learned that high-quality Alsatian producers like Domaine Weinbach are well known for making some of the world's best Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and more.
So when we found a bottle of Weinbach's “Les Treilles du Loup” at Total Wine, we knew we had to pick it up to try.
It did not last long, and now we want another.
When we had a layover in Istanbul, we knew we had to pick up some Turkish wines with new-to-us grapes to try when we got home.
This is how we stumbled upon Kavaklidere's Kalecik Karasi. We didn't know much about what to expect with this one, and it turns out it ended up being a light red, not too dissimilar from a Pinot Noir.
While not what we expected, it was an interesting one all the same.
You likely know that Montepulciano is an intense red wine from Italy. But have you ever had it made in rose style?
We were able to give this unique preparation a try with a sample bottle from Masciarelli's Villa Gemma Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo and have to admit it is a rather unique way to enjoy this grape!
Normally when you think of Australian Shiraz, you think of big, bold reds with intense flavors.
Shaw + Smith took a bit of a different approach with their Adelaide Hills Shiraz as the cooler climate in this region produced a much more delicate wine that was reminiscent more like a Pinot Noir and Grenache over its bolder Shiraz counterpart.
So if you are into something just a bit different for this grape (particularly lighter characteristics), this one is for you.
When it comes to white South Africa wines, our minds often go to the popular and expressive grape, Chenin Blanc.
But Momento took it one step further for this one with producing a unique blend using this popular grape alongside Verdelho (approximately 63% Chenin Blanc, 37% Verdelho). So while the Chenin Blanc character comes through primarily, the Verdelho adds a nice little twist in this one!
