Getting into the pink for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day.

Red heart shaped cards, and pink boxes of chocolates, and jewelry boxes filled with diamonds.

Romance. Roses. Strawberries dipped in chocolate. A Nora Ephron movie. Special dinners, amazing food, amazing drink.

Looks of love, and lust. Kisses, touches, hugs, holds, embraces, caresses, fondles, petting.

Whispers, pleas, laughs, sighs, yeses, purrs, moans, screams.

Hotel rooms, bubble baths, massages, candles, heavy sheets, rich comforters, big pillows.

Soft music playing, saxophone, piano, sultry soulful voice; smoky jazz or dirty blues.

An ice bucket, two glasses, a bottle of pink bubbly.

Hopefully, I didn’t lose you there. I know that the words “pink bubbly” are enough to cause more shrinkage in men than a swim in an ice cold pool.

Guys drink beer. Guys don’t drink frilly, frothy, or pink drinks.

But let’s be honest, most guys don’t buy cards, or candy, or flowers, or jewelry, or watch chick flicks on a regular basis either. Most guys are not particularly romantic, or given to extravagant displays of affection.

Valentine’s Day is the one day each year when guys go all out to show their gal just how much they love them, and hopefully have a night of lovemaking that transcends what happens most other nights of the year.

As long as guys are willing to do unusual things, either for romance itself, or to improve the likelihood of getting lucky – or the quality of the event – I would heartily recommend picking up a bottle of pink bubbly for Valentine’s Day night.

Champagnes and Sparkling Wines are often made from Chardonnay grapes, but in the pink or Rosé bubblies the red wine grape Pinot Noir is most often used. The Pinot Noir is crushed, and the skins are left with the juice long enough to impart a beautiful color, and more flavor and complexity.

Wine collectors, and drinkers of the best Champagne, pay more, often much more, for the Rosé Champagnes, or Brut Rosé, than for a non blush Brut Champagne.

Most folks upon tasting a Brut and Brut Rosé side by side blindfolded will choose the Brut Rosé. The cool thing is that any guys picking up a bottle of pink bubbly to share with their Valentine are going to look knowledgeable, confident in their masculinity, and much more attractive – all boding well for later that night.

The bonus is that you will likely find something delicious to share that you can come back to throughout the year, injecting a little Valentine’s Day magic into any night.

I tasted three pink bubblies so you can get lucky. That is how generous I am. Follow my lead, pick one of these three, or another delicious sparkler for Valentine’s Day night, or any date night, and make it special.

NV Korbel California Champagne Brut Rosé, 12% alc, 1.5% dosage, $10-$12

A blend of Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc and Gamay, this bubbly wine makes me smile just thinking of it. I grew up with Korbel Champagne. Almost a neighbor, Korbel brandy was in the liquor cabinet and Korbel Champagne was poured at events.

My brother and I tasted a lot of wine and bubbly growing up, and not wealthy we looked for the best Champagne or sparkling wine for the lowest price. There are certainly less expensive bubblies than Korbel, but most of the ones you know about taste terrible. There are certainly fancier more exquisite bubblies than Korbel, but most of them are incredibly expensive. It is in Korbel that I found a wine made in the traditional method, with more than a little care, that tastes good. In the case of the Brut Rosé, really good.

Located at 13250 River Road, Guerneville, CA 95446, in the Russian River Valley, you will find Korbel, with tours, tastings, and gardens for picnicking. I have sent countless people on Korbel’s tour. To make their Champagne, they have to do everything to make still wine, plus the extra steps to make it bubbly. The tour explains it all, and is among the best tours in California’s wine country.

The tour always winds up in the tasting room, where you can taste more styles of Champagne than you imagined exited, from very sweet to very dry. You will learn why the sweetest is labelled “extra dry” and, if you are like me, you may begin a lifelong love affair with Brut Rosé bubblies.

I need to stop here and explain that typically bubblies produced in Champagne France using traditional methods are referred to as Champagne. Bubblies made outside Champagne France using the same traditional methods are typically referred to as Sparkling Wines. Korbel unapologetically calls their bubblies California Champagne, and has for over one hundred years. I am fine referring to Korbel as such.

NV is short for Non-Vintage, which means wines made from grapes of more than one vintage were blended or that the vintage was not declared by choice or custom.

The first two things you note when pouring a glass of Brut Rosé are visual, the color and the bubbles. The Korbel Brut Rosé is light orange rose color, and the bubbles are tight and lively.

I need to talk about the three wine grapes that make up this Brut Rose. Pinot Noir is the heart of Burgundy’s red wines and Champagne’s Rosé Champagnes. Grown in the Russian River Valley, it produces beautiful flavors. Chenin Blanc and Gamay are largely used as blending grapes by the wine industry, but delicious varietal wines can be made from these grape varieties.

Cherry and strawberry flavors follow identical aromas. Fruit flavors abound, clean and straightforward. A nicely balanced wine, with the fruity sweetness balanced by acidity. The bubbles, color, and flavor delight.

I like the Korbel CA Champagne Brut Rosé, and I like that I can easily find it in many stores, even when I travel.

2005 Jeriko Estate Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine, Mendocino County, 12% alc, $49

100% handpicked for whole cluster organically grown Pommard clone Pinot Noir grapes from Jeriko Estate were used in this Sparkling Wine. America’s first Blanc de Noir created from 100% organically grown and certified organic Pinot Noir grapes.

Jeriko Estate wrote:

This Pommard clone Pinot Noir was sent directly to the press after harvesting, crushed & underwent a cool fermentation in stainless steel with minimum skin contact – this gives the wine its unique pale pink pearl color. The juice was then matured in stainless steel for 12 months. The wine was bottled & given a dosage of sugar & yeasts, & left for a second fermentation in the bottle for 12 months. The bottles were riddled & disgorged, before being given a final top-up of the same still Pinot Noir.

I tasted the Brut Rosé at Jeriko Estate’s tasting room this week with Tasting Room and Wine Club manager J.J. Cannon.

It should be noted that while Korbel is huge and their bubblies are available almost everywhere, there were only 180 cases of the 2005 Jeriko Estate Brut Rosé made and it is rarer in every way. More attention is given at almost every step, from grape choice and method of growing the grapes, to harvest and fermentation. This is a one grape, one vineyard, organic bubbly. It is special.

Apricot Rose in color, this Brut Rosé had lovely small beaded bubbles. A delightful aroma of peachy light raspberry and a delicate toasty mousse gave way to raspberry flavor and nice acid, balance, mineral and complexity.

J.J. told me that the tasting room would be pairing their Brut Rosé with Chocolates Saturday, February 12, 2011 from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm and offering all wines at 15 off for a Valentine’s Day event. Danny Fetzer, the winery owner, came into the tasting room and said there might even be chocolate dipped strawberries and Brut Rose paired Saturday at Jeriko Estate.

With only 180 cases produced, and limited distribution, you may have to visit or order it from the tasting room, the winery and tasting room is located at 12141 Hewlitt & Sturtevant Road, Hwy 101, Hopland CA 95449.

While at Jeriko Estate, I tasted another wine, and took more pictures, and will post them in a near future piece.

NV Champagne Bollinger Rosé, Grands and Premiers Crus from La Montagne de Reims and La Côte des Blancs, Aÿ France, 12.5% alc, 7-10 g/l dosage, $100

62% Pinot Noir, 24% Chardonnay, 14 % Meunier including 5% of still red wine.

I have friends who are wealthy through feats of visionary imagination or industry, and who could drink Bollinger nightly. I am not that fortunate, so being able to taste this was a treat indeed for me, although having tasted it puts it on my list of things to taste again, and again.

Pale pink and sunset salmon color, beautiful string of pearls bubbles rising uninterrupted.

Aromas of cherry and raspberry with baking spice and citrus, complex toasty vanilla nut and dried herb. Many layered flavor notes, rich, unbelievable profusion of notes, strawberry, candied cherry, raspberry, cassis, and toasty lees. Massive yet restrained by solid acid, incredible balance.

Champagne Bollinger is THE British Champagne, having been awarded the Royal Warrant by seven British Monarchs, been served at the nuptials of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and perhaps most importantly it is James Bond’s Champagne of choice, having been ordered by Bond both in Ian Fleming’s novels and in no fewer than 11 movies from Live and Let Die to Quantum of Solace.

Almost defying description, Champagne Bollinger Rosé is at once both robust and delicate. I get why Bond orders food with his Bollinger, this beautiful Champagne can handle being paired with many food and hold its own.

1,400 cases produced with almost worldwide distribution makes this a semi rare wine, you will have to seek it out at a finer wine shop or order it online.

So, there you go, notes on three pink bubblies. All were delicious, and of course the price asked allows for greater complexity in the bottle, so it really comes down to what you are looking for and what you are willing to spend. I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day filled with love and romance. I hope you get lucky. I hope you try a pink bubbly, which might help you with the love, romance, and getting lucky. Having tried it, I hope you love it as much as I do, try others, and see about enjoying Rosé Champagne and Sparkling Wines more than just once a year in February.

Other local Mendocino County Pink bubblies of note, not tasted this time around, but well worth a taste:

Rack & Riddle Sparkling Rosé $24

2006 Handley Cellars Brut Rosé, Anderson Valley Estate Vineyard $40

Roederer Estate Brut Rosé NV $25

Roederer Estate L’Ermitage Rosé 2003 $70

Thanks, and cheers!

DISCLOSURE: Brown-Forman sent me the Korbel CA Champangne Brut Rose, Terlato Wines sent me the Champagne Bollinger Rosé, and Jeriko Estate waived the tasting charge for their Jeriko Estate Brut Rose. Thank you all.

 

So, you don’t get wine writers or the wine industry? I know why.

I have a friend named Rob who isn’t really a wine guy. Rob isn’t alone, many people aren’t into wine.

The wine industry has allowed a perception that wine is more special than beer to permeate society. Working guys drink beer. Fancy pant elites drink wine.

I don’t know of any other industry that would purposely allow barriers to purchase to exist like this.

With wine, we’re not talking about unattainably expensive status symbol luxury items like Rolex watches, but there are many people who would more willingly buy a Rolex watch than a bottle of wine. With the Rolex, you know what you bought, an expensive, investment grade, time piece.

People just don’t know about wine, and not knowing are afraid to order it.

By allowing wine to be perceived as complex, a beverage for learned experts, the industry has fostered a fear in consumers. “I’m not James Bond, I don’t know a good vintage, or even a wine type; I’ll just have a beer, or a shot of tequila, or a Mojito, or a coke, or iced tea…anything but wine. I don’t want to look stupid in front of my friends or the waiter or the shop keeper.”

At the same time that Bacardi was marketing their rum through aggressive Mojito promotion, and selling more rum than ever, the wine industry was allowing fear to continue to be a wall most people won’t climb to try their product.

I could scream.

I read the blogs of many wine writers, pick up the wine magazines, keep up on marketing trends. 100 point wine ratings, 5 star ratings, indecipherable wine speak, Frasier Crane-esque reverence paid to a handful of producers of wines not available to the general public or too expensive to justify buying. Open a door or window and let’s get some air in here; most of what you’ll read about wine is from writers who have bought into the failed marketing of the industry – of absolutely no interest to anyone outside of the community of wine cognoscenti. Yawn.

Wine is so much better with most meals than beer, or iced tea, or coke, or just about any other beverage, but the industry is not getting that message across; it also hurts that restaurant wines cost triple what they would in a store and wine service is generally poor.

The next time you are in a nice restaurant, you will see many if not most people drinking beer or iced tea instead of wine. I can assure you that given a wine recommendation that would suit their meal better, and offered a glass of that wine at a reasonable price, most everyone would be drinking and enjoying both their wine and their meal more. I blame the wine industry for poor marketing.

Rather than be one of thousands of other wine writers bleating about the same unattainable cult wines, effectively bragging to my fellow wine writers about the wines I am drinking, I want to write about wine for the guy that would rather have wine with his meal but doesn’t want to feel like an ass.

Although wine knowledge is never ending, wine is simple. Let me say that again; Wine Is Simple.

Take the wine I drank my Christmas meal with, a 2008 Menage a Trois from Folie a Deux winery in Napa County’s St. Helena; while the wine goes for $12 a bottle, I just found the same wine on sale at Lucky’s supermarket for $8.99, so price needn’t be an obstacle to having good wine with food.

I appreciate that there are a wealth of wines in supermarkets that run from $8 – $20 per bottle, and some are good and some aren’t. I’ll try to taste a number of them and give you my recommendations.

Menage a Trois is a playful way of saying that the wine is a blend of three grape varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon, the king of reds, big, structured, dense, with black berry and currant notes, Merlot, Cab’s softer sister red, rounder, fleshier, with cherry notes, and Zinfandel, a brash, in your face red, with raspberry notes.

You have heard, “red wine with meat.” With three red wines in one bottle, this wine is a great wine for pairing with a host of meat dishes from hamburgers and hotdogs to pork shoulder and flank steak. Pasta in an Italian red sauce, Caesar salad; heck, I could drink this wine with just about anything and be happy.

Wine shouldn’t be about inviolable rules, but I will share a few “wouldn’t be a bad idea”s with you along the way.

The “wouldn’t be a bad idea” for today is not overfilling your wine glass just because you have the room to do so. My wine glasses are large, either 16 or 20 ounces, and I pour no more than 4 ounces in my glass. I get to swirl the wine, let it breathe, let the bowl of the wine glass collect wonderful scents, bury my nose in the glass, and inhale all the aroma and bouquet the wine has to give. A sniff and a sip, can change a bite of already good food into something almost transcendent. Doesn’t always, but, oh is it nice when it does!

I can get about six glasses of wine from a bottle at 4 ounces per glass. That means my $8.99 sale bottle of 2008 Menage a Trois is costing me about a buck and a half per glass.

The wine industry should be telling you that you can get a great wine to pair with food at home for about a buck and a half a glass.

That’s a lot more valuable information to most consumers than knowing about another garage winery whose entire release is sold out but just got a 10 page write up in a major wine publication after scoring a perfect 100 points in a possibly not blind tasting.

I’ll be visiting Fetzer and Bonterra in Mendocino County, doing some wine tasting close to home this week, hopefully I will be able to make some more recommendations. I also want to taste some of Topel Winery’s wines, they are also from nearby, but their tasting room is in Healdsburg, so tasting for me will have to wait a bit. I also should be seeing some wine accessory samples arrive this week that a distributer said they would send; I’ll try those out and let you know what I think. I’m also going to try cooking polenta a different way, and I’m going to make another batch of involtini this week. Lots of things to write about, I hope you’ll keep checking in.

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If you do have the time, and are near Healdsburg, CA stop into the Topel Winery tasting room and taste some wines before year’s end. They have a 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Grace at $130/case ($1.80/glass) , 2004 Hidden Vineyard Cabernet at $190/case ($2.64/glass), and 2005 Cuvee Donnis Syrah at $150/case ($2.08/glass). These prices are discounted 43 – 51% per case, promo codes are “Grace”, “Hidden”, and “Donnis”, and the sale only runs through the end of December.

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Edited to add: A friend, and reader of my blog, Shannon let me know that the 2008 Menage a Trois was $6.99 at Costco. Seriously, at $1.16 a glass, this wine costs less per ounce than the bottled water I bought at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA at the beginning of this month. Buy it, pair it with meat. Thank me later.