Yes, February needs a 29th day this year, just to squeeze in romance, movies, assorted crises, and more than one good drink.
Sometimes, all four come together.
BE ALL IN
For your spouse, suitor, companion, inamorata, inamorato, beau, paramour, heart’s desire, kindred soul, fellow traveler, boyfriend, girlfriend, inspiration, muse or combination thereof, there are pleasures of all kinds, some bottled, some not.
So, you don’t you have to drop four figures on the 2000 Krug Clos d’Ambonnay or the 1989 Chateau d’Yquem – though it’s almost certain that you could daydream about a love, current or past, for whom they’d be instantly uncorked, no matter the cost.
There are, however, scores of sparkling wines and dessert wines to go with the music of Feb. 14 and the real budget of the moment.
Try the nonvintage Graham Beck Brut (★★ $19). It’s creamy and a little citrusy, fresh and refreshing. This South African sparkler has finesse and flair. It’s celebratory.
A bit pricier and ready for a toast is the Monfort Riserva Brut (★★ $35), a charming northern Italian wine with hints of sweet apple and strawberry. The union is 80 percent chardonnay and 20 percent pinot nero. Very inviting, you can enjoy this throughout a light dinner.
Buoyant and bursting with bubbles: the Juve & Camps Brut Rose (★ $17), a food-friendly, pretty-in-pink cava that makes no demands while delivering floral notes, as well as suggestions of red fruit. You’ll also detect, appropriately, a trace of honey.
The 2016 Cuvaison Brut Rose Methode Champenoise (★★ $50) is vibrant, ambitious, and more complex. The wine is 70 percent pinot noir and 30 percent chardonnay; the result, harmonious and satisfying. You’ll enjoy the berry and cherry notes, plus tart apple and citrus accents.
Veering sweet, the 2017 Inniskillin Vidal Icewine (★★★★ $49, 375ml) brings together ugni blanc and seibel grapes from Canada in a tempting, peachy package wrapped with tropical fruit. Inniskillin makes classic dessert wines.
2017 Quady Essensia (★★★ $23), a gilded, full-bodied orange muscat treat from the San Joaquin Valley winery, offers tastes of pear and apricot, too. Delightful and reliable. Essensia is Valentine’s Day in vinous form.
BLENDS, COUPLES, SURPRISES
Paraduxx is part of the stellar Duckhorn portfolio. It focuses exclusively on producing big blends. But these aren’t the expected ones.
The 2016 Paraduxx Napa Valley Red Wine Rector Creek Vineyard (★★ $82) is a bold combo of 65 percent cabernet sauvignon and 35 percent zinfandel – a ripe, gutsy selection that brings together intense fruit and spice flavors, red fruit and berries, especially strawberry.
Sangiovese, at 57 percent, and cabernet sauvignon, at 43 percent, unite in the ardent 2016 Paraduxx Atlas Peak Napa Valley Red Wine (★★★ $82), a stirring, fragrant alliance loaded with red fruit, made more inviting via an herbaceous undercurrent. The cool-weather region yields a very lush wine that should mature for several years.
In the 2016 Paraduxx Howell Mountain Napa Valley Red Wine (★★★ $82), the blend is 65 percent cabernet sauvignon and 35 percent syrah. It boasts blackberry, pepperiness, and smoky qualities. A concentrated, tannic, well-structured number with lots of style.
And the most seamless of the four blends is the 2016 Paraduxx Napa Valley Red Wine Cork Tree Vineyard (★★★ $82), a silky composition of 60 percent Malbec, 35 percent cabernet sauvignon, and 5 percent merlot. Cherry, berries, some black fruit, and dried herbs star in the full-bodied, attractive wine.
All the Paraduxx wines will complement red meat, roasted, grilled, or braised, from rib roast and rib-eye steak to lamb and venison. Duck, too.
LESS THAN $25, WORTH MORE
Chateau Malescasse (★★★ $22), from the Haut-Medoc, is a full-bodied, robust cru bourgeois Bordeaux. The garnet-hued wine, a silky blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and petit verdot, uncorks balanced and lively with cassis, plum, berries, and herbs. It’s drinkable now. But the wine could mature for a decade. When you’re ready to open it, plan on serving lamb, filet mignon, or sirloin steak.
THE ACADEMY AWARDS WILL BE PRESENTED ON FEB. 9…
Before the Oscars and handed out, one more quiz for movie lovers and imbibers of all sorts.
WHILE WE’RE AT THE OSCARS
For “1917,” the visually spectacular World War I drama, Sam Mendes is the favorite to win the Academy Award for directing. It would be his second. He won his first for “American Beauty.”
Greta Gerwig was ignored for “Little Women.” Likewise, Josh and Benny Safdie for “Uncut Gems.”
But Martin Scorsese is nominated for “The Irishman,” a complex, reflective, autumnal, essential film.
In more than 50 years of making movies, Scorsese has been awarded one statuette for directing, earned for “The Departed.”
He famously, or infamously, has been denied for three of the greatest movies ever made: “Raging Bill,” “Goodfellas,” and “Taxi Driver.”
You also could argue with the Academy voters over “Mean Streets,” for which Scorsese wasn’t even nominated.
But, rather focus on the regrettable, toast the artist with a cocktail that’s appropriately powerful and splashed with red: Two ounces very chilled vodka, one ounce of Campari, a splash of cherry liqueur (optional), one half-ounce grapefruit juice, stirring all.
Call it a “Marty.”
ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ:
In order: 1. Unidentified drink, maybe whisky; 2. Jagermeister; 3. “Lotsa cream, lotsa sugar.” 4. Peach brandy; 5. “The Red Eye,” a hangover cure; 6. Dr Pepper; 7. Budweiser; 8. A Gibson; 9. Fanta; 10. Medium-dry martini; 11. Boilermaker; 12. Dow Port, 1913.
ABOUT THE BLOGGER
For 34 years, Peter Gianotti reviewed wines, spirits, restaurants, and books at Newsday. He twice won Press Club of New York awards for food writing. Before he became a food critic, Gianotti was a Washington correspondent, a financial writer, and New York City reporter for the newspaper. His books include “Food Lovers’ Guide to Long Island” and “A Guide to Long Island Wine Country.” Gianotti received his B.A. from Fordham University, where he taught journalism; and his M.S. from Columbia University, where he also was a Bagehot Fellow. Harry, his Creamsicle-hued assistant, prefers the bouquets of riesling and pinot noir.
PG RATED 