There’s nothing quite like a candle-lit dinner for two at a fine-dining restaurant, with good food and a nice bottle of wine, to celebrate that most ancient of sentiments: love.
The classic St Valentine’s Day wine is champagne. It celebrates the emotion and all things nice, and is the perfect libation for your Valentine’s dinner.
Of course, champagne is expensive — good champagne more so. Most people know of only a few champagnes. Moët & Chandon Brut comes most immediately to mind, but there are many more brands worth a look:
Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger, Charles Heidsieck and Piper Heidsieck, Roederer, Pol Roger, and Tattinger, to name just a few. And top-of-the-heap (with the highest “burn-a-hole-in-your-pocket” factor) are the others from the Moët Hennessy stable: Veuve Clicquot, Krug, and Dom Perignon!
You could also go for a prosecco from Italy or a cava from Spain, or even sparkling wines from Australia (Green Point comes to mind). And how can one forget good ol' Sula Brut, which is now ubiquitous and affordable.
A good alternative for your Valentine’s dinner is a rosé (“rosay”) wine. Rosé wines are neither red nor white, but something in between, with some features of both styles: aromatic and light, but with some tannins; low in alcohol, and easy drinking. And while the best rosé wines are not necessarily cheap, they are certainly less expensive than champagnes.
More From This Section
The best-known rosé wines are probably from the Taval region of Southern Rhone, in France, where these pink-to-light-red wines are made from the Syrah or Grenache grapes, and famously released in the first week of November as Beaujolais nouveau. Indian hotels are likely to stock brands like E Guigal, Domaine Maby, and Chapoutier. Of course, rosé wines are also made by the older Indian wine companies: there’s the Sula Blush Zinfandel, as well as the Art Collection Shiraz Rosé from Grover, and Seagram’s Nine Hills Rosé, all priced at Rs 600-700 per bottle at retail, and perfectly quaffable.
An interesting third alternative is now becoming available: lychee wine.
Yes, a wine made from the lychee fruit found in India and South-east Asia, that is aromatic, off-dry and balanced, and tasting of — what else? — lychees! I find it reminiscent of a dry Riesling or Gewürztraminer.
The Luca Exotic lychee wine is made at a modern winery near Delhi by the improbably named Nirvana Biosys Company using lychees from Muzzafarnagar (a district in Uttar Pradesh famous for the fruit). Apart from being distributed pan-India, Luca Exotic is also exported, to Dubai, Japan and Germany.
Wines I’ve been drinking: India’s newest winery has just released its wines. The 500 acre Alpine Winery is located 100 km from Bangalore, off the Mysore Road. Famously, Alpine has retained Stephane Derenoncourt, one of the best-known winemaking consultants in the world.
Its Vindiva Shiraz 2011 (Rs 685 in Bangalore) is terrific, if a bit intense: a very dark red, full-bodied, and complex wine whose strong but firm tannins promise years of shelf life (but need aeration to become approachable).
Watch out for wines from Alpine. If this is what we get from its first harvest, then the later vintages are going to blow your socks off!
Alok Chandra is a Bangalore-based wine consultant