If you are looking for something to pop or to sip to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your sweetheart or Gallentine’s Day with your girlfriends, Long Island has no shortage of fantastic wines that are sure to please any palate.
Let’s start with the bubbles.
At a celebration in January, we opened a bottle of Pindar’s 2020 Cuvée Rare Champagne alongside a popular bottle of prosecco. While not staging a competition, really just making sure to keep the bubbles flowing, the Cuvée Rare Champagne was the clear favorite. Dry but not overly so, this wine is surely a crowd-pleaser.
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The Cuvée Rare Champagne is crafted using the classic méthode Champenoise. This means the bubbles are produced in the labor-intensive, classic way, the same as Champagne. The second fermentation, which creates the bubbles, occurs in the bottle. In the case of prosecco, the bubbles are formed in a tank prior to being bottled. This wine is produced from 100% pinot meuniére grapes. Hints of apples, a notable Long Island flavor, and shortbread keep this wine tasting fresh. The wine retails for $39.99.
Would you prefer to put a little pink in your Valentine’s Day celebration? Wolffer Estate has got you covered. Noblesse Oblige 2020 is a stunningly exquisite, sparkling rose, also produced in the classic méthode. It is crafted from a combination of chardonnay and pinot noir grapes. This sparkler is perfect for those who love very dry Champagne or sparkling wine.
Quick primer on dryness in sparkling wines. The basic range you’ll find on store shelves is: Demi sec, which is the most commonly found of the sweeter sparklers, following that is dry, then extra dry, then brut, then extra brut, the dryest usually found on the store shelves. Those very familiar with Champagnes know there are also wines noted as brut nature or brut zero, which are rare and the dryest, as well as the sweet doux.
Noblesse Oblige is rated as extra brut and it is extremely dry. It is a fantastic pairing wine and translates easily from appetizers to your main course. It is especially lovely with seafood. The color is delicate salmon pink. The mouth-feel is filled with a deliciously fine mousse, tiny bubbles, and wonderful fruit notes of fine ripe pears, some quince, and rose petals. Brioche and elegant creamy yeast with fine, toasty hints round out its flavor profile. It is well structured with great concentration. The fruit is balanced by vibrant acidity, fine tannins and characteristic minerality with a long, dry finish. This wine retails for $40.
For those extending dry January Wolffer has two wonderful wines for you to enjoy. First, the Wolffer Spring in a Bottle Rosé. This wine was enjoyed at a recent event and garnered great reviews from those abstaining from alcohol. The biggest compliment was that it had great flavor without being overly sweet. Oftentimes, those who wish to pass on alcohol are left to drink what tastes like juvenile sparkling grape juice. This elevated alcohol-free sparkler left people feeling like they were not missing out on anything.
Not a rosé fan? I absolutely love the Wolffer Spring in a Bottle Blanc de Blancs. Despite its name, I personally enjoyed this as an alcohol-free alternative all summer. It’s fresh, enticing, and pairs wonderfully with Asian cuisine. These two alcohol-free wines retail for $20.
Moving on to a still wine is the Wolffer Fatalis Fatum 2020. This wine is an exceptional Bordeaux style blend.
The six varietals that can be included in Bordeaux wines are: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet Franc, petit verdot, malbec, and occasionally carménère. The Wolffer Fatalis Fatum 2020 is created with 48.5% merlot, 38% cabernet sauvignon, and 13.5% malbec. To be an actual Bordeaux wine, the wine must also come from the Bordeaux region of France. However, having been fortunate enough to sample many wines in the Bordeaux region, I can confidently say that this Bordeaux-style wine will not disappoint.
The wine is lush and intense, with wonderful dark fruit notes of cassis and raspberry, roasted nut flavors, licorice, coffee, and dark chocolate. While this wine will pair well with red meat, it is absolutely the wine you want to pair with your decadent dark chocolate. It also sips beautifully on its own, no food required. If you want to show yourself some self-love this Valentine’s Day, treat yourself to this wine retailing at $40.
