A MAN’S GUIDE to SURVIVING FEBRUARY 14
Tis the most dreaded season of the year for all us men. Valentines! Better to accept that you’re unlikely to buy the “˜right thing’ and do the best you can. Such as planning and cooking supper with heartfelt wines. Seeing as how Valentine’s falls on a Monday this year, may I suggest you stay with a weeknight menu, such as pasta ““ but add some soul? Soul is sex in disguise.
Get in the mood with Bottega Prosecco (that’s sparkling) and paper-thin, melt-in-the-mouth, shavings of Parmesan Reggiano (that’s cheese). This is how they start evenings at the big champagne houses in France. Bubbly wine and salty cheese do exciting things for the palate.
Barbera is the most earthy, rustic of Italian reds. One of the few remaining “˜real’ wines in the world. Good women prefer realness over~ glitz. Make your best tomato sauce and smother the pasta with Reggiano shavings. Feel the rich cheese making love with the rustic wine. Very Italian!
Buy some good chocolate (not hard to find this time of year) and have with Brachetto. A little known sweet, spritzy red you went out of your way to find. More refreshing and fun than rich ““~ and awfully good for keeping the senses in play around ten on a Monday night.
Part of the fun of a three bottle evening is you might have enough leftover to do it all again the next night! The first wine recommended~ is at regular LCBOs and the next two are Vintages.
Write and tell me how it went.
BOTTEGA Prosecco “˜il vino dei poeti’, Italy 897702 $12.40
LA GIRONDA 09 Brachetto d’Acqui, Piedmont. Italy 188045 $17.95
LA GIRONDA 06 Barbera d’Asti, “˜La Gena’, Piedmont. Italy 188037 $16.95
