Liquid Gifts

By / Magazine / December 16th, 2013 / 7

I’ve grown bored giving my girlfriend flowers and chocolates for Valentine’s Day. Any thoughts on a liquid alternative?

While I’m no Dr. Phil, I can pretty much guarantee that if your significant other reads this question — and recognizes you as the one who wrote me — you won’t have to worry about what to get her this time next year. She’s going to be with anyone other than you my friend, smelling roses and popping bonbons.

Since you’ve asked for my two cents I’m more than happy to oblige with one word: Champagne.

And I’m not talking a faux version from Spain or wherever, or a non-vintage, around $60 dollar version put under cork and crown in the Champagne region either. I’m talking a big gun, a bottle of memories somewhere around the $200-range with a name that both James Bond and Jay-Z would recognize.

If we’re on the same page here, in my mind you only have three choices: Moët & Chandon’s muscular Dom Pérignon (the passion juice Sean Connery’s Bond sipped in Goldfinger), Bollinger’s rich and nutty Grande Année (Daniel Craig’s 007 bubbly of choice) or Louis Roederer’s fresh and sophisticated Cristal (the rapper’s delight).

I know, it will put a dent in your bank account, but if she’s never thrown back a bottle of serious champers she’ll tell tales of her first time for years to come with you as her liquid hero.

If your budget is a tad more pedestrian pick her up a bottle of rosé for a little V-Day colour coordination. Though pink wines get pigeonholed as a warm weather back deck quaffers, they can be serious sippers that transcend the seasonal slight.

Richer versions from France’s Tavel and Provence regions are worlds away from the tutti frutti flavour profiles of many mainstream blush wines and make a nice combination with chocolate. That is, when you finally figure out that a little candy on Valentine’s Day is really dandy.

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fresh, funny and down-to-earth, Peter Rockwell is the everyman's wine writer. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia he's worked in the liquor industry for over 30 years and has written about wine, spirits & beer since graduating from the School of Journalism at the University of King's College in 1986. His reviews and feature articles have been published in Tidings, Vines, Occasions, Where and on Alliant.net to name a few; he has been a weekly on-air wine feature columnist for both CBC-TV and Global Television and his wine column 'Liquid Assets' appeared weekly in two of Nova Scotia's daily newspapers, 'The Halifax Daily News' and 'The Cape Breton Post.' Today Peter's irreverent answer man column 'Bon Vivant' appears each month in Tidings Magazine and his weekly 'Liquid Assets' column is published across Canada in editions of the METRO newspaper. When not drinking at home, and at work, Peter travels the globe looking for something to fill his glass and put into words.

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