Nyetimber Rosé, Sussex, England NV (₤ 31.49, Waitrose) Consuming pink champagne on Valentine’s Day is, I realise, barely the most spontaneous or initial act of love. It is the beverage the Valentine’s industry tells us we can’t do without– a car for the wine business to victimize our insecurities and take a piece of that rewarding territory held by florists and greetings card companies. Well, cynicism be damned: of all the daft fabricated traditions on this daftest and most commercialised of joyful celebrations, pink champagne is the one I’m happiest to indulge. This is a style that has enhanced beyond procedure in the past twenty years. Winemakers have actually been treating it a lot more seriously than they utilized to, and making a lot more of it, too (today rosé accounts for 10% of all champagne production; it was a simple 2% in 2000). Something similar has actually taken place on this side of the channel, too: English fizz makers are mastering white wines with the sensuous pink tint and, in Nyetimber’s flawless case, stunning toppling red fruit flavours.Domaine Julien Sunier Wild Soul Beaujolais Villages 2020(bbr.com; robersonwine.com)Other seductive pink sparkling wines to beauty your cherished tomorrow consist of the pillow-soft, aromatic, mellifluous (and mellifluously called )Fuchs & Hase Animal Nat Rosé from Austria (₤ 20.40, peckhamcellars.co.uk); the punchy herby cherry-berry Co-op Cava Rosado Brut NV(₤ 6.95, The Co-op )and the plump, satin-textured and tropically fruit-fragrant Ruinart Rosé Champagne NV( ₤ 69, jeroboams.co.uk ). Do red champagnes count? Couple of would stop working to be won over by the easy natural beauty of Casa Belfi Rosso Bio Frizzante, which comes from Prosecco country, is made in the standard way where the red wine re-ferments in the bottle, and which has a gentle supple food-friendly cherry crunch and bite. For those looking for a Valentine’s without bubbles, in France the Valentine’s market would push you towards a bottle from a specific town in Beaujolais: St-Amour. Domaine Billards 2019(₤ 15.99)is a bright, berry-filled pleasure. However, while it may not have the caring name on the label, Domaine Julien Sunier’s Beaujolais-Villages bottling has a genuine smooth, slinky allure.Taste the Difference Gewürztraminer, Alsace, France( ₤ 9, Sainsbury’s )Can a white wine be hot? The term does get used rather a lot in the wine-selling and wine-writing world, although generally it’s as a bloodless, blokeish term of gratitude , rather than something more remarkably kinky. But some white wines truly do have a particular x-rated je ne sais quoi. There is, for example, something extremely hot about actually great pinot noir reds from Burgundy. That has a lot to do with their large silk-sheeted texture. However it’s also in the way these wines, particularly older wines, have something elusively animal in their scent, which gives them the very same type of mystical, essential pull that you find in truly excellent, handcrafted French fragrance. Something similar happens with Alsace’s gewürztraminer. When it’s young, it’s everything about heady, excessive rose-petal fragrance, as you discover in Sainsbury’s extremely appealing bottling. Attempt a mature bottle from an excellent manufacturer such as Zind-Humbrecht or Marcel Deiss, nevertheless, and you’ll discover yourself having a whole other, more adult multi-sensory experience.Follow David Williams on Twitter @Daveydaibach
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/feb/13/wines-to-add-some-sparkle-to-valentines-day