Valentine's Day, Aphrodisiacs, and Wine

Valentine's Day is coming up soon. A nice dinner with special wine and food with your significant other i'm sure would be greatly appreciated. But what wine and food to serve?

There are many foods that are purported to be an aphrodisiac:

• oysters on the half shell,
• asparagus,
• cheese, and
• chocolate.

There are more, but i'll give you a bit of info on these and some pairings you may want to consider. Oysters are an aphrodisiac due to their shape similar to a woman's genitals, but also because they contain zinc which which promotes well being. Try pairing oysters with some bubble. You may enjoy:

• Moreson, Blanc de Blancs Brut Method Cap Classic, South Africa. This is 100% Chardonnay. A very fine bubble. Red apple, citrus, light spice and bready flavour. Long finish. Nice.
• Cuillier Pere et Fils, Brut Selection Pinot Noir / Chardonnay, France. Fine bubble with green apple and pear aromas. Lemon and pear flavours. This wine was like enjoying a fresh pear. Very tasty!

The asparagus of course visually is a phallic symbol, and visual excitement can be part of being an aphrodisiac. Try pairing it with:

• Cremaschi Furlotti Pinot Noir from Chile. A wonderful bouquet of violets. Light bodied with some acidity. The floweriness of the Pinot Noir grape is an aphrodisiac in itself.
• Miguel Torres Cabernet Sauvignon Rose, also from Chile. This one has a bouquet of cherries, which continues on the palate. Some spiciness and a balance of acidity with sweetness.

In European culture, cheese is said by some to resemble the scent of a woman. Italian culture views cheese as an aphrodisiac, much like chocolate. Some cheeses would be a fresh goat cheese, a brie/camembert, and maybe a bit stronger cheese such as a Quebec Oka. Remember that cheese right out of the fridge has little aroma. Leave the cheese out for a few hours so that it warms up and those aphrodisiac aromas can come out. A few wines:

• Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rose from South Africa. Mulderbosch rose shows some typical cabernet flavours and aromas, but without the big tannins that one get with a red wine.
• Amayna Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. Citrus and tropical fruit flavours with some oakiness on the bouquet due to barrel fermentation. The wine had a very round mouthfeel with just the right amount of acidity to cut through the fat in the cheese.

Chocolate contains both a sedative, which relaxes and lowers inhibitions, and a stimulant to increase activity and the desire for physical contact. A red wine and/or a dessert red wine would go well here.

• Buller Old Fine Muscat, Rutherglen, Australia (dessert wine). Medium dark amber-coloured Muscat has aromas of toffee and marmalade. This Muscat has enough body and flavour to balance with the richness of chocolate (and chocolate cake)
• Poplar Grove Merlot, British Columbia 2005. Light garnet in colour. Cherry, cassis and leather nose. Big cherry flavour with some vanilla. Medium tannin and length.

I find that the roundness and fruitiness of Merlot and it's softer tannins make it a nice varietal to pair with chocolate. In my opinion 72% cocoa is about the right amount of cocoa for me. When you get into the 90% range, it gets a bit gritty.

I hope you are able to find some inspiration in these suggestions. Enjoy Valentine's Day!

Other Food and Wine

We all enjoy food with wine. Grilled steaks with a big Aussie Shiraz, or lamb chops with a BC Pinot Noir for example. But have you considered fruit or chocolate? Maybe as a dessert or for before dinner? Grapes are very refreshing to enjoy with wines. I usually have white grapes with white wine. The sugar and acidity in the grapes seem to bring out more flavour in the wine for me. Also chocolate can be fun. We all know that dark chocolate is good for you. While letting some of that 75% cocoa chocolate dissolve in your mouth, why not try a merlot? Merlot is fruiter and has softer tannins than a Cabernet Sauvignon. I have found that Merlot seems to go really well with dark chocolate. I think the chocolate gives the backbone or structure and the Merlot fills the structure with body. It's a nice pairing. Another pairing I like is a sweet wine, such as a Sauternes or a late harvest wine, paired with a sour fruit, such as raspberry. Experiment with other fruits. See what interesting wine/fruit combinations work together. Enjoy!

Wines of South Africa Release

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be invited to the fall release of South African wines at the Sutton Place Hotel. Andre Morgenthal from WOSA in South Africa was present to tell us about wine making in South Africa as well as lead us through a tasting of 9 wines. I was fortunate to meet Andre as well about 5 years ago when he brought over a selection of bottles for us to try as well.

A bit of background for those of you that are not too familiar with South African wines. This year South Africa is celebrating 350 years of wine making, which started in 1659. South Africa is known as the Old World of the New World as their wines share characteristics of both worlds. You get the more fruit which is typically representative of wines of the New World, but you also get the structure and terroir of the Old World. These wines usually do very well with food. During apartheid, South African wineries produced wines that the locals enjoyed, but did not translate well to the palates of the rest of the world. When apartheid lifted in the early 1990's, South African wineries had to quickly adapt their wine making style to what consumers world-wide enjoy. It took a few years to get there, and their wines are now very well received on the world stage.

There are approximately 700 wineries in South Africa with about 6800 labels. It is a very ancient land with ancient soils as there was no glaciation as their was in North America for example. So the soils are from very old weathered rocks and have very small areas of unique soils/climate (terroir) across South Africa. So you could try a Sauvignon Blanc for example from 7 different regions within South Africa and they could taste very different.

The wines we tried were:
- Moreson Blanc de Blancs Brut Method Cap Classic Sparkling wine NV
- Vinum Chenin Blanc 2008
- Graham Beck Gameskeeper's Reserve Chenin Blanc 2008
- Thelema Sutherland Sauvignon Blanc 2008
- Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay 2008
- Winery of Good Hope Pinot Noir 2008
- Golden Kaan Winemaker's Edition Shiraz 2004
- La Motte Shiraz 2007
- Glen Carlou Grand Classique 2005

Moreson is a small producer in South Africa. Cap Classic is South Africa's term for Method Champenoise (changing the still wine into sparkling wine in the bottle). It had a very fine bubble. Red apple, citrus, light spice and bready flavour. It had a long finish. Nice.

The Vinum Chenin Blanc was a light, bright lemon colour. It had smoky, woody, waxy, lemon aromas. Light/medium body, round mouthfeel, with oak and citrus flavours, and a spicy long finish. FYI, "Steen" is the South African word for Chenin Blanc.

Graham Beck is one of my favourite producers in South Africa. I have read that President Obama drank a bottle of Graham Beck NV Brut sparkling on election night. This chenin blanc was bright, light lemony coloured. Green pine, citrus, oak aromas. Round mouthfeel with oak, spice, tropical fruit and citrus flavours. I tried this wine again at the end of the tasting and the aroma completely changed which is cool. The greeness disappeared and was replaced by a lime peel aroma.

We had one Sauvignon Blanc in the tasting, which was the Thelema Sutherland Sauvignon Blanc. Sutherland being the name of the vineyard in Elgin. This wine had lots of green vegetal aromas, especially asparagus. On the palate I noted "saltiness" which was not unpleasant, but very unique as i've only tasted this before in sherry. It could be that the green vegetal and asparagus flavours were so pronounced it "tasted" salty. This wine had good acid and length.

The Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay was our last white wine in the tasting flight. This is a BIG chardonnay with lots of oak, buttery, vanilla, citrus aromas. Full bodied with nutmeg, vanilla, citrus and apple flavours. Round mouthfeel.

Our first red wine was the Winery of Good Hope Pinot Noir. This wine started off with aroma of violets, but later in the tasting the nose changed to cherries and spice. On the palate there were flavours of violets, roses, red cherries and a dry finish. A nice light bodied pinot noir.

Our next red was the Golden Kaan WInemaker's Edition Shiraz. This wine was deep reddish purple in the glass. Tar, burnt rubber and dark fruit on the nose. Cherries and good fruit. Smoky finish and a bit of spice.

Another shiraz we enjoyed was the La Motte Shiraz. This one was deep extracted purple in colour. It had a nice nose, with some spice, red juicy fruit. A round mouthfeel with LOTS of red fruit and some spice. Dry finish. Very nice.

Our last wine is Glen Carlou Grand Classique. Glen Carlou is one of the wineries from South Africa that I like alot. Their shiraz is very good and their chardonnay. The Grand Classique is a Bordeaux blend with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc. This one was deep purple in the glass. Lots of vanilla, dark sweet fruit and chocolate nose. Medium-full body with black fruit and chocolate flavours. Very smooth.

Some of these wines are not yet available in BC, but I do know that you can buy the Glen Carlou at Everything Wine in North Vancouver. Enjoy!