Perfect Valentine's Day wine and food pairings make a meal more memorable

Valentine’s Day Food and Wine Pairings That Will Impress Your Date

Whether you’re planning on cooking a romantic meal from scratch or you have dinner reservations at an upscale restaurant, a fine bottle of wine can make your Valentine’s Day celebration all the more memorable. Thoughtfully planned Valentine’s Day food and wine pairings are a simple way to personalize this holiday and create lasting memories with the person you love. 

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The best Valentine's Day wine ideas should reflect your personality as a couple.

Valentine’s Day Wine Ideas for Every Type of Celebration

My idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day wine is generally either vintage Champagne or aged red Burgundy. However, last year, we decided to try something a little different. We chose a bottle of 1961 Château Prieuré du Monastir Del Camp Rivesaltes–a truly special wine that had fascinating flavors of fresh citrus and dried fruit. Serving decades-old Grenache was an unexpectedly great Valentine’s Day wine idea because it made the evening much more memorable. My spouse and I have shared dozens of bottles of Champagne together, but we’ve only had one bottle of 1961 Grenache from the Languedoc.

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Giving wine as a hostess gift

How to Give Wine as a Hostess Gift

For Christmas one year, my mom invited her childhood friend to stay over for a few days. As a gesture of gratitude, my mom’s friend brought her the most thoughtful gift: a beautiful wine basket filled with my mom’s favorite Champagnes, including bottles of Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame and Perrier-Jouët. Not only was the gift attractively packaged in a beautiful wicker basket, but the wine itself was of spectacular quality. Although my mom appreciates fine wine, she rarely buys it for herself, so the gift allowed her to enjoy the bottles she loves for the first time in years.

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Sauternes, Champagne, and port all make great Christmas wine.

The Ultimate Guide to Christmas Wine

Hosting Christmas can be a challenge—not only do you need to make sure there’s enough wine to go around, but you also have to choose those wines carefully so that they appeal to everyone. As a wine enthusiast, you might have a tradition of drinking aged Bordeaux on Christmas Eve, while your uncle prefers California Chardonnay. Even if you’re invited as a guest to Christmas, it’s customary in some families to bring along a bottle or two of wine to share.

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Hosting a New Year's Eve wine tasting party can be a great experience

How to Host a Memorable New Year’s Eve Wine Tasting Party

For much of my life, New Year’s Eve celebrations revolved around dancing, fireworks, and flutes of Champagne. However, in the past few years, I’ve made wine a much bigger part of my holiday celebrations. It all started when I was invited to a friend’s house for a formal New Year’s Eve dinner party. I brought along a magnum of 2001 Ridge Monte Bello to share with everyone. As the night wore on, I noticed that several of the guests had pulled their chairs over to my side of the table hoping for a refill. They’d never had Ridge wine before and wanted to learn more about the producer. This gave me an idea: what if I hosted a New Year’s Eve wine tasting party?

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A great start to a Christmas wine basket is one red wine and one white.

Why You Should Make a Christmas Wine Basket for Everyone on Your List

A wine collector I know buys dozens of bottles online around the holiday season, and over the years, he’s become acquaintances with the UPS driver who drops off the packages. They often have conversations about their favorite bottles of wine while he signs for the deliveries. One year, my friend decided to get the UPS driver a Christmas wine basket to show his appreciation for handling the deliveries with such care. He chose three bottles of wine that he thought the driver would enjoy and gave the basket to him during one of his usual deliveries. The driver was thrilled with the unexpected gift and the thought that went into it.

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How to Create Champagne Gift Baskets from Scratch

For the wine enthusiasts in your life who seem to have everything, the most memorable gift is one you can make yourself. Rather than buying them yet another waiter’s corkscrew or monogrammed glass, you can give a curated Champagne gift basket unlike any they’ve seen before. Even if the person on your gift list has a fully-stocked cellar, a carefully-selected basket of fine Champagne and accessories will make their holiday season unforgettable. These baskets also appeal to casual wine drinkers, so you can make one for nearly anyone on your gift list this year.

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The best holiday wines of 2018 are Sauternes and Champagne.

The Best Holiday Wines of 2018: Celebrate the Season in Style

Three years ago, I was invited to a New Year’s Eve dinner party with a small group of close friends. I knew that I wanted to bring a bottle of wine, but I was having trouble deciding what type to bring. I assumed that everyone else would be bringing the usual Champagne for New Year’s Eve, so I crossed that off the shortlist. I wanted to choose a wine no one else in the group would think to bring, like New-World Pinot Noir, Riesling, or Torrontés. I eventually decided on a bottle of Rhys Pinot Noir, and it turned out to be the perfect choice for the event. The wine paired beautifully with our food and it was a nice change of pace from the sparkling wine everyone else brought.

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