These four romantic dinner wine pairing ideas are for everyone who goes out on Valentine’s Day! Indeed those who can’t wait and celebrate love every day might also benefit from our experience.
Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for the restaurants, and, of course, there’ll be wine. Wonder how to impress your lover with food and wine pairing? Below are a few of our latest favorites.
Appetizers
We brought Barons de Rothschild Champagne Brut from our collection for dinner at Chart House in Portland.
We weren’t sure what we were gonna eat, but it was an excellent pairing for oysters and Shrimp Beignet. Champagne and oysters are a match made in heaven and hardly need an explainer of why they work together.
Shrimp Beignet is, in essence, a sort of a fish cake made into a ball. Barons de Rothschild cut to through the oiliness of Shrimp Beignet and added a citrusy component that works so well with crustaceans.
Rabbit Paté served in Q Restaurant is another excellent combination with sparkling wine. This time we paired it with Calvet Cremant de Bordeaux Brut Rose 2015. The savory and red berry flavors in this Cabernet Franc-based bubbles complemented the gamey flavors of the rabbit and balanced the fattiness of the paté. Calvet was powerful enough to withstand other components on the plate, like Dijon mustard and pickled veggies.
Main Course
Wild Sturgeon is a rare delicacy on the restaurant menus due to its limited availability, and we always travel to the Oregon coastal towns when it’s in season. Lucky for us, Bridgewater Bistro had a fresh catch when we were there.
We were surprised how well pan-seared sturgeon went with quinoa cake layered with sauteed onions and spinach. Unexpectedly, rich-textured 2017 Schatzel Nierstein Sylvaner from Germany was precisely the wine that this dish required.
This minerality-forward wine with delicate flavors of preserved lemon slices, green apricot, orange, and light almond bitterness added more complexity to the dish. Surprisingly, it paired with quinoa and greens just as well as with sturgeon.
Dessert
We try to avoid desserts at restaurants, but they got us if they have the beignet on the menu. It’s all one Italian restaurant’s fault that turned us into beignet aficionados.
We paired chocolate beignet accompanied by boysenberry jam with Ruby Port. This lighter red-berry dominant type of Port balanced the heaviness of fried dough and complemented chocolate and berry flavors. We felt like swinging (pan intended) between dessert and wine.
Well, now you have Valentine’s day or romantic dinner game plan. It might be hard to replicate in one restaurant. So you use it as an inspiration for your celebration of love.
It’s a safe bet to start with sparkling for appetizers; pair the main course with medium to full-bodied, dry white wine and finish with Port alongside the chocolate dessert or trade dessert for Port.
Please share your Valentine’s Day pairing ideas and follow us for more wine-inspired epicurean adventures.