EXPLORING VA WINES
DOUG FABBIOLI
Images courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
It’s Valentino Time!
S
t. Valentine was lucky enough to be associated with love, romance and passion of the heart. It seems to me that wine has been the beverage most associated with romance going back for a few hundred years. And of course Champagne or sparkling wine is at the top of this upper tier of special beverages for imbibing with your loved one. I am certainly pleased that my industry can have such a revered position in our culture that folks think of our products when planning to celebrate love. Chocolates often go along with this celebration as well. Somebody locally has been known to make a Raspberry Merlot that goes quite well with chocolate, but I can’t quite remember who that might be. But how did wine get connected with romance more than any other beverage? Is it the passion in the vineyard of
growing the absolute best fruit for the year? Is it the timing and commitment to pick and process that fruit right away with a structured plan and execution in order to capture and accentuate Mother Nature’s fruit flavors? Is it the patience of aging and monitoring so as to bottle the wine at the right moment knowing that it will evolve further once it is aging in the bottle? Or is it not because of the vintner at all? The presentation, the shape of the bottle, the “pop” of the cork, how it makes two people feel together, or how it can enhance a special dish, is most likely what makes wine so special. There are a few wine movies out there that capture the romance without trying to define it. A Walk In the Clouds with Keanu Reeves was a truly romantic movie with some fabulous scenes and cinematography. The grape stomping scene was filmed at Haywood Winery in Sonoma Valley, back when I worked with Peter Haywood and his wines. The movie is a bit cheesy but certainly has the heartstrings played to the upper octave. Another film
Publishers Note: The Raspberry Merlot referred to in this column is the brainchild of the author and we can attest to it being a fabulous accompaniment to chocolate.
Old Town Crier
of romance and wine is A Good Year with Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard and Albert Finney. It’s fun and campy, but in a good way. The third movie in my repertoire of wine and heart is Bottleshock with Chris Pine and Alan Rickman. Based on a true story of a blind wine tasting that opened up the eyes of the world to California wines in the 1970’s, the romance is more with the wine and the lifestyle than the girl. This one tends to be my favorite because it brings in the father and son relationship, the winery issues of finance, quality, teamwork and mentoring. I tend to pass over Sideways as a preferred
wine and romance movie because the two lead characters were such immature tools through most of the movie it was hard for me to get past them. Also, Merlot has never fully recovered from Miles’s badmouthing of the varietal. Although Virginia Madsen’s soliloquy about what she tastes in a great wine is the best nod to our vineyard team I have ever heard. So you may not have expected an edge of Roger Ebert from me, but take these suggestions to your Netflix
account, pull out a special bottle from the rack, and snuggle in with your romantic partner for a cinematic wine ride. It is our pleasure to play your heart strings!
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