9 Wines To Woo Your Valentine

Restaurants and bars are stocking up for standing room only crowds. Couples and friends don't just celebrate Valentine's on February 14th. Many go out just before and just after hoping to avoid crowds and score coveted reservations. Others prefer a more intimate celebration at home. If the latter describes you, here are 9 wines to woo your Valentine this week and all year long.

Lets start with some luscious, versatile red wines.

Submit to Submission Wines from California if you like your reds fruit forward. This pinot had notes of vanilla and made me want chocolate covered cherries.

Submission Red Blend is a juicy combo of zinfandel, grenache, malbec and petite sirah. Try it with spaghetti in marinara sauce to recreate the dining scene from the cartoon "Lady And The Tramp".

The Cabernet is rounded out with some merlot and given some spice and structure with petite verdot. It has some mocha and dark fruit for versatile food pairings. All are $19.99

The name alone makes this an ideal wine for Valentines. It's from Kathleen Inman whose own love story intersects with wine. She met her husband while she was working in a Napa Valley tasting room. Their shared passion for viticulture lead to establishing the family’s eponymous winery.

This is a unique blend of pinot noir from Russian River Valley and grenache from Alexander Valley. The grapes are fermented and aged separately before blended and bottled. The result is a wine that is fresh and fun with lots of red fruit like pomegranate. It is balanced with pleasing acidity and a nice long finish. $73

There is something about sparkling wine, Champagne that screams, maybe whispers romance. By its nature, sparkling wine is celebratory. In this case, we are celebrating love. There are so many sparkling wines on store shelves, but we are going to begin with a go big or go home bottle.

You don't have to be a wine connoisseur to know the name Dom Pérignon. This one is a vintage rosé with a gorgeous label and it's a special one.

Makers call this vintage quintessential of a Dom Pérignon Rosé. I have not tried it but the tasting notes from Chef de Cave Vincent Chaperon read, "Raw power: the red of the pinot noir is radiant and vibrant with aromas of raspberry, fig, strawberry, and cherry, harmonized with the delicate mineral elegance of the chardonnay.” $465

In the more affordable range is this sparkling wine of pinot noir from the Inman Family Wines Estate Olivet Grange Vineyard. The 2023 vintage uses a small amount of barrel-aged estate Pinot Noir from the previous vintage to reduce bitterness and add texture. $80

One more sparkling wines to woo your Valentine comes from J Vineyards. It's a new collaboration with visual artist Alexandra Grant and her art and design initiative, grantLOVE. It looks gorgeous on your table or in a gift bag.

The new sparkling California wine is has a lively nose full of red fruits. It's dry, with layers of that red fruit and brioche. Definitely good with food as well as sipping. You can only get this direct from the winery so place your order ASAP. $50

Italy is a country known for romance. Based on that alone, I need to include some affordable Italian wines here. Alto Adige is one of my favorite regions. It's unlike any others in the country, in the Italian Alps, bordering Switzerland and Austria.

The wines from here tend to be vibrant and fresh. Pinot noir is often called pinot nero and if you have not tried them, it is time.

This pinot noir is a great example of wines from this region. It smells like raspberries, blackberries, and cherry. The wine is surprisingly fresh with raspberries, pomegranate and bright cherry. The finish has a smooth spice to it. Have it with a decadent mushroom risotto. $19.99

From Sicily comes this white wine made with zibbibo, yes it's a grape and it's often used for dessert wines. But not in this case. This wine is beautifully aromatic. It has some juicy peach flavors, a little citrus and makes me salivate a little bit.

The winery suggests opening it and watching the rom-com Anyone But You. It's based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which takes place in the Sicilian city of Messina. Sounds like a fun evening in with some seafood pasta, grilled veggies or a cheese board. $18.99

Cheers to celebrating love, whether it is the romantic kind, the friendship kind or the love of food and wine kind.

*Enjoy these wines to woo your Valentine and please drink responsibly.