Missouri-made Valentines

It’s late night on the 13th of February, just a quiet mid-winter Friday. All is well with the world. Then, “Oh, &%$#!!!,” tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and you totally forgot. How about giving him a six-pack from the all-night gas station? Maybe she’d like a gift certificate from a 24-hour fast-food drive-thru? Only if you want to sleep on the couch until Easter. Thankfully, 24-hour supermarkets are everywhere these days, so you can save face by getting your Valentine a bottle of great wine. I have been very gratified by the support that our markets have given local wines: Most of the larger grocers carry a sizable selection of Missouri, and even a few Illinois, wines. So which wine to give? I have always felt that sparkling wine is the most romantic of all beverages. We are fortunate to have numerous local wineries producing sparklers. St. James and Stone Hill wineries both have beautiful, sweet, pink carbonated wines, and Mount Pleasant’s 10 Bucks is a value-priced Asti Spumante alternative. (Wines labeled sec, spumante or, obviously, sweet will all have residual sugar.) If drier bubblies are your thing, look for anything labeled brut, the international descriptor for sparkling wines with no sweetness. Mount Pleasant, Stone Hill and Crown Valley all produce very high-quality bruts. Some folks like sweet wines, and the Catawba grape is perfectly suited to this style. Many will be labeled simply by the name of the grape, but there are dozens of proprietary labels, such as Pink Fox from Les Bourgeois, that are both inexpensive and very popular. When looking for a sweet wine, don’t forget about Missouri’s port-style wines. St. James Winery now produces good wines simply labeled Chardonel Dessert Wine (aka white port) and Norton Dessert Wine (aka red port). Better yet, for the perfect Missouri Valentine’s Day, use the wine at a quiet dinner at home. Pair a local bubbly with a local cheese; have a dry, crisp Vidal Blanc or Chardonel with Ozark trout or catfish. For a main course, a beautiful grilled bison steak will be totally enhanced by a glass of Chambourcin. Finish the evening with your choice of chocolate dessert served with a Missouri-made port or sherry. If you must do the traditional chocolate thing, why not pair a complementary wine with it? There are two basic rules for wine and chocolate: big red wines with dark chocolate, and fruity, sweeter wines with milk chocolate. Norton and Chambourcin have enough power and density to balance the non-sweetness of dark chocolates. Sugary wines do not always work well with sugary chocolates, but the wine should never be less sweet than the chocolate. White chocolate (which foodies and intense chocoholics will refuse to call chocolate) has much lighter and softer flavors, and it pairs well with a sweeter sparkler. Even if you totally forget the gift on Valentine’s Day, you can be a hero by planning a romantic Hermann weekend (lots of bed and breakfasts in town) the following week. On Feb. 21 and 22, the six wineries of the Hermann Wine Trail will host the Chocolate Wine Trail. Each participating winery will serve a chocolate dessert paired with wine. Just don’t forget a card on the 14th. Certified sommelier Glenn Bardgett has overseen the award-wining wine list at Annie Gunn’s for the last eight years.