Valentine's dinner

Every year for the past 3 or 4 years, my wife and I have opened a bottle of Sunstone Eros to enjoy w/ dinner. Whether it's taking it to a restaurant or opening it at home. So while I was finishing up preparing the meal we opened the 2000 Sunstone Eros ... first impression was the color. It had faded greatly to a smokey, muted hue that I think a lot of aged wines get (at least from my limited experience with 8 year old wine!) The flavor was great ... it still had a bit of fruit and very little tannins. It's definitely not a wine that you can hold onto for 25 years, but it seemed to be at it's peak or just passing it. Fantastic timing to pop it open.

And to follow that up we needed something to enjoy w/ dessert! So we opened a bottle of 2005 Michele Chiarlo Moscato d'Asti Nivole. Now for the $12 this cost and BevMo it's fantastic. The bubbles are just an added bonus! Light orange citrus notes and it complimented the chocolate lava cakes wonderfully. It's not too sweet a dessert wine, so it can go with food. Some dessert wines are dessert just in themselves, but this is a very nice one that can go with all sorts of sweets, fruits, or cheeses.