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The thing about Valentine's Day is that it's ONE day a year.
Not that that's a bad thing. Who couldn't use a whole day devoted to Love with a capital L?
It's just that there should be some way to keep those rose-colored classes on at least a little longer. (Beyond 12:01 a.m. on February 15, that is.)
That's why we're suggesting Valentine's Day be treated as an experience, not just a one-and-done affair. Stretch it out. Savor the details. Make the pleasure last. If love follows suit, all the better.
At BOKX 109 American Prime, inside Hotel Indigo in Newton, they're offering a special romantic getaway spa package for the entire month of February. Click here for details.
You could also scale it back to a week-end luxury package, which includes two seats for dinner (a $150 value) plus a one-night stay for two (so you can take the elevator home after dinner) plus a welcome gift of Champagne and strawberries plus breakfast for two the next day. All for $295. Details are here.
Or you can luxuriate in just the dinner which, at four courses with four different wines from Domaine Chandon Winery for $75, is a lovely and sparkling way to celebrate your Love with a capital L.
Just remember to make it last.
WHAT: Valentine's Day Prix Fixe Menu and Packages
WHERE: BOKX 109, inside Hotel Indigo, 399 Grove Street, Newton
WHEN: Dinner between Friday, February 12 and Sunday, February 14
COST: $75 per person for prix fixe menu (excluding tax & gratuity)
RSVP: Required. Call 617.454.3399.
DAILY TIDBIT:
Wine industry analysts announced yesterday that California wine shipments dropped in 2009 for the first time in 16 years. (California produces 90% of the wine made in the United States.) Overall wine consumption in the US, however, is up 2.1%.
Hats off to chefs who go the extra mile -- or, in this case, the extra 4,108 miles -- to find the source of the food that is their passion.
That's what Justin Melnick did eleven weeks ago.
Melnick, the chef at Tomasso Trattoria in Soutborough, took a hiatus from his day job to pursue the nature and the craft of Italian food.
He did this where it absolutely needed to be done.
In the Veneto.
In Piedmont.
In Tuscany.
And other places in between that, frankly, only he knows and understands.
Sunday night is his public debut back in the kitchen at Tomasso, and you get the sense that he is jonesing to show off just a little bit. (Check out the full menu here.)
And for the finishing touch?
Each of Melnick's Italy-infused courses will be paired with wines that GO, in the way that wine and food go together in a country that does eat without drinking and doesn't drink without eating.
The prodigal son has returned home.
And he's brought the goods.
WHAT: "Welcome Back Justin" Dinner
WHERE: Tomasso Trattoria, 154 Turnpike Road, Southborough
WHEN: Sunday, January 31 at 5 p.m.
COST: $75 per person plus tax + gratuity
DAILY TIDBIT:
"Vin Santo," which translates literally to "holy wine," is a traditional style of dessert wine. The freshly-harvested grapes (like Trebbiano, or sometimes Sangiovese) are dried on straw mats in a warm and well-ventilated part of the house or winery, often under rafters or staircases. Additional complexity comes from aging the wine in non-oak barrels made from chestnut, juniper, or cherry wood or a combination of those.
It's tough to find rustic French food that's more rustic (or more French) than roast chicken with haricot verts, truffled mac and cheese, and a cheese course instead of dessert.
It's also tough to find four different glasses of wine on a restaurant menu that will cost you $38 or less for the lot of them.
Toughest of all is to find that food and those wines in a casual, comfortable location that lets you savor it and linger.
Yet all of that -- four courses of rustic French food PLUS four glasses of wine (one for each course) -- is exactly what you get every single Wednesday at Sel de la Terre's Long Wharf location.
For $38 all in.
We don't really get the math on this one. But that's for Sel de la Terre's accountant to worry about, not us.
So is it tough to find the perfect way to celebrate your cruise right on out of mid-week Wednesday?
No. Not tough at all.
WHAT: Wine Wednesday
WHERE: Sel de la Terre (Long Wharf location), 255 State Street, Boston
WHEN: Every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Click here for weekly themes.
COST: $38. Seriously. Call 617.720.1300 to reserve your spot.
DAILY TIDBIT:
Pisco from Chile comes from the muscatel grape and it is "transparent, virtuous, and serene as the angelic force that emanates from the land," writes Isabel Allende writes in her memoir, My Invented Country. "Pisco is the prime ingredient of the pisco sour, our sweet and treacherous national drink, which must be drunk with confidence, though the second glass has a kick that can floor the most valiant among us."
Some Champagne bubbles race each other up and over the sides of the glass.
Some gurgle up like water just coming to a simmer.
Others, more subtle, sigh with the relief of smoldering lava.
Such is the mystery of Champagne.
So many variations, and textures, and reasons to keep experimenting.
Normally we drink Champagne to celebrate -- a birthday, a new year, an anniversary -- but Saturday night, at the Tour de Champagne Boston 2010 in the Charles Hotel, we're turning the tables.
Instead of using Champagne to celebrate, we'll be celebrating Champagne.
We'll be celebrating Champagne's variety by tasting samples from 20 different houses.
And we'll be celebrating its versatility, as chefs from all over Boston offer food samples to pair with Champagnes ranging in style from delicate to robust. (Click here to see the list of Featured Champagnes.)
All of which makes it unlikely that this event will resolve any of Champagne's mystery for you.
But that is a risk we think you're willing to take.
WHAT: Tour de Champagne Boston 2010
WHERE: Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
WHEN: Saturday, January 30 from 7 to 10 p.m. Fin de soirée afterward at Regatta Bar.
COST: $115 general admission, $150 VIP admission
PURCHASE TICKETS: Click here.
DAILY TIDBIT:
"Champagne! In victory one deserves it. In defeat one needs it." -- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right." -- Mark Twain
"There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of Champagne." -- Bette Davis
Last week -- in honor of BOKX 109's "It's Summer Somewhere Wine Dinner" coming up this Thursday night -- we asked you to tell us about the best summer you spent someplace other than Boston. (There's still time to submit your entry -- click here for details.)
Maybe it was at the beach. Maybe it was in the mountains. Maybe it was the four-foot swimming pool in your Uncle Dave's backyard in Cleveland.
Wherever it was, and whatever you were doing, just thinking about it eases the pain of the weather outside, even if it's just for a few minutes.
Why not take it a step further?
The Summer-Somewhere dinner at BOKX 109 highlights wines from places that are nice and warm right now -- western Australia, that is, and Marlborough, New Zealand -- whose white wines are sunny and bright and all but shimmer with nuances of flavor.
Which will be just the thing. For the beginning of the meal, anyway.
But sooner or later you will have to think about going back outside and braving the reality of our winter.
That's why the two main components of the Summer Somewhere meal feature heartier fare -- beef au poivre, to be exact, and Karma BBQ'd Poisson -- paired with wines that are meant to spread warmth through your veins.
Check out the full menu here, and then start thinking about the best summer you spent right here, right in Boston, right in the place we all call home.
Remember something good? Tell us about it. It could win you two tickets to BOKX 109's It's Summer Somewhere Wine Dinner on Thursday night.
100 words or less about your best summer experience in Boston. By 5 p.m. tomorrow. Winner only will be notified the morning of Wednesday, January 27.
Sometimes the best experiences happen elsewhere, like at Uncle Dave's in Cleveland. But sometimes they happen right in our own backyard, too.
WHAT: It's Summer Somewhere Wine Dinner
WHERE: BOKX 109 American Prime Restaurant, Inside Hotel Indigo, 399 Grove Street, Newton
WHEN: Thursday, January 28 at 6:30 p.m.
COST: Normally $75 per person excluding tax and gratuity
CONTEST: Submit your entry of 100 words or less before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26 for a chance to win two tickets.
DAILY TIDBIT:
The wineries of Clare Valley in Australia, as a group, bottled their 2000 Rieslings under screwcap. In May 2001, wine companies of New Zealand formed the Screwcap Wine Seal Initiative, which lists the following advantages to using screwcaps: no cork taint, no more sporadic oxidation, recycling, and aging potential for both white and red wines.
Red White Boston is co-sponsoring tonight's New Zealand wine tasting at the Boston Center for Adult Education.
There will be fifteen wines. All are very indicative of that lovely place. All will be presented in a casual, get-to-know-our-personality kind of way.
Tickets to the event have been sold out for days now.
Except for two last-minute ones that we held back, just to give away to a RWB reader today.
Here's how to get your hands on them: tell us, in 150 words or less, what you think would be the most fun and helpful format for a wine tasting.
Think outside the box. There's got to be a better way than shuffling around a big room, glass outstretched, fumbling with papers and lists, with little connection between what you taste and what you really remember.
That's why we're experimenting with the "speed dating" format tonight. The idea is to spend a few minutes with each major New Zealand grape varietal, hearing their stories, tasting one by one, deciding which ones strike your fancy, and which ones you should definitely steer clear of.
Because if wine information -- fleeting as it sometimes seems to your memory -- means something to you personally, it's way more likely to stick in your head.
That's our idea. What's yours?
Before noon today, email us your best idea for a fun, helpful wine tasting. (Winner only will be notified by 1:30 p.m.)
It may well get you a free pass to tonight's event, plus a front-row seat to your idea made real.
WHAT: Win two tickets to "Speed Dating" with New Zealand Wines
WHEN: Tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Boston Center for Adult Education, 122 Arlington Street, Boston
HOW: Tell us in 150 words or less what what you think would be the most fun and helpful format for a wine tasting. Deadline is noon (today, obviously), and winner will be notified by 1:30 p.m.
COST: $0
DAILY TIDBIT:
Your response to yesterday's contest -- to tell us your top three choices for new partners for Red White Boston -- was overwhelming, and humbling really. We have our marching orders, that's for sure! We'll be reaching out personally to each of your suggestions, and hope to offer you very soon a selection of new wine experiences from all over town. We can't thank you enough for your help and advice. Stay tuned to see how it all works out!
This one is completely self-serving.
We have two tickets to the Boston Wine Expo this week-end, and we want to give them away.
The question is how.
And, while we're at it, how we can also improve the service that Red White Boston offers to wine lovers all over Massachusetts.
Our answer?
Send us your list of top three restaurants, bars, wine shops, etc. that you'd like to see on Red White Boston. And send it before 5 p.m. today.
What businesses around town can we reach out to as a partner? Who's doing something with wine that's creative and fun and appealing?
We really want to know what you think. (That's the self-serving part.)
Winner, who will be chosen randomly from the entries, will be notified by 7 a.m. tomorrow. They will pick up their tickets at the will-call window. (That's the give-away part.)
Help us help you.
To drink better, the way you want.
WHAT: Win two tickets to the Boston Wine Expo
WHEN: Either Saturday, January 23 or Sunday, January 24 from 1 to 5 p.m.
HOW: Send us your list of three restaurants, bars, or wine shops you'd like to see on Red White Boston. Winner will be chosen randomly. Deadline is 5 p.m. today.
COST: $0
DAILY TIDBIT:
Heard about all the restaurants around town who are holding events to benefit the earthquake victims in Haiti? Some of our favorites: UpStairs on the Square, in association with Partners in Health, is hosting a day-long fundraiser on Monday, January 25 (complimentary community breakfast, prix fixe lunch, family meal for dinner); Stella Restaurant is hosting guest chefs (from Radius, Prezza, Pigalle, Dante) for a night of passed hors d'oeuvres and jazz on Tuesday evening, January 26; and for the next month Rialto will donate 100% of the proceeds from their vegetable side dishes to Partners in Health.
The thing about Valentine's Day is that it's ONE day a year.
