If you're planning a romantic evening on Valentine's Day à deux, à trois, à quatre or more (who knows?) champagne seems to be the obvious choice of wine, but where does the link between romance and champagne come from?
Here's a short run through of champagne's romantic history and a few tips for making this year's Valentine's Day that extra bit special.
In fact champagne has been linked to love and romance for centuries. Back in the mid 18th century a certain French cardinal, of all people, by the name of de Bernis used the imagery of a champagne bottle popping open to make very thinly-veiled erotic suggestions in a poem to his would-be mistress the Marquise de Pompadour.
She's the lady who famously said that 'champagne is the only drink that makes a woman more beautiful after drinking it than before' which is a pretty good line to remember for romantic occasions in any day and age.
She must have been quite a beauty because she soon became the mistress of King Louis XV, presumably much to the disappointment of Cardinal de Bernis, but at least he had champagne to drown his sorrows.
By the late 1700s in France the connection between seduction and champagne was well and truly established. Legend has it that the saucer-shaped champagne glasses called coupes were modelled on the the breasts of another famous French royal: Marie-Antoinette, who was the wife of king Louis XVI
They were a saucy lot back at the court of kings Louis XV & XVI, but in fact the earliest reference to the magical seductive qualities of champagne was by an Englishman called Sir George Etheridge as long ago as 1675, so perhaps the French don't know everything about the art of seduction after all.
There is a good reason why champagne can make you feel merry quite quickly, loosen your tongue and perhaps your inhibitions too. Unlike still wine which you have to take into the stomach before the alcohol is released into the bloodstream, with champagne the alcohol starts being released into your system when the bubbles burst in your mouth.
Champagne is also the only wine you can appreciate with all of your senses: you can see the bubbles rising in the long, slender glass, you can smell the rich aromas, taste the flavours and feel the cool sensation of the wine if you run your finger down the outside of the glass and, if you raise the glass to your ear, you can even hear the bubbles dancing and bursting - so champagne is certainly sensuous as well as sensual.
The effect was beautifully summed up in the novel 'Madame Bovary' by Gustav Flaubert:
"Iced champagne was served, and the feel of the cold wine in her mouth gave Emma a shiver that ran over her from head to toe."
You're probably going to want something to eat with your champagne, so what's it to be?
Well, strawberries and chocolate are two delicacies that spring immediately to mind and, apparently, scientific tests have shown that all three have a clear beneficial effect on your state of mind. If you saw the movie Pretty Women you'll remember that Julia Roberts used to love to drop a strawberry right into her champagne glass. Champagne purists might turn their noses up at this but, if you enjoy it, go for it, but I'd recommend using rosé champagne rather than white champagne.
For one thing the colour of rosé is enticing and romantic in itself, but the other reason is that rosé is a better complement to the strawberries.
This is partly due to the matching colour, but also because rosé champagne often contains a higher proportion of red grapes, particularly Pinot Noir, than the equivalent white champagne and it's these grapes that give the champagne those lovely aromas and flavours of red fruit, including strawberries, so the two together are a match made in heaven.
What about chocolate? Well, I hate to be a kill-joy, but chocolate and champagne really aren't that great a combination. It's down to you of course, but I think you'll get much more pleasure if you eat and drink them separately.
The reason for this is that chocolate is rich and creamy in texture and can be quite sweet to the taste. On the other hand, most of the champagne we drink is brut meaning that it has a low sugar content and is fairly crisp and fresh on the palate. These two opposites are best enjoyed on their own.
If you're absolutely set on eating chocolate with champagne here are a couple of tips that are well worth trying:
Try white chocolate instead of dark chocolate with champagne
Try a demi-sec champagne rather than a brut champagne
Demi-sec is richer in sugar and makes for a much more satisfying, smoother combination with the sweetness of the chocolate. You'll find demi-sec champagne on sale in most good wines stores
Whatever you chose, have a romantic Valentine's Day and remember what another Frenchman said about champagne. This time it was a famous gourmet from the 19th century by the name of Brillat-