Toast your Valentine with great wine and bubbly

A luscious red wine and delightful bottle of bubbly are the obvious choices to celebrate Valentine’s Day. But are they too obvious? No, they are not. Well, they are not if you pick the right wines.

Ideally you want to court your love, impress your friends, or enjoy a night alone by starting with something sparkling and then move on to a red to go with your homemade ricotta gnocchi – or frozen pizza, you do you! Here are some choice priced-just-right options to help mark the occasion, any occasion.

Valdo Floral Spumante Brut Rosé ($16)

A work of art from bottle to bubbles. Valdo recruited Italian designer Fabrizio Sclavi – a lover of bright, bold and beautiful spring and summer colors and patterns – to dream up an illustration for this bottle. Spumante is a sparkling Italian wine often associated with grapes grown in the northern region of Piedmont, but Valdo chiefly harvests the grapes for this Rosé vintage a thousand feet above the Mediterranean on the slopes of Sicily’s great volcano, Etna (così romantico!). The results yield a tender taste with a floral aroma. Bonus points for matching fashion and flavor.

Prosecco Treviso DOC Brut ($15)

Veronese winery Pasqua has a whole “Romeo and Juliet” collection if you really want to get romantic (or tragic) this Valentine’s Day. The four wines in the collection all come with labels inspired by Juliet’s balcony in Verona where she called out for her Romeo. And all are priced under $20. Possibly the standout of the bunch is the Prosecco. Its aroma is as assertive as Romeo – flashy and fruity. On the tongue, it cools to something more akin to Juliet’s fragility. Put the two together and you get an inexpensive but complex and pleasing wine with just enough tang.

Bell’Aja Bolgheri DOC Superiore ($30)

Bold and dry with an ideal balance between smooth and tannic, soft and acidic, Bell’Aja Bolgheri DOC Superiore might be the unique splurge you’ve been looking for. Made mostly with Merlot from the oldest parcel of the company’s vineyard in Tuscany with a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon tossed in, it tastes exactly as its heritage would suggest: a full-bodied Italian red. It will work with your ricotta gnocchi, but would be better if you kicked up the brine, maybe a pasta puttanesca with plenty of capers.

San Simeon Cabernet Sauvignon ($25)

Does every Valentine’s Day wine have to be Italian? Your instinct is to say yes, right? Mine too. But in a shocking twist, the wonderful bottle isn’t Italian, or French, or even from Napa. Paso Robles, the not-for-long underdog of California wine regions, produces excellent wines. This offering from San Simeon is more proof. The Cab is a deep, big, rich red that somehow manages not to be overly dry. Kick off the night pairing it with nice hard cheese or some arancini.