Traditions of the heart that many cannot resist on Valentine’s Day are chocolates, wine, bubbles and strawberries. Whether you prefer red or white, still or bubbly, dry or sweet, within all categories there are wines that seem to pair well with chocolate.

Some think that chocolate goes well with dry red wine, while others disagree. Some believe that strawberries and champagne pair well, while others disagree. The disparity is due to the subjectivity of taste. As they say, to each their own. The only thing that matters is what you personally like.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some chocolate and wine suggestions.

I think the most enjoyable wines with chocolate are off-dry (very fruity, but not sweet) red wines. Fruity wines such as shiraz from Australia or zinfandel from California are good choices.

• The Layer Cake Shiraz 2008, $13.99, has lots of sweet blueberry and blackberry, bing cherry flavors with sweet spice and licorice.
• Layer Cake’s big bolder brother is Barossa Jack 2008, $26. It’s a little richer on the palate with more complex layers of dark sweet fruits, baking spice, a hint of tobacco, with a chocolate-covered cherry finish.
• A less intense fruity-style red is Candor Zinfandel , $17.99, from Paso Robles. It has lots of raspberry, red cherry with sweet vanilla spice and a hint of pepper.

A classic pairing with chocolate is port. You can choose a ruby port that is intensely laced with sweet black and red fruits or a tawny port that has delicious flavors of caramel, butterscotch and a tasty nuttiness. For me, ports and dessert wines partner beautifully with chocolate.

With any pairing, romantic or otherwise, it is all about bringing out the best in each other, and that’s what chocolate and strawberries do for one another. Strawberries and chocolate are great partners because the acidity and fruitiness of the strawberry matches well with the sweetness and creaminess of the chocolate.

I love off-dry champagnes and sparkling wines with my strawberries and chocolate. A recent discovery is Vin du Bugey-Cerdon Patrick Bottex’s “La Cueille” Rose, $23. Yeah, it is a mouthful to say but light and zesty on the palate. It is an unusual nonvintage sparkling red wine from France, a blend of 80 percent gamay with 20 percent poulsard. It’s slightly sweet with a lovely taste of wild strawberries and only 8 percent alcohol. If I’m not mistaken, this wine is aiming to be our best-seller for Valentine’s Day.

When drinking champagne with strawberries, make sure the bottle is a demi-sec champagne. Demi-sec has a little more sweetness than a brut and therefore will bring out the sweetness of the strawberries better than a dry brut.

Since we are talking about strawberries and chocolate with wine, I would be remiss if I did not mention a banyuls, a delicious red dessert wine from France. Les Clos de Paulilles, $26, is a delicious example. This wine will show you the perfect balance between acid and fruit, just like strawberries and chocolate.

If you care to explore the flavor combination between chocolate and wine, join us at The Wine Stop from 5 to 8 p.m. this Friday for a complimentary tasting. Also, we have large hand-dipped, long-stemmed chocolate-covered strawberries available Friday through Sunday. Call to reserve some: 946-3707.

Thank you Boreas (God of the North Wind) for blowing the trades back. I think this is the hottest summer I have endured since I arrived in Hawaii 17 years ago. All this heat makes me yearn for icy cold beverages. So to combat the heat and quench my thirst at dinner, I often enjoy chilly, refreshing, tropical-delicious white wines, vibrant dry roses, and occasionally, when I have the time to make it, sangria.

I really like sangria in the summer because I like ice in my drink when it is exceptionally hot. The first time I had sangria that I really enjoyed, I was sitting in an outdoor café in Miami Beach. It was the middle of August, and it was scorchingly hot. The Sangria glass was very large and packed with lots of ice, fruit, and wine mixed with other spirits. When I received the bill, I was even more grateful that the sangria was quite delicious and rejuvenating because it helped me to overcome the shock of paying $23 a glass, wisely the menu did not list the price.

Ever since then I have enjoyed trying different sangria recipes. I could live 100 years and try a new recipe every summer and still not have tried all the different variations of Sangria. Many interesting recipes can be found in “101 Sangrias and Pitcher Drinks” by Mixologist Kim Haasarud. Most recipes call for fresh fruit, fruit juice, simple sugar and a liqueur or brandy.

Here is a simple red wine sangria recipe that I enjoy

1 bottle of dry yet fruity red wine
1 cup pitted cherries sliced in half
2 red apples
1 cup of any seasonal berries like raspberry, blackberries or blueberries.
½ cup Chambord
¼ cup cherry brandy
Simple Syrup to taste
Mix all together
Orange Juice Ice cubes
Orange Slice for garnish
Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving
 
I find it interesting that when you Google sangria, many bloggers suggest that you use the cheapest wine you can find. Yuck. By now, most people have come to understand that even when you are cooking with wine, it should not be selected by cheapness. It should be a good value drinkable wine.

For red wine sangria I like to use the Luzon Verde Mourvedre ($8.99) from Spain made that is made from organic grapes. It displays wonderful flavors or black cherry, wild berries, peppery and vanilla spice with smooth tannins and a strong backbone of acidity that makes it a perfect canvas for Sangria.

Lasbrisas ($10.99) from Spain makes a great base for white wine sangria. This wine is a blend of verdejo, viura, and sauvignon blanc. It’s a light-bodied, crisp wine with tropical flavors of passion fruit and the citrus flavors of grapefruit and lemon peel and endowed with mouthwatering acidity. White wine sangria tastes best with citrusy fruits like lemon, lime, pineapples, green apples and oranges.

My favorite sangria is made with a dry rosé wine. I love watermelon and for me watermelon tastes best in a rosé sangria. Try the Salento Negroamaro ($7.50) from Italy.

It’s a tasty rosé with lots of cherry and strawberry flavors with deliciously refreshing acidity. Add lots of fresh watermelon and some watermelon schnapps and then you too will know my delight.

The main thing about sangria to remember there are no rules or limits on the types of ingredients you can use. Just be adventurous and creative. And, whether you mix these wines into your sangria or drink them alone they are sure to please without breaking the bank.

Wow…to actually sit, sip, and learn with Michel Rolland in Hawaii. I am happy to know that after many years in the wine business that I can to get elated about meeting a world acclaimed winemaker. I sure do love this business. O.k. enough about me Michel and his wife Dany are as nice as can be. Michel obviously loves talking about wine and is never short for words. 10 wines in all were presented from The Rollad Collection. The stars for me included the 2004 Chateau Le Bon from Pomerol. Though 2004 was not considered a great vintage this wine’s aromas take you to Pomerol. With a bit of funk, floral and coffee grinds on the nose the palate delivers a well balanced approachable wine, medium acid, supple tannins, dark cherry, expresso, spice, toasty oak, dried flowers and a hint of chocolate. I know…it sounds a little New World and I guess that is why the French prefer the 2005 vintage. Another wine that I found very exciting is a South Africa ( S.A.) 2004 Remhoogte Estate. I am very excited about this wine because it is one of few S.A. wines I’ve tasted with pinotage that I actually would want to drink a whole bottle of. Don’t get me wrong I am sure there are great S.A wines but we certainly don’t get many great ones in Hawaii. This blend of Merlot, Cabernet, and Pinotage delivers and an intense nose of meatiness and fruit with that pinotage stamp of tar. The palate delivers complex flavors of dark cherries, plum, dried wild berries, with secondary flavors earth, tar, and mushrooms. The tannins are supple and the finish lingers for a while. The combination is yummy and for $40 that an awful lot of complexity for the money. Lastly the 2003 Yacochuya Malbec from 6000 feet elevation in Argentina. Rich in color density, intense nose, candied fruit and wild berry fruit on the nose. On the palate wild berries with a touch of leafyness, dark fruit, chocolate, carmel and coffe finish. Lots of structure, tannins and acid that screams to you that this wine is perfect for aging.

Don”t be tricked this October by waiting until December for the issue of Wine Spectator’’s Top 100 Wines of The Year to look for great wines to enjoy during the holidays. Instead, shop early and seek advice from your local wine buyer at your favorite wine store.

There are so many wines on the market that many consumers become confused and uncertain how to shop for wine. A trend showing a tremendous spike in sales indicates that consumers are shopping for wines based solely on ratings and scores listed in wine publications. I don”t believe this is a positive trend. Just because a wine has a great score does not ensure that you will enjoy it. The wine rater is scoring the wine based on their taste, not yours. Also, be careful of shelf takers in grocery and warehouse stores that show high scores, because more than likely the rating is referring to the previous vintage, not the one you are about to buy.

Ratings can also make a wine vanish quickly from wine stores. Highly rated wines (90 points and above, based on a 100 point scale) will be gone from the shelves before you get the current vintage rating from publications such as the Wine Spectator, The Wine Advocate or Wine Enthusiast. Your chances are even slimmer in finding wines rated in the top 10 of the Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of The Year issue released in December.

The reason why rated wines will be gone before you read about them is because wholesale wine buyers like myself can easily predict before the publication is released, which wines will be highly rated based on the taste profile of the wine, our knowledge of the winemaker and where the grapes are sourced from, and the fact that we know the palate and taste preferences of the raters (for example James Laube or Robert Parker).

I regret when my favorite wines get high ratings because then demand will drastically increase and so will the price. The price will go up 99 percent of the time because of the demand, and not because of quality. For example, Joseph Phelps Insignia 2002 was rated Top Wine of the year according to Wine Spectator in 2003 and went from $140 to $190 to $220 a bottle in just two vintages. Very rarely will you find a California winery able to charge more than $200 for a bottle of wine without the wine receiving high scores for previous vintages. If you think $200 a bottle is a lot to spend for a bottle of California red wine I agree; however, Joseph Phelps Insignia 2004 (94 points W.S.) only arrived to the Island a few weeks ago, and already I”m almost sold out.

October marks the shipping of many great new wines to Hawai”i from wineries around the world. By the end of the month, most of the valued new vintages, as well as highly allocated and rated wines will be here for the holidays, yet many will be gone before festivities begin. Juan Gill 2005 ($16.99) is one that arrived this month that scored 90 points last year by Robert Parker. This vintage is not yet rated, and when the score is released, it will be gone from the shelves.

I know this because I have already tasted it, and I am telling my customers about it and, yes, I do predict it will score at least 90 again by Parker.

That is why it is best to shop for wine at a wine shop where the wine buyer is available for questions, knows your taste and understands exactly what you are looking for in a wine. Sure, sometimes it is just easier to shop based on scores or shelf takers, but imagine being able to speak directly to a wine buyer who can give you the inside scoop. Be careful of someone who makes a recommendation to you without having any idea of what you like because taste is very subjective.

So don”t get tricked this October by waiting for the ratings to come out; consult your local wine store now where the buyer is readily available to tell you what’’s new and exciting. If scores are important, then let them know so they can lead you in the right direction. If you want my specific recommendation based on your taste preference or on points, well, you know where to find me.

Happy Halloween, and cheers!