HAPPY MANUFACTURED HOLIDAY---OOPS--I MEAN VALENTINE'S DAY

Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, originated as a Western Christian liturgical feast day honoring one or more early saints named Valentinus, and is recognized as a significant cultural and commercial celebration in many regions around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country.

According to some accounts, Saint Valentine of Rome was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. During his imprisonment, Saint Valentine healed the daughter of his jailer, and before his execution, he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.

The day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). 


THE GREAT VALENTINE'S DAY MYTH---

THE WORST MATCH EVER—WINE AND CHOCOLATE

Wine Expert and Chairman of the CIA Wine Institute Karen MacNeil says---It may sound romantic—even inspired—but as marriages go, wine and chocolate are a match made in hell (or in the depths of the marketing department). Yes, Valentine’s Day is coming up. But unless you want that great cab you’ve been saving to taste like two buck chuck, don’t drink it with chocolate (Even good chocolate).

Chocolate is an extremely powerful, profound, and complex flavor. In its presence, most wines are reduced to tasting as bland as tap water or worse. Chocolate’s deep bitterness accentuates the tannin in cabernet sauvignon, making the wine taste severe and angular. Chocolate’s rich fruitiness blows away the graceful nuances of pinot noir, making the wine taste swampy. Chocolate and chardonnay? Only if you want the chardonnay to taste like lighter fluid. Especially high on the revolting scale? Riesling or sauvignon blanc with chocolate.

I recently asked a dozen Napa Valley winemakers to tell me the worst food and wine combination they’d ever had. At least half of them mentioned their wine paired with chocolate. Winemaker and co-owner Pam Starr (Crocker & Starr) said, “If you need to eat chocolate, get yourself a cup of coffee; enjoy the chocolate. But don’t ruin my wine with that decadent dark stuff!”

There are, however, two wines that I think do taste good with chocolate—Vintage Port and Malmsey Madeira, both of which are sweet and fortified.

In the end, the dominatrix chocolate needs a partner more powerful and opulent than herself.

HOW TO REALLY CELEBRATE---SEE ANDREA MARCOVICCI'S SHOW

Andrea Marcovicci

As for me, it seems that almost every Valentine's Day I celebrate with the singer Andrea Marcovicci. She always does such a great show at the Gardenia in Hollywood. Twenty-five years ago she proposed from the stage on behalf of a gentleman in the audience to his beloved. Hmmmm. Might something happen again, 25 years later????