3 Valentine’s Day plans at home with wine

Don’t take Valentine’s Day at home as something boring and imposed by the circumstances. It’s a great plan! At home, with the person you love and a good wine. What could be better?

And to make this special day perfect, we have 3 ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day at home, with a couple glasses to toast to the best that is yet to come. You can even use these ideas with anyone you love and share your day-to-day life with: your mum, a flatmate, a friend... Let’s drink to this 14 February!

Let’s start with our first idea! Cook a meal at home with a spectacular wine pairing. You can do this two ways:

1-As a surprise: if the other person leaves for a while (you could even send them out on an errand), take advantage and get cracking! However: remember to plan your menu first, have the wines and all the ingredients ready so you can prepare the meal in record time. When they come back, the surprise will be the best gift.

2-Couples time: another option is to make cooking the meal together part of the plan. That way, you can spend a great afternoon of food and wine while you prepare the best Valentine’s Day meal ever, with your favourite dishes.

In terms of the menu, there are loads of options to pair the dishes with some good wines (at least two different ones). But keep in mind the personal preferences of the person you’re sharing your table with and make something you know they’ll love, or make one of your favourite dishes together.

Once you’ve set the menu, it’s time to choose the right wines to go with it. In general:

- For finger foods, for example, including cheese: white wines like El Coto Blanco  are best with younger cheeses, and aged cheeses pair best with Crianza reds like El Coto Crianza.

- If you’re going for seafood, we recommend our barrel-fermented 875 m Chardonnay or El Coto Selección Viñedos Sauvignon Blanc.

- For red meat, a Reserva or Gran Reserva goes amazingly well, enhancing its flavour.

Want to know more? Which El Coto wine to pair with poultry, pasta, rice or dessert?  Don’t miss this article with all the tips you need!

Another romantic Valentine’s Day plan is to draw a bubble bath for that special someone so they can relax and unwind with some good wine. Of course, you can also share that moment if you want.

Remember to set the mood. These are stressful times and it’s important to make the moment perfect for both of you to completely disconnect and enjoy yourselves. So think candles, relaxing music and loads of bubbles! The most important part of this plan, though, is having a good wine close to hand (maybe on a stool or tray).

Which do you think would fit the moment best? We wouldn’t hesitate: a gentle, fresh wine. You could go for El Coto Rosado, our El Coto Semidulce or even the surprising 875 m red.

We haven’t been able to do any wine visits for a long time now, and in some places it hasn’t even been possible to try new wines at wine bars or restaurants. So we can’t think of much that would be better or more fun for a Valentine’s Day at home than setting up your own blind tasting.

Obviously this experience will be your “gift” to the other person because you will already know the wines, but we promise you can also learn loads when you start tasting.

For a blind tasting you need:

• At least 3 different bottles of wine to taste
• One glass per person for each wine you’re going to taste
• Something to cover the labels on the bottles so you don’t give anything away
• A mask so the colour of the wine doesn’t give you any clues
• Some snacks to go with the tasting
• Good luck!

If you want to know more about blind and open tastings, here are all the answers to your questions and some tips so everything will go off without a hitch!

This is a little extra that you could add to any of the plans, even for a family member or friend, this 14 February.

If the person is a wine-lover, you can always surprise them with a gift pack, like the ones we have on our website. And if you want to get a bouquet of flowers or other trinket to go with it, it’ll be perfect!