And if you feel like I feel, baby … then come on …
From time immemorial we’ve been eating certain foods and drinking certain things to, well, to get it on. I’ve yielded some truly phenomenal wine pairing questions over the years in this exact area and, suffice to say, I’ve even seen the results about nine months later. So, ah, let me grove you …
Chocolate … the ultimate modern aphrodisiac and also the hardest to help people with putting a wine too. Throw out the idea that chocolate and 90% of dry red wine actually go together - because they don’t - and get with the idea that there are wines out there that do the trick just right. If you’re doing anything with chocolate; go with a Brachetto like the Angelo Negro Birbet. It’s sweet and fruity and slightly bubbly and if it wasn’t made for putting with chocolate then abandon all hope because all is lost. Seriously, this is just about the best thing ever with chocolate: from the uber sweet milk chocolate kind to the darkest, most bitter, single origin chocolate - Brachetto is it. If you really want to, ah, take it all the way home: take 1/2 cup dried tart cherries and 1/2 cup of the wine, plump them over low heat in a non-reactive pot until the cherries have absorbed all the wine, let cool to room temperature, meanwhile melt 8 or so ounces of good dark chocolate, stir in the cooled cherries, make small mounds on a parchment lined tray (or a non-stick tray) and let cool all the way. Pour a couple glasses of the Birbet, eat the choco-cherries and let the spirit move you …
Oysters … It’s not just that they look suggestive but Oysters are packed with zinc and zinc is key in regulating certain hormones (yeah, those ones!). Head down to the Fish Guys or Coastal and pick up a dozen of the freshest Oysters they have and pick up a bottle of the Marnes Blanches Cremant. The honeysuckle and mango notes in the wine will combine with the brininess of Oyster - you and your love will be find out exactly how sweet and wonderful life can be …
Apricots … So Shakespeare was always fond of throwing in a ton of sexy allusions and apricots come up a lot in his works and while apricots are a more folkloric aphrodisiac they can be downright sexy. Especially if you take a whole mess of them, pick through them to find the biggest and most whole, stuff them with a dollop of mascarpone (whip in just a touch of sugar to the cheese), then dip the end in melted white chocolate, let the chocolate dipped apricot cool in the fridge and serve with the Foris Moscato. Yeah Moscato gets a bad rap but this one isn’t quite as cloying as most and has a truly delightful zippy fizz to it. The combo of the fruity, rich and suggestive apricot with the Moscato will let your love come out.
So there. Three grove worthy fun ways to take everyday aphrodisiacs and put them with some forward thinking wine to enhance the mood. Go get sanctified, let the spirit move you, and above all: go get it on.