It’s easy to find the perfect wine for Valentine’s Day if you follow these tips

Are you celebrating Valentine’s Day at home this year? Possibly your Valentine is coming round expecting to be wooed with fine food and accompanying wine? I will leave the culinary advice to Mark Moriarty, but I do have ideas on what wines to serve.

Obviously, restraint is called for; a drunken partner is not an attractive sight. Half bottles are one option, but the range available is quite restricted and prices high relative to the cost of a bottle. A half bottle of sparkling wine followed by one of red wine would be an ideal if expensive option.

[ Mark Moriarty’s foolproof and fast dessert recipes to turn you into a Valentine’s heroOpens in new window ]

Rosé is romantic and a natural choice for Valentine’s Day. It has the advantage of being one of the most food-friendly wines of all, and therefore a great choice to drink throughout the meal with multiple courses. Pale dry Provence rosé is fashionable, but virtually every other wine region is now producing decent inexpensive wines.

Sparkling wine always adds a note of sophistication and excitement, and like rosé wines, goes with a wide variety of dishes. You could go a step further and crack open a bottle of sparkling rosé. I have some Champagne stoppers which helps to keep the fizz in for a few days, but most bottles will keep until the following day.

Celebrate Galentine’s with these two variations on rosé

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Two blended wines from Aldi, including an orange option

Silky, smooth and sensual with delicate raspberry and red cherry fruits, pinot noir goes perfectly with salmon, tuna, chicken and many other lighter dishes that suit the occasion. It is also usually low in alcohol too.

If you are serving chocolate at the end of a meal a small (and I mean small) glass of Port will provide the perfect partner and will be a great way to round off an evening.

Bouvet-Ladubay Excellence Crémant de Loire Rosé, NV

12.5%, €27

An refined sparkling wine with a fine creamy mousse, piquant redcurrant and plum fruits and a dry finish.

From Whelehan’s, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin

Château La Coste Rosé 2024

13%, €34.50

An elegant refreshing pale rosé with refined strawberry and redcurrant fruits and a saline note on the finish.

From Thomas’s Foxrock, Co Dublin; Searsons, Monkstown, Co Dublin; Brown Thomas (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick); Terroirs Dublin 4; Grapevine, Dalkey, Co Dublin; The Corkscrew, Dublin 2; Barnhill Stores, Dalkey; JJ O’Driscoll, Cork; MacCurtain, Cork