Valentine's Day

I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. I really don't like the idea that on a certain day of the year, certain industries have decided that I'm supposed to spend a lot of money professing my undying love for someone who I love equally as much on every other day of the year. It's so much harder to express it consistently throughout the year, it feels like a bit of a cop-out to nominate a single day to show love and let people off the hook for the other 364 days.

On the plus side, it is a great excuse to pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly. Since my husband and I pretty much otherwise ignore Valentine's Day, we decided to splurge on our bottle, and bought the Louise 1990 from Pommery, a swish champagne from a wonder year.

The champagne was the most beautiful colour when we poured it - such a dark amber-yellow that it was almost salmon. My husband dubbed it 'sunset-coloured'. It was also everything that you expect a very good bottle of champagne to be - smooth and creamy, with very fine bubbles and a sweet-apple flavour. Not a trace of bitterness, and stood up equally well to our grilled steak, apple pie, and chocolate truffles.

But can you sense that I wasn't over the moon?

Don't get me wrong, this is a really delicious champagne. But at the price point, I prefer Krug champagnes, which tend to have a more biscuity/yeasty flavour. And under the price point, I could have bought two bottles of Billecart-Salmon rose and been equally as happy.

To balance it all out, the next day when my husband and I were at the supermarket, we picked up a £5 bottle of sparkling wine from Chile. As always, I'll let you know what that's like when we drink it!