Wine & Words

This weekend is the time we celebrate as St. Valentine's Day. In ancient Rome, 13, 14 and 15 February were celebrated as Lupercalia, a pagan fertility festival. There is no record of little candy hearts that say "Be mine." Instead, it is said that young men would strip naked and use goat- or dog-skin whips to spank the backsides of young women in order to improve their fertility.  Makes candy hearts seem pretty tame.
 
In AD 496 Pope Gelasius declared February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day in honor of a Christian bishop who was said to have been martyred on that date 100 years earlier.  In an apparent "if you can't beat them, join them" move this St. Valentine was declared the patron saint of lovers.  Now Christians lovers could have their Lupercalia, minus the goatskin whips.
 
Jump ahead to 1913 when Hallmark published its first "Valentines" and the commercialization of the pagan/Christian/lovers holiday was on.
 
I was a  lot like Charlie Brown in my grade school Valentine years. Always wondering whether I'd get a Valentine from that girl I had a crush on.  And if I got one, wondering whether she really liked me or was just following the rule that you had to send a card to every kid in the class.  Trying to parse the meaning of a card that read "Happy Valentines Day" instead of "Be mine" was an early attempt at understanding the vagaries of love.
 
As an adult who is happily settled into a supremely satisfying relationship with the love of my life, I now enjoy Valentines Day for its reminder that love does indeed make the world go 'round. It's a time to gift our loved ones with sweet notes of appreciation...augmented with roses, chocolate and wine.
 
We can handle the chocolate and wine part.  All week we are featuring superb chocolates from Escazu in Raleigh and Berkshire Barks in Massachusetts.  Our Featured Wines for Valentines go with chocolate, contain chocolate or are "sin-sually delicious."  And we've got Dinner Specials and Sunday Brunch Specials at the Back Bay Cafe that make an occasion of any sort of relationship.  You can come with a new love, an old flame, a spouse or neighbor or friend or grandchild.  
 
In this season of cold winds we celebrate our warm hearts.  We're glad to be a part of that celebration, because we love to see you happy.