Public relations people around the world are always thinking up “clever” ideas for magazine and newspaper writers that will help the promoters sell the products they’re hired to hawk.
This spring, the PR folks who are hardest at work know that Mother’s Day is May 8, so the pitches most writers see are for flowers, perfumes, chocolate, cars, jewelry and (yes, you guessed it) wine. I know -- I get a lot of suggestions.
Why someone would honor a beloved mom with a quality wine only one day out of 365 is a mystery. If you know a mother who loves wine, a better idea is to share quality wines with her a lot more often.
There are many good reasons to share good wines with any wine lovers. But most of the wine suggestions I get for Mother’s Day wines are difficult pairings with typical Mother’s Day foods.
Perhaps the most common celebrations on Mother’s Day are at brunch, and several PR people suggested to me that I recommend a specific red wine for mom. But since most brunch options rarely contain chargrilled steaks...
So, what, you may ask, works best with a Mother’s Day brunch? Bubbly!
Real French Champagne typically is the most authentic way to celebrate mom, but unless the participants are really experienced at understanding the subtleties of great Champagne, the exalted price we are asked to pay for this stuff ($40 is about as low as you can find) is wasted.
Less expensive alternatives would be any decent sparkling wine, and the level of sweetness that you choose should be determined by how sweet or dry mom wants her drink to be.
The term “brut” (pronounced broot) refers to a very dry wine, but these days it really refers to wines that are only relatively dry. And curiously enough, the phrase “extra dry” on a bubbly actually refers to wines that are a little bit sweeter than brut!
The Italian alternative sparkling wine called prosecco is not quite as dry as brut. Prosecco can come either as a white or a light rose. Prices range from around $9 to about $17.
Slightly drier than that would be Spanish cava, which can be extremely appealing when paired with typical brunch foods. Most are under $18. (See Wine of the Week.)
California sparkling wines also have great application with meals, and although prices tend to be a bit higher ($17 to roughly $30), the higher quality is obvious.
The mimosa doesn’t rely on the wine quality to impart character. More important is the quality of the orange juice (i.e., fresh versus canned), so choose an inexpensive sparkling wine with which to make mimosas.
This year is the 114th Mother’s Day, which was the idea of a woman named Anna Jarvis, who later in life deplored the holiday because of how it created such crass commercialization of her idea.
Jarvis, according to lore, tried to get Mother’s Day removed from the calendar. She was unsuccessful, obviously.
