Provocative pours and titillating titles
Book clubbers, take note: Harlequin, the publisher of racy romance novels, launched three wines — Substitute for Love Chardonnay, Pardon my Body Cabernet Sauvignon, and Wild at Heart Red Blend.
We paired each label with a titillating title to form three hot couplings. Because on the coming winter nights, what’s better than the perfect glass of wine in front of a warm fire with a hot book?
These wines, developed with Vintage Wine Estates in California, are available exclusively through Amazon.com to U.S. customers only right now. Send them to a friend south of the border to grab on your next visit. You know, for the book club.
2014 Substitute for Love Chardonnay, Vintages by Harlequin (California) $14.99 (U.S.) The gentle perfume of white flowers and sweet fruit offer a thinly veiled promise of the uncharted pleasures to come. Then, as lips meet, the attack is bold and immediate. Ripe melon and plump peach pulsate on the tongue, underpinned by plunging tension. The dominant fruit is a delicious and demanding demon swelling with sensual delight before cresting and tapering toward a resonant finish. But just moments later, the urge to do it again takes hold. With each encounter more exciting than the last, this is a fine Substitute for Love. Score: 88 Pairs with: Heat Exchange by Shannon Stacey.
2013 Pardon my Body Cabernet Sauvignon, Vintages by Harlequin (California) $14.99 This noble and majestic red seduces with slow, measured charms. It starts with an intoxicating fragrance of wild berries edged with smouldering cinnamon then challenges the mind with quivering complexity. Suggestions of crushed wild cherries, melting chocolate, fire-grilling meat, warming cream with split vanilla bean, and gathering wild violets rivet the senses. This provocative play of deep intrigue, coupled with a compellingly voluptuous body, holds hedonistic and haunting appeal. Score: 90 Pairs with: The Harder You Fall by Gena Showalter.
2013 Wild at Heart Red Blend, Vintages by Harlequin (California) $14.99 Attractive scents of rose petals and sun-warmed berries lead to a potent, all-over kiss of firm, focused fruit with the bold suggestion of swollen plum, fresh cherry and spice. With a tight, firm grip, the flavours insinuate all that is warm, dark and powerful with penetrating intensity and much finesse. The effect is deeply delicious. When the wild and wanton encounter finally spirals to an end, the aftermath is long, languid and persistent with a slightly bittersweet tug, leaving only the gentle scent of rose petals somewhere. Score: 89 Pairs with: Hold Me Close by Megan Hart.