With Valentine’s Day quickly becoming a distant memory, I thought I would share an experience that provides an interesting juxtaposition to the day devoted to couples who already have the luxury of enjoying a romantic relationship. My wife and I were recently at a dinner party with some new friends, when the topic of wine came up. The conversation centered around the wine experiences that each couple had enjoyed over the past several years. As the stories became more elaborate, so did the quality of the wines mentioned, with price tags entering the triple-digit neighborhood. However, at one point, their son Patrick spoke up and brought the conversation to a screeching halt with the following question: “What’s a good ‘first date’ wine?” I was so stunned by the simplicity of the question that I asked him, a 21-year-old college student, for clarification. “Let’s say that I want to invite a young lady over for dinner,” he explained, “and I want to impress her with a good bottle of wine, but I’m on a tight budget so I don’t want to spend a lot of money in case, you know, it doesn’t work out.”

It is certainly a legitimate question. And to be totally fair, the proverbial door swings both ways and applies to any single woman who wants to find a wine that fits the same bill.