Being an artist for Valentine’s Day was the theme of a painting party that my Bride attended for the girls, that one of my cousins hosted at her house.  The good news is they didn’t need to get a curly-haired wig to paint “some happy little trees.” Instead of using “wet on wet” painting that became a major hit on Public Television, everyone had the same paint kit.  They were using a “paint-by-number” kit which is appropriate as the system was invented, developed, and marketed in 1950 by the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Michigan; though the original patent was in 1923. They went on to sell over twelve-million kits, and the archival materials can now be found in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

Now my cousin made all the arrangements and wanted no assistance for food and beverages or any of the other incidentals for the evening.  She was having fun.  The kit had an image of the final artwork and contained a stretched canvas on a frame, twelve paint tubs, two different size paint brushes, and hardware to hang the finished painting as well.  Now my cousin was not content to just furnish the painting kit, she also supplied everyone with a red and white “Be Mine” motif painting apron/smock and to complete the image, a red beret.  The food that she had catered in was Italian instead of French, which I think was probably safer for the group, as it was a big tray of Lasagna and other sides from the specialty market near our home.

To keep the evening party going, everyone drank as well as took splits of wine home with them for Valentine’s Day.  The wine was Banfi Vigne Rogali Rosa Regale Spumante Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG 2022.  Castello Banfi was founded in Tuscany in 1978 by the Italian-American brothers John and Harry Mariani.  The origins of their father’s business in Banfi Vintners which was founded in 1919 and at one time was America’s leading wine importer.  Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG was awarded classification in 1996.  Brachetto is the only varietal allowed for frizzante, spumante, and sometimes passito wines, as well as Acqui DOCG Rosé. The latter was awarded in 2017 and is regulated by the Consorzio for Brachetto d’Acqui, and is produced using the Charmat method with pressurized tanks.  There are twenty-six communes near Asti and Acqui Terme, and the soil must be calcareous and marl.  The pressure of the tanks determines the level of sparkle e.g. frizzante or spumante. The wine has two days of maceration and thirty days of fermentation under pressure, followed by three or more months in the bottle.  I haven’t had a chance to open the bottle that my artiste brought with her, along with all the accoutrements of the evening, but the wine is described as a cherry-pink colored wine that offers notes of strawberry, pepper, sherbert and dark chocolate.  On the palate it is described as mouth-filling with tones of cream and strawberry sundae with balanced acidity, a touch of terroir and a decent finish.