KEMPSEY, on a dank Autumn evening, is hardly the most romantic place in the world.

But it was here, at a charity wine tasting for Macmillan Cancer Relief, that I found our St. Valentine's Day wine - a sparkling pink Spanish Cava full of delicious fruit flavours, to say nothing of the joys of Spring.

The tasting was given by Alan and Andrew Goadby of Upton-upon-Severn Wines who invited me along to help pour and say a few impromptu words. I knew it was a good tasting when the babble of conversation in the village hall reached a pitch that would require a sergeant major in full voice to quieten down.

And then we started to open and pour a scintillating pink sparkler called Castillo Perelada, a brut Cava from Spain.

It was new to me, so I took a swift sip, slurp and spit and was amazed. Here, in a £6.95 fizz was all the excitement and richness of a fiesta, tiny bubbles, wonderful fresh fruit aromas and flavours, and a surprising length on the palate. I made up my mind right away that this was to be our St. Valentine's wine.

Once I got home I took my Tom Stevenson's Sparkling Wine Encyclopaedia down off the shelf and read all about it. The winery is in fact in the town of Perelada, near the city of Gerona, on the Costa Brava. The pink wine was made in the traditional way, with its second fermentation in the bottle, from a blend of Garnacha and Monastrell.

Garnacha is, of course, the same peppery and lightly herbaceous, raspberry flavoured grape as the Grenache that is grown all across southern France, as well as in Australia. Interesting, very big and distinctively Spanish, Monastrell, on the other hand, is not planted much outside the land of its birth.

Like Garnacha it is deeply coloured, but is much drier and meatier.

Between then they make a remarkably interesting pink fizz that will warm many a heart on Monday, February 14, when all true lovers plight their troth - or whatever. Alas, Madame B and I no longer go in for that sort of thing, but we plan to have plenty of bottles around to welcome the Spring and enjoy with friends sitting in the garden during what we all hope will be a long, hot Summer.

n HOW would you like to win a bottle of sparkling pink Perelada Cava courtesey of Upton-upon-Severn Wines to share with your Valentine?

All you have to do is answer the following question.

n By what name was the actor

Valentine Dyall best known:

n The Man in the Iron Mask.

n The Man in Black.

n The Man from UNCLE?

Send your answer to Philippe Boucheron's Valentine Competition Features Desk, Evening News, Hylton Road, Worcester WR2 5JX.

The first-drawn correct entry will win the prize.

The closing date for entries is Friday, February 11. The usual Newsquest rules apply, but you must be aged 18 or over to enter.