My wife and I have always been Valentine’s Day cocooners. Nothing’s better in the middle of February than being bundled up at home and enjoying some hot, comforting soup and a great loaf of bread, some cheese, some great chocolate perhaps, and a beautiful bottle of wine.

This year, while we cook, we’ll open a bottle of Delheim 2003 Shiraz, from Stellenbosch, South Africa ($19.95, Vintages). The wine was Toronto Life wine critic David Lawrason’s top pick for February, and after trying it recently, I definitely know why. Unlike a lot of shirazes from Australia and California, the Delheim has plenty of character to go with its depth; it’s a perfect mid-winter wine.

The wine will make slicing onions a little easier. I get cravings for French onion soup, piping hot and thick with sweet, deeply caramelized onions and rich, flavourful stock. It’s also one of the easiest soups to make—six big, sweet onions sliced into thick rounds, cooked ever so slowly (approximately an hour-and-a-half over medium-low heat) with a sprig of thyme and a bit of salt in some butter and oil. Once they’re golden, finish with a brief burst of high heat and a splash of brandy. I’ll add a litre or so of Cumbrae’s dark, meaty beef stock ($5 per litre), and let it simmer a few minutes with the caramelized onions to acquire virtue. A couple of toasted slices of baguette—I love the bread from Célestin, available at Cheese Boutique on Saturdays and Sundays)—a sprinkling of shredded gruyère, and a few minutes under the broiler, and the soup’s done.

We’ll break out a couple of stinky, goopy, gorgeous cheeses as well. Last fall, Afrim Pristine and his brothers at Cheese Boutique ordered a stash of Coeur de Berry ($16.99 per 150 grams), a creamy, earthy goat cheese from France shaped like a heart (cheesy, yes, but…). They’ve been aging it ever since, to develop its flavour. “Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a big, dirty cheese,” says Pristine. I have to agree. We’ll also devour a Coeur de Neufchatel ($16.99), a raw cow’s milk cheese with a washed rind and luxuriously creamy flavour to burn.

We’ll eat it all with a simple salad: baby arugula leaves tossed with a few sprigs of fresh mint, niçoise olives, some good oil, sea salt and fresh lime juice.

And we’ll finish with some 10-year-old tawny port, or a bottle of good Hungarian tokaj, and, of course, chocolate. I haven’t found anybody in Toronto who’s as passionate about chocolate as Soma’s David Castellan. Not content to merely work with pre-made couverture, Castellan actually makes his own chocolate from raw cocoa beans; best I can tell, he’s one of the only true chocolate makers in the country. His Valentine’s Day assortment is truly inspiring—heartnut truffles ($2 each), for example, find a Niagara heartnut (tastes like a walnut, looks like a heart) enthroned atop his exquisite house-made Carenero Superior dark chocolate truffles; Castellan’s prugna truffles, made with single-origin Peruvian chocolate and Venetian plum grappa, are the perfect end to any meal.

Save what little clean-up you’ll have for the morning.