What to Drink at Christmas
Enjoy some Festive Fizz!
Photo by Kateryna Hliznitsova on Unsplash
Two pieces of advice that we recommend you follow when deciding what to drink at Christmas are:
drink stuff that you enjoy
drink stuff that feels a bit special (after all, we all deserve a treat as we approach the end of 2020)
If you follow these two pieces of advice, you can’t go far wrong!
So, what follows is merely some festive wine suggestions for those searching for a bit of inspiration…
Festive Fizz!
One of the great things about Christmas Day is that having a glass of fizz before midday is positively encouraged. Whether it’s to accompany your smoked salmon breakfast, to sip whilst you peel the spuds or to enjoy whilst presents are being opened, a glass of something sparkly can’t fail to get you in the festive mood.
Here are some of our special sparkly suggestions:
NV Brut Réserve Champagne, Charles Heidsieck (£49.99; gift box included). Well, it is Christmas Day after all and if you’re going for Champagne, this is one of our favourites. With its pale gold colour and fine, persistent bubbles, this Champagne exudes luxury. Silky smooth with ripe fleshy apricot, melon, enticing pastry notes and a delicate spice. A total festive indulgence!
NV Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Grande Cuvée, Veuve Ambal (£16.50). If you want the Champagne experience without the price tag, you can’t go wrong with this great value Burgundian fizz. Full of exotic fruit, balanced by a fresh wash of citrus; on the nose, the perfume of white flowers and a warm scent of fresh-baked pastries. Delicious!
NV Classic Cuvée, Nyetimber (£39.99). With England now producing sparkling wine of this quality, why look elsewhere? Lovely pale gold with gentle, fine bubbles. Full of honey, almond, pastry and baked apple flavours. A real treat for Christmas Day!
NV Mas Sardana Cava Brut Nature, Massard (£15.75). Cava has definitely suffered from being misunderstood and under-appreciated in this country (and elsewhere) in recent years! Full of citrus and orchard fruit, this Cava has lively bubbles and a lovely hint of chalky minerality. If you’re unfamiliar with what Cava has to offer, give this one a go and find out what you’ve been missing!
2019 Moscato DOC Frizzante, Cantine Volpi (£13.99). For something a bit different, we recommend this lovely soft, semi-sweet sparkler from Piemonte in Northern Italy! Go all continental and sophisticated on Christmas morning with a glass of this a slice of panettone, just like they do in Milan! At only 5% abv, you’ll be able to pace yourself and ensure you’re not asleep on the sofa by the time the rest of the household are watching the Queen’s Speech or playing charades (heck, maybe have it with some sort of chaser!) This Frizzante also works brilliantly in an ice-cold flute with a frozen grape at the bottom as a palate cleanser between courses at dinnertime! Great with all types of Christmas dessert too! In fact, this is such a multi-functional Christmas fizz, we suggest you get a few bottles in!
Rudolph’s Reds
Christmas dinners vary greatly from one household to the next. Whether you’re having turkey, goose, beef, lamb, nut roast or something different, you’ll almost certainly be having a range of different vegetables, sauces and side dishes to go with the main event. With so many different foods and flavours, there are no hard-and-fast rules about which red wine should be on the dinner table. It really is down to personal preference. But if you’re looking for inspiration, here are some ideas…
Pinot Noir
With its red berry flavours, Pinot Noir is as suited to the Christmas Dinner table as Cranberry Sauce. A great partner for turkey and all the trimmings, it is also great with dishes like Beef Wellington or Nut Roast.
We have a number of Red Burgundies on our shelves to suit a range of budgets. But if you prefer a juicy New World Pinot Noir, we have just the thing from New Zealand: 2019 ‘RUA’ Central Otago Pinot Noir, Akarua (£19.99). A typically Central Otago Pinot Noir, with a core of fresh, juicy red berry fruit and uninhibited by heavy oak influence, made in an early-drinking style. Multi-award-winning, it has subtle savoury characters, soft supple tannins and a touch of spice. A definite Christmas Dinner crowd pleaser (small crowds only, of course!)
Gamay
Like Pinot Noir, Gamay isn’t too heavy and tends to be full of juicy red fruit along with some floral and earthy notes. It pairs well with a whole range of foods so is an ideal Christmas Dinner accompaniment. In terms of great value for money, it doesn’t get much better than 2019 Gamay IGP Loire, Domaine Du Moulin Camus (£9.99). This gem of a wine from the Loire Valley is bright and zippy and full of morello cherry and red plum flavours; perfect for washing down the turkey and stuffing!
A Cru Beaujolais is a fantastic choice if you want to spend a bit more. A recent addition to our shelves is 2017 Château du Moulin-à-Vent, Moulin-à-Vent (£24.20). Moulin- à -vent AOC is one of ten Beaujolais Crus and the one that produces the most powerful and long-lived wines. This particular wine is a real Christmas cracker with its strawberry and red cherry fruit and notes of graphite and violets.
Bordeaux
Whatever you’re eating, a bottle of claret is never out of place on a Christmas dinner table. We’ve got a great range of Bordeaux wines on the shelves and also have a mixed Bordeaux case on offer in the online shop with 6 great Bordeaux wines and a combined saving of £16.70 on the individual bottle prices. If you love Bordeaux, check it out!
But here are a couple of individual suggestions if you fancy a nice claret with your sprouts and bread sauce…
A fantastic Left Bank Claret is our 2018 Haut-Médoc, L'Étoile de Villegeorge (£16.75). It’s a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and with its red bramble fruit and touch of black pepper, it’ll be a great partner for meat, poultry and the after-dinner cheese board.
For a real treat from the Right Bank, we suggest our 2016 Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, Château Fleur de Lisse (£34.89). This is an elegant Cabernet Franc and Merlot dominant blend bursting with plum, raspberry, blackberry and a hint of liquorice. Definitely a ‘winner, winner, Christmas dinner!’
So far, we’ve covered some traditional red wine choices, but just because it’s Christmas, it doesn’t mean you can’t break with tradition and go for something a bit different…
Wild Cards
We know that Greek wine probably doesn’t leap to mind when you’re pondering what to drink on Christmas Day, but there’s no reason why our 2017 Hedgehog Single Vineyard Xinomavro, Alpha Estate (£19.75) shouldn’t be the star of any festive feast. With plenty of dark fruit and savoury notes, it’s a real cracker and will offer much better surprises than the other crackers on your Christmas table!
Our main piece of advice for choosing your Christmas wines is ‘drink what you enjoy’ and Argentinian Malbec has been the most popular wine in this country in recent years. If it’s your favourite, then why not treat yourself at Christmas with our 2018 Perfiles Calcareo Malbec, Trapiche (£19.95). Grapes grown at high altitude on soils high in calcium carbonate create a silky soft Malbec full of dark fruit, chocolate notes and an underlying minerality. If Malbec’s your bag, this definitely won’t disappoint!
Our final wild card suggestion is our 2017 Old Vine Zinfandel, Bogle Vineyards (£16.99). This wine took no.13 spot in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Best Buys of 2020, impressing with its ‘excellent depth of flavor great structure. Rich blackberry and plum notes ring clear as a bell, accompanied by light shadings of oaky spices.’ We tend to agree and think that if powerful reds are your thing, you can’t go far wrong with this one. It’ll pair pretty well with the turkey too!
After dinner drinking
Whether you’re relaxing by the fire with a bit of Christmas Day telly, opening more presents or being forced to play those board games that Santa delivered, we’ve got some lovely warming reds that will be the perfect partner for any after dinner activities…
Our 2016 Brolo Campofiorin Oro, Masi (£21.50) is a fantastic wine for Christmas evening. Deep ruby red in colour, it is rich, smooth and full-bodied, packed with baked fruit, and hints of cocoa and vanilla. A festive fireside luxury!
Another perfect match for your evening mince pies is the great value 2016 Vasco and the Explorers (£10.35). It’s a South African wine but is made with one of the main grapes used in Port wines, Touriga Nacional. It’s full of intense dark berry fruit, blackcurrants and a hint of chocolate. Cheers!
White Christmas
Three French whites that are perfect as Christmas aperitifs or to accompany various starter dishes are our 2019 Sancerre Blanc, Franck Millet (£20.50) or our 2018 Chablis, Domaine de Vauroux (£19.50) and NV Trésor Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, Le Jardin d’Edouard (£19.99). The Sancerre is a perfect partner for any starter or canape containing goat’s cheese and all three wines will pair very well with smoked salmon and shellfish.
For the NZ Sauvignon lovers amongst you, one of our favourites is 2019 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Tinpot Hut (£14.99) Combining all the best characteristics of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, this is clean, super fresh and perfumed with aromas of passion fruit, melon and gooseberry.
When it comes to the Christmas Dinner table, Chardonnay is a deservedly popular choice and we’ve got some great options. From Burgundy we suggest our 2018 Bourgogne Blanc `Éclat de Calcaire`, Pierre Girardin (£30.29). With Meursault and Volnay providing 80% and 20% of the fruit for this wine respectively, it’s excellent value for a Bourgogne Blanc. It has precise notes of fresh citrus fruit, white flowers and fresh pastry on the nose. On the palate, bright acidity gives the wine great energy and freshness. Well-balanced, elegant and poised, it’s fit for any Christmas dinner table.
For a fantastic value alternative to Burgundy, we recommend 2019 Les Mougeottes Chardonnay, IGP Pays d'Oc (£11.39). From vineyards to the East of Carcassonne, it has lemon and vanilla on the nose with a round, fruity body and a hint of vanilla oak character. Another (small-) crowd pleaser, for sure!
Finally, on the Chardonnay front, we’ve got a real gem from one of our favourite Californian wineries, Bogle. The 2019 Chardonnay, Bogle Vineyards (£15.75) has a great balance of tropical fruit and toasty butterscotch and will work wonderfully with whatever’s on your Christmas menu.
If you’re not a Chardonnay lover, our 2018 Beurrot Pinot Gris, Kooyong (£23.50) from South Australia is a great alternative. A sensual, aromatic blend of ginger, spice and rose water on the nose, with apple, pear and a curl of lemon peel on the palate, it’s got the weight and flavour intensity to match all those different Christmas dinner components. Likewise, our 2017 Roussanne, The Foundry (£15.99) from Stellenbosch in South Africa has a lovely richness with flavours of tropical fruit and a touch of minerality, making it a great Christmas dinner-friendly white.
Santa’s Sweets and Festive Fortifieds
A perfect partner for blue cheeses, foie gras, cheesecake, sorbet and cream-based puddings, our 2017 Sauternes Les Garonelles, Lucien Lurton (£12.60 for 37.5cl) is a lovely combination of citrus and tropical fruit.
If you’re having Christmas pudding, we recommend our luscious NV Pedro Ximenez, Bella Luna (£10.50 for 37.5cl). This rich midnight-coloured sherry, oozes with flavours of raisins, dates and honey. It’s also beautiful when poured over vanilla ice cream!
Santa has also been known to enjoy a nice dry Fino, and our favourite is Fino `Inocente` Pago de Macharnudo, Valdespino (£18.95). With savoury aromas of bread dough, almonds, olives and dried apples, it’s bone dry and bracingly refreshing on the palate, with a saline minerality and a long and complex finish. Delicious on its own or with all sorts of Christmas nibbles, particularly olives and salted nuts.
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a nice glass of Port and we have a fantastic range. Our Magalhães Special Reserve Ruby Port (£17.25) is full of intense sweet red fruit and is the perfect accompaniment for your Christmas cheese board.
One of our favourite festive fortifieds is our Barão de Vilar 10-year old White Port (£19.99). Full of sweet citrus, dried fruit and caramelised nuts, we could drink this all day long – and quite possibly will; it is Christmas after all!
Mixed Cases
If you like the sound of some of our Christmas suggestions, you’ll find all the wines for sale individually in our online shop. You’ll also find various combinations of the wines that we’ve curated into Christmas cases in the ‘Mixed Cases’ Section. All cases of 6 offer generous discounts on the individual bottle prices.
In addition, we also asked one of our suppliers, Richard Kelley MW, to curate a case of his Christmas picks. He passed the task on to his alter-ego, Rick who wanted to take the opportunity to give South Africa a boost after the particularly difficult year they’ve had due to COVID, so in the Mixed Case section you’ll also find: THE CAPE CRUSADERS CHRISTMAS STOCKING CASE. Check it out for Rick’s curated case of Christmas Day drinking from the Cape.
Whatever you end up drinking, we hope you enjoy it and that you have a great Christmas!