Festive Wines For Festive Food
Festive wines | Flagship wines
Choosing wines to drink with festive meals should always be based on the style of wine you like and your budget. There is also a general rule of thumb when it comes to matching wines with food: pair the dominant flavours of the food with complementary ones in the wine to drink with it.
Festive fizz is a great place to start with as an aperitif or throughout a meal if you want to! Champagne may be top of the list though there are alternatives many of which are of great quality having been made by the same method and the same grapes – Chardonnay & Pinot Noir.
Why not try the delicious Jansz from Tasmania or Crémants from France such as Cremant de Bourgogne or d’Alsace or English sparkling wines that are winning awards such as those from Langham Estate in Dorset.
Turkey, goose, or duck are the favourite meats for Christmas lunch served with a mélange of flavours from cranberry sauce, bread sauce, roasted vegetables and stuffing. Try a wine from the Rhone Valley or Rioja where the tannins are less obvious with age and time in oak or a vibrant fruity red wine such as those from Portugal made by Esporao which are delicious with roast meats and vegetable dishes.
Alternatives include Spanish wines made from the Mencia grape produced in Bierzo or modern Pinotage from South Africa. A full slightly spicy New Zealand Pinot Noir is another idea for goose and duck.
With beef, try some classic wines from Bordeaux with a dark blackcurrant, berries and tannic structure or a wine from the Languedoc like Terrasses de Larzac or Corbieres would make a delicious match. Don’t forget wines from Alsace with floral, aromatic, rounded spicy whites and Beaujolais with vibrant fruity reds.
For white wines try Chablis or other Chardonnays, with fragrant aromas and ripe rounded fruit with rounded lightly oaky notes or an aromatic Torrontes from Argentina. Chenin Blanc with lightly oaky flavours from South Africa or a rounded fruity Vouvray from the Loire would be great too. These wines are a good match with vegetarian dishes like mushroom risotto and creamy pasta sauces.
Dessert wines are great with desserts & cheeses because of their innate character that is soft, silky and rich at the end of a meal such as an Aussie Viognier, Hungarian Tokaji or a classic Sauternes and PX sherry with Christmas pud!
Though if you are having a chocolate pudding try a red dessert wine from the Rhone, Banyuls or a Pineau des Charentes to match the lovely texture of the pudding. The final piece in the meal’s planning is Port or even Madeira to savour at the end perhaps with cheese…………...