Christmas Drinking

I'm back in the UK for Christmas, where enough rain has fallen to alleviate California's drought for the next ten years. I've met up with friends and family, indulged in a number of pub lunches by blazing log fires, and had plenty of good wine to celebrate. With the rich, hearty food I've been eating, I've been looking for wines with plenty of acidity to give a refreshing lightness. The other aim has been simply to drink memorable wines. 

Eyrie Melon de Bourgogne 2009

I bought this wine on a trip to Oregon two and a half years ago, and because of its uniqueness I have been saving it for a special occasion - which turned out to be by a fire in a cottage in the Lake District while playing Bananagrams with my wife and sister. Back in 1965, David Lett, one of the founding fathers of Oregon wine, planted Alsace and Burgundy varieties in the Willamette Valley, including Pinot Blanc. Some of the cuttings he bought from UC Davis, but upon planting them he realised that they weren't Pinot Blanc at all, eventually concluding that they were Melon de Bourgogne, which is grown only on the Atlantic Coast of the Loire Valley (Chalone in Monterrey encountered the same problem with Pinot Blanc cuttings they bought from the university). With just a small plot of this unfashionable and undistinguished variety, Lett never made a commercial wine from them. After his death in 2008, his son Jason decided to make wine from the plot - now over forty years old - in tribute to his father. The wine is superb, rare proof that old-vine Melon takes on more substantial and complex characteristics than is generally associated with the grape. It's nutty and yeasty, with rich stone and tropical fruits, enlivened by an acidity that's still fresh six years after the vintage. I feel this wine will still be drinking well in another ten years. ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Château Musar 2003

A legendary wine from Lebanon, known for its volatile acidity and great ageing potential. I was delighted to find it on a pub wine list for just £45. Made from a unique combination of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, and Cinsault, the twelve-year-old wine maintains its freshness from its almost aggressive acidity - for a red wine at least - gripping tannins, and black fruits, alongside mature aromas of dried fruits. It's a wonderfully appealing, individual wine on its own; perfect also with the roe deer, lamb, and duck dishes we enjoyed on a wet wintery night. ✪✪✪✪✪

Ioppa Ghemme 2004

This was the wine we had on Christmas Day to accompany the turkey. Ghemme is in northern Piemonte, where the wine is made mainly from Nebbiolo, making it a good-value alternative to the better known Barolo and Barbaresco. It's a little bit different from those famous areas, as the climate is cooler and the Vespolina grape is added (in this case 15%) to soften Nebbiolo's aggressive tannins. Age had also mellowed this wine, but the tannins were still firm, the acidity lively, with fresh red fruits: a perfect accompaniment to the rich turkey dish with roast and mashed potatoes. ✪✪✪✪✪

Muga Rioja Reserva 2009

Muga are a producer who merge the best of traditional Rioja and more modern trends. A mixture of old and new, French and American, oak is used to age the wines, retaining that slightly reductive funk one associates with old-fashioned Rioja while adding an oaky spiciness more contemporary drinkers are used to. This would also have been perfect with turkey, but we drank it by the fire while opening presents. It's light and supple enough to drink on its own, with that unexpected power and depth that Rioja at its best offers. ✪✪✪✪✪

Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

One of the best value wines in California (at £30/$50), as the grapes come from the Monte Bello vineyard which produces the state's greatest Cabernet-based wine. I had hoped to age this wine longer, and even at six years old it was a little young, with its intense, firm, drying tannins. But it's still a beautiful, delicious, and quietly magnificent wine, with ripe black fruits evocative of California's sunny climate. We were also a little drunk by the time we opened this wine, at the end of Christmas Day. ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Drinking (and eating) for Christmas

Last Thursday, I celebrated my first ever Thanksgiving, followed on Friday by my second. I can now see why Americans make such a big deal of it - the cold, dark days of November are brightened by food, wine, friends, and family. It also introduces the festive season, and got me in the mood for Christmas much earlier than I usually am.

This had me reflecting on food and wine pairings for the Christmas season and what wines I should be thinking of getting in. Like Thanksgiving, Christmas is a time for rich foods and you need to find wines to match. That doesn't limit your options though; instead it increases the range of food and wine pairings you can come up with.

food & wine

 

Pairing food and wine is taken very seriously by some, with extremely specific recommendations offered. Trying to match flavours in both wine and food is great up to a point, but it's difficult to find such exact matches. It's much more fun experimenting and you'll discover surprisingly successful pairings. However, there are some guidelines that are useful to follow. Don't try and match the flavours, but think instead about their intensity: neither the wine nor the dish should overwhelm the other. Likewise, think about acidity and sweetness: the two should roughly correspond.

the line-up from Thursday's Thanksgiving, showing just how many styles of wine fit this kind of meal

turkey

 

Turkey is a food high in acidity, so you need a wine to match. But with all the sauces and side dishes that come with it at Christmas, the wine has to have enough depth of flavour. For whites, think of a dry Riesling: the crisp acidity and lively citrus flavours will cut into the turkey's richness. We had Billi Billi Riesling from Mt. Langi Ghiran in Victoria, Australia (hangingditch, £12.50); although delicate, its fresh acidity provided an invigorating contrast to the heaviness of the food. Alternatively, a full-bodied white will fit in with a weighty Christmas meal. For the second Thanksgiving celebration, we tried an aromatic blend from Prieuré de St-Jean-de-Bébian, Languedoc (Spirited Wines, Deansgate, around £18); rich, creamy, and nutty, it went well with the mash and béchamel sauce.

For reds, Pinot Noir is a classic pairing. With its high acidity and red fruits, Pinot Noir is not just a great match for turkey but also for the accompanying cranberry sauce. We tried two very different Pinot Noirs, which demonstrated how two wines can interact with food in varying ways. I brought one that I had tried on a recent trip to Oregon. White Rose Estate (unavailable UK; $60) describe themselves as "neo-classical"; the combination of upfront red fruits (New World style) and grainy tannins (Old World style) paired deliciously well with the turkey: like adding a juicy sauce to add on to the cranberry. The Digioia-Royer Chambolle-Musigny Vieille Vignes 2004 was a maturer, more reflective wine and quite a contrast (hangingditch, £35). Here, the earthy flavours acted more like a mushroom sauce. When choosing a wine, do think of its age: a youthful, fruity wine will be quite a different match than an older wine.

Oregon 2011 v Burgundy 2004

goose

 

Not something we had at Thanksgiving, goose is an increasingly popular alternative to turkey on Christmas Day in the UK. Again, acidity is all important; you also need a wine that will cut through the fat. An Alsatian Riesling will do just that, while something richer and creamier like oaky Chardonnay or aromatic Pinot Gris will add so much flavour. For reds, you can stick with Pinot Noir, but, as goose is a bigger, fattier dish than turkey, you can go big and get a wine with lots of oak and tannins - wines from South-West France, such as Madiran, are great options. A less obvious alternative could be a Portuguese red, particularly from the Douro.

pudding

 

Here, you really are spoilt for choice as there are so many great sweet wines out there. The important thing to remember is that the food should have at least the same level of sweetness as the wine. As puddings at Christmas are full of all sorts of rich, sweet flavours, that shouldn't be a problem. Pedro Ximénez sherry is the perfect option: its rich, dark, toffee flavours are sublime with Christmas pudding. And, of course, port is the ideal drink to finish off a long meal. There are two particular styles that work especially well at Christmas: the chocolate and dark fruits of a Late Bottled Vintage or the more mature fruits of a Vintage Port. Two wines I would recommend from hangingditch are Portal LBV 2008 (£20) and Delaforce 1994 (£55), the latter of which we tried with our dessert at Thanksgiving: the balanced fruity sweetness went so well with the pumpkin pie. Quite simply, there is no better way to end a meal than with a decadent dessert and a sumptuous sweet wine: roll on Christmas!