Best wines to drink in the festive season
The months of December and January, even through to Luna New Year, are celebrations for many people. And whatever your feast, if there is wine to be had, here are some recommendations!
However, it can be a difficult choice as to what wine you should be serving with dinner, lunch or just drinks. Here are some tips on choosing the best wines for the occasion broken into two parts. The savoury… and the sweet & cheesy!
Click here to jump straight to Part 2: What to drink this Festive season? Sweet & Cheesy & Nibbly
Part 1: The savoury side of Christmas wine….
Beef, Venison, Lamb & Duck
There are so many options for Festive roasts that I have grouped them together.
These more robustly flavoured roast meats are going to be a great match for red wines which have more flavour and are bolder in body than chicken, turkey, ham and seafood. It is also worth looking at the accompaniments too. Lashings of gravy and roast potatoes also work very well with red wines. Particularly if they are seasoned with salt and pepper.
Salty foods smooth out any tannins in wine which is also partly why big reds go so well with a roast dinner.
So firstly roast lamb and duck go very well with Pinot Noir. There is a reason for that.
Duck is a classic match with Pinot due to duck often being served with cherries, a fruit character that is very often found in Pinot Noir. The flavours work very well together and the Pinot Noir does not overwhelm the duck in any way.
In both duck and lamb, Pinot Noir has the acid balance to cut through these fatty meats. With lamb it is the fruitiness of a Pinot Noir, with that medium bodied texture that makes it a great match.
Don’t stop there though. A Barbera or a Malbec will also work quite well. These wines are generally medium to fuller bodied with vibrant fruit and lower tannins.
The bigger flavours of Venison and Beef naturally require bolder and all round bigger red wines. These wines also tend to have tannins which also work really with these meats. Here you can choose most red wines such as Syrah or Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo (Rioja) or a juicy Nero d’Avola or Primitivo / Zinfandel. Even a big enough Pinot noir or Malbec with 12 months oak age may work.
What to look for!
Lamb & duck are fatty meats with more delicate flavours. More medium bodied wines work very well here to match the flavour intensity. The wines need higher acid to cut through the fattiness of the meat. Higher tannins also help but some tannic wine is too powerfully flavoured for these meats.
Beef & venison are leaner meats and that protein works very well with wines that are tannic. They are robustly flavoured and that needs to be matched with bold and full bodied red wines. The addition of salt by way of gravy or salted roasted potatoes also smooths out tannic wines well retaining the shape and structure that we love.
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
Pinot Noir
Malbec & Barbera & similar
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
Big & bold reds
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
What about Turkey?
Turkey is very traditional for some Festive feasts. Here it is about the trimmings. If the turkey is simply presented as a roast or maybe a breast stuffed with chestnuts and hazel nuts, then a bold Chardonnay will go very well here.
Once you start adding more robust flavours, you start needing wines with greater body and robustness. Here light red wines will work better. These can even be lightly chilled. Such as the Pikes Luccio Novello.
If you have added all the trimmings including herby stuffing and pigs in blankets with all that gravy, then even a Bordeaux or an elegant Zinfandel can be a good match.
What about Ham & Gammon?
For those who choose Ham or Gammon for their feast, those Pinot Noir recommendations will still work very well. Gammon also a meat that matches well with fruitiness but needs lighter flavours than many darker meats.
Another wine that will go very well with Ham or Gammon is a medium bodied red wine from Grenache / Garnacha wine or an oaked white wine as these still have the right intensity to match the flavours of this meat. The white wine will also often add a note of citrus to compliment the dish. Don’t forget that Cote du Rhone reds are usually Grenache based and also make a great alternative here if they are elegant in style. Probably leave a Chateauneuf du Pape for the red meat dishes.
What to look for!
Turkey, Ham and Gammon are other more delicately flavoured meat and more medium bodied wines work very well here to match the flavour intensity. A citrus and smoky oak note in an oaked white wine will also be complementary to the flavours of these meats. Light reds work a treat.
If a Turkey has all the trimmings such as gravy and stuffing, then a medium bodied red will work well also. So too, with a Ham or Gammon with a spiced fruity glaze.
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
Fish & Vegetarian dishes
Fish is an inseparable part of the Easter tradition. Whether that is pink fish or white fish. Steamed fish or roasted fish. And seafood. White wines traditionally go well with fish. Particularly if you have a citrusy lemon sauce. Sprinkle over some roasted flaked almonds and you have a very good match for a Chardonnay wine.
When you think about it, fish is often served with a wedge of lemon, so it makes sense that a higher acid, crisp white wine will work very well.
By the way, if you used a spiced rub on your fish, you can introduce some bolder flavours. A Gamay blend here would be a good choice as it is fruity enough to work with the spiciness and stronger flavours.
Vegetarian dishes also have similar requirements of needed slightly more delicately flavoured and textured wines so as to not overpower the food. If your vegetarian dish is on the robust side of flavour, then those reds and roses mentioned above are excellent options.
(** Wines selected have not been checked for suitability for vegetarian and vegan diets.)
What to look for!
Because fish & seafoods tends to have lighter flavours, if that fish is poached or pan fried, a white wine is a good option. Bold flavoured reds are too intense and the not as refreshing as a white. Any white that you choose for fish should have a higher acid content. Pink fish has more flavour so a rose can work well here.
Of course, don’t limit your choice of white wine to Chardonnay at all. Here is a selection of great white wines that will be very good matched with either fish or vegetarian dishes. All of these would also be superb to drink as an aperitif as well.
