Christmas Day Wine

[Hypster]

I'm very grateful for all the suggestions. Thank you!

[Gerry557]

Tesco are doing a 25% discount on 6 bottles.

Blue nun will be four quid a bottle

Or do you like your family

[bungeejumper]

A good rounded burgundy is my usual, but it can be pricey. (I see that someone else has mentioned the price of Beaune.) Failing that, a decent Cotes du Rhone Villages - or, if you like your oak, there's nothing very wrong with mainstream Chilean reds, some of which can be very nice indeed.

It looks as though Tesco have extended their 25% off deal until the 17th, which is nice because I think it was due to end today. Asda are also doing the deal.

Which reminds me. Not for Christmas dinner, but I had a sneaky bottle of Asda's ultra-cheapo Vignerons de l'Enclave Cotes du Rhone the other day (£5.50 ), and it was really very drinkable. A bit dry, maybe, but enough body. Reviews from various places confirm that I'm not alone in thinking this. And with another 25% off, it seems like a buy for drinking when you don't need to impress your friends.

BJ

[simoan]

A good rounded burgundy is my usual, but it can be pricey. (I see that someone else has mentioned the price of Beaune.)
BJ

You should take a look at the Wine Society’s Museum Releases. Some decent Premier Cru Burgundy at not too ridiculous prices that they’ve aged in their own cellars. I have less than perfect storage conditions at home so sometimes buy them and keep for a few years before drinking. Just an idea!

[UncleEbenezer]

19 crimes is quite quaffable..one if you wife'sfavourites. However the coffee tinged version is truly disgusting.

Never tried that. Could it be the 20th crime?

[Charlottesquare]

A good rounded burgundy is my usual, but it can be pricey. (I see that someone else has mentioned the price of Beaune.) Failing that, a decent Cotes du Rhone Villages - or, if you like your oak, there's nothing very wrong with mainstream Chilean reds, some of which can be very nice indeed.

It looks as though Tesco have extended their 25% off deal until the 17th, which is nice because I think it was due to end today. Asda are also doing the deal.

Which reminds me. Not for Christmas dinner, but I had a sneaky bottle of Asda's ultra-cheapo Vignerons de l'Enclave Cotes du Rhone the other day (£5.50 ), and it was really very drinkable. A bit dry, maybe, but enough body. Reviews from various places confirm that I'm not alone in thinking this. And with another 25% off, it seems like a buy for drinking when you don't need to impress your friends.

BJ

I did finally pick up two Beanue at Tesco at £21 a bottle (Cote de Beanue -Villages, Loius Latour 2019), they also did a white Graves 2022 at £15 so grabbed two of those as well. Now just need the fizzy stuff and a mixed case of low cost quaffing material for the festive period generally, regarding the latter have never had anything bad in a mixed case from Great Grog, Edinburgh, if I may give them a plug.

https://www.greatgrog.co.uk/product-cat ... ded-cases/

[Howard]

I'm very grateful for all the suggestions. Thank you!

I did a little research on your profile to help in giving advice on your Christmas wine and looked at a couple of your previous posts.

viewtopic.php?p=521467#p521467

viewtopic.php?p=612666#p612666

They suggested two alternative approaches. The first would be in line with your enjoyment of trips to Wetherspoons and the second reflects the possibilities suggested by your £100,000 Premium bonds and substantial investment portfolio.

For option 1, why not buy 6 x 2 bottles from your favourite supermarket. As others have suggested, most of them are offering 25% off for this type of purchase. You could include a couple of bottles of bubbly, red, white and dessert wines. The idea of buying two bottles of each is to allow you to taste a bottle before Christmas and then serve the ones you like best on the day. Drink the red wine with some cheese whilst watching a film to allow time to decide if you like it and the white with, perhaps cheesy nibbles. I’d open each bottle an hour before drinking and make sure that the red wine was warm and the white cold.

I’ve had a look at Tesco’s wine today and they have some nice bottles around £10 each after discount. You might like to test a Viognier or a Chenin Blanc against a Sauvignon Blanc and an Argentinian Red against an Italian red. For the bubbly, Tesco’s finest Champagne is good or you may choose a Prosecco.

Are you ready for option 2? You can afford to live a little!

Don’t bother tasting in advance, go to Berrry Bros or a similar upmarket wine merchant and ask them to select your Christmas bottles. It would be a pity to die without sharing a bottle of Krug or Crystal champagne with friends or relations. The wine merchant will advise on whites, I’d go for a French perhaps from the Loire. And for the red, what could be better than a well-aged bottle of Opus One from a nice year- one of the best American reds. You could compare it with a Pavie from St Emilion, or a Pauillac say a Latour or a Comtesse de Lalande. To finish, a half bottle of Chateau d'YQuem with dessert. The wine merchant should give you good instructions on how to serve all the wine.

I’ve enjoyed all the above wines and can recommend them. The key thing in choosing is to assess what your guests would like. Today Mrs H and I had a very nice glass of a £9 red from Tesco with roast pork.

Either option will provide a memorable meal. If it’s just two of you lunching and you don't want to fuss, option 1 is probably best. If you want to provide a really memorable occasion for good friends, maybe a version of option 2?

Whatever you do, hope you have a very happy Christmas lunch.

Howard

[scrumpyjack]

... To finish, a half bottle of Chateau d'YQuem with dessert. The wine merchant should give you good instructions on how to serve all the wine.
Howard

Only a half? I recall many years ago we had Christmas at my brother's. To go with the Christmas pud, he produced a Magnum of Chateau d'YQuem, which he had been given.

They went very well together, though it took several glasses to be sure

[stewamax]

...port (at least good port) doesn't go with Christmas pud nearly as well as fortified muscat does. The fruit in port just isn't quite right, whereas the muscat has those raisiny flavours that harmonise perfectly with the Christmas pud, it's one of the all-time great food/wine pairings.
Aussie ones tend to be a bit heavier and more intense which isn't really what I want so much as the French ones which are a bit lighter on their feet.
Port tends to be one of those things that gets opened the night before and mostly gets hit on Christmas evening, but we don't bother with at lunch (ditto cheese) as generally people have just had enough by then.

'Normal' (ruby) port tends to overpower Xmas pud. Think Tawny port that has a bit more tartness.
Or even better, a Gewurztraminer or a Pinot Gris that both have an refreshing 'edge' to the sweetness. And if you like whites with meat, Gewurz is also fine with fatty things like goose and pate.
Or - heresy - try chilled Guinness Foreign Extra.

[Lootman]

...port (at least good port) doesn't go with Christmas pud nearly as well as fortified muscat does. The fruit in port just isn't quite right, whereas the muscat has those raisiny flavours that harmonise perfectly with the Christmas pud, it's one of the all-time great food/wine pairings.
Aussie ones tend to be a bit heavier and more intense which isn't really what I want so much as the French ones which are a bit lighter on their feet.
Port tends to be one of those things that gets opened the night before and mostly gets hit on Christmas evening, but we don't bother with at lunch (ditto cheese) as generally people have just had enough by then.

'Normal' (ruby) port tends to overpower Xmas pud. Think Tawny port that has a bit more tartness.
Or even better, a Gewurztraminer or a Pinot Gris that both have an refreshing 'edge' to the sweetness. And if you like whites with meat, Gewurz is also fine with fatty things like goose and pate.
Or - heresy - try chilled Guinness Foreign Extra.

Isn't Pinot Gris dry? Not that I like sweet wines anyway.

But yeah, beer goes with everything.

[UncleEbenezer]

Isn't Pinot Gris dry? Not that I like sweet wines anyway.

Pinot Grigio[1] is indeed dry. At best (most of the best examples I've encountered were Hungarian), a great wine for a hot summer day, but can also tend towards watery (a common risk in those from Northern Italy) or (in German examples) taste a bit sweeter and more like a Riesling. Blends well with other dry white grapes from chardonnay to trebbiano.

I find a three-way sharply-contrasting combo of a dessert, a coffee, and a dry white wine (usually the last mouthful from a glass accompanying a main course) can be utterly delicious. But that's with small, light desserts, not christmas overindulgence.

[1] Um, someone please educate me if those aren't the same.

[genou]

Pinot Grigio[1]
'''''''

[1] Um, someone please educate me if those aren't the same.

It's the same grape. AFAIK the Italians ( bearing in mind it is mostly in the bit of Italy that was Austria until WW1 ) always vinify it dry. I mostly associate Pinot Gris with Alsace, and there they can make much fatter wines, with more residual sugar, going all the way up to late harvest botrytis affected wine.

As additions to the mix, a vin santo or a Banyuls would work better with pudding for me; I feel the sweet reds are a better match than a white.

[UncleEbenezer]

Pinot Grigio[1]
'''''''

[1] Um, someone please educate me if those aren't the same.

It's the same grape. AFAIK the Italians ( bearing in mind it is mostly in the bit of Italy that was Austria until WW1 ) always vinify it dry. I mostly associate Pinot Gris with Alsace, and there they can make much fatter wines, with more residual sugar, going all the way up to late harvest botrytis affected wine.

Hmm. Alsace is border country: lots of Germanic culture&heritage. I expect that'll be why the German one I tried (once was enough) tasted like Riesling.

The Hungarian one that first gave me a love of the grape was different again: light and dry (Italian-style), but with spicy hints reminiscent of a lighter Gewürztraminer. I think I also once encountered something similar from South Africa.

[Tedx]

It's cold.

It's dark.

We spend too much money on it.

I eat too much

It's too commercialised.

There's nothing on the TV.

You have to be nice to people.

I'm sure there's more.

[kiloran]

It's cold.

It's dark.

We spend too much money on it.

I eat too much

It's too commercialised.

There's nothing on the TV.

You have to be nice to people.

I'm sure there's more.

Ah, a "Christmas Day Whine"

--kiloran

[UncleEbenezer]

I'm sure there's more.

Like all intelligent people, I greatly dislike Christmas. It revolts me to see a whole nation refrain from music for weeks together in order that every man may rifle his neighbour's pockets under cover of a ghastly general pretence of festivity. It is really an atrocious institution, this Christmas.
We must be gluttonous because it is Christmas. We must be drunken because it is Christmas. We must be insincerely generous; we must buy things that nobody wants, and give them to people we don't like; we must go to absurd entertainments, that make even our little children satirical; we must writhe under venal officiousness from legions of freebooters, all because it is Christmas - that is, because the mass of the population, including the all powerful middle class tradesmen, depend on a week of licence and brigandage, waste and intemperance to clear off its outstanding liabilities at the end of the year.
As for me, I shall fly from it all tomorrow or next day to some remote spot miles from a shop, where nothing worse can befall me than a serenade from a few peasants, or some equally harmless survival of medieval mummery, shyly proffered, not advertised, moderate in its expectations, and soon over. In town there is, for the moment, nothing for me or any honest man to do.

[Howard]

"Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart "

Scrooge before Christmas


"I don’t know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”

Scrooge after his Christmas lunch.

What was he drinking?

Howard

[stewamax]

Blue Nun will be four quid a bottle

An ascetic Benedictine order that promotes mortification of the flesh through frostbite

[bungeejumper]

An ascetic Benedictine order that promotes mortification of the flesh through frostbite

Surely that'll be the Benedictine compline whine? (https://christdesert.org/rule-of-st-ben ... -compline/)

8 When all have assembled, they should pray Compline; and on leaving Compline, no one will be permitted to speak further. 9 If anyone is found to transgress this rule of silence, he must be subjected to severe punishment

No groaning aloud after lights out, then.

BJ