Wine for Christmas Dinner
Where to start? Festive bubbles first up for us, to be savoured while cooking and enjoying the late breakfast.
We could choose any Traditional Method sparkling wine from our range, to be honest, as we enjoy drinking them all. However, the newest kid on the block, Classic Cuvée from Domaine Evremond in Chilham, Kent, is an elegant, delectable choice to begin Christmas. We’d been looking forward to trying this for ages and were suitably impressed when we finally did so. The Evremond estate’s first release promises more exciting Cuvées to come. Vibrant, refined, complex - another great example of English fizz.
Light and fresh - a great option with seafood or antipasti bites, the zippy Le Peewit is a splendid choice as a starter white. Named after the lapwing which migrates from these chilly shores to the agreeably warmer climes of Gascony, where this wine is made, and a byword for crisp, refreshing wines like this.
Sauvignon Gris is a mutation of the Sauvignon Blanc grape - lightly aromatic and delicate - and without as much vibrant gooseberry or tropical fruits as its better known namesake. The palate, meanwhile, is zingy and zesty with great acidity and a lengthy, refined finish.
A Galician wine with a Burgundian twist - we love our wines from the North West of Spain so were delighted to taste Virgen del Galia’s Regueirón Godello for the first time in late summer. Virgen del Galia specialise in producing this white local variety as well as Galicia’s signature red grape, Mencia. Here Godello is aged for 11 months in new oak barrels and French foudres (gargantuan wooden vats) which makes for a rich, rounded wine.
Flavours of stone and citrus fruit and toasty oak notes add to the complexity of this delicious, rich white. An ideal pairing for turkey or other game or, as often happens at chez Lavenders, just the roasties and Yorkshire pud on their own…
Positioned to us as ‘kind of a red Chablis’, the intriguing Irancy’s rarity meant we just had to stock this cracking wine from Domaine Ternynck. Even rarer still is the inclusion of the Cesar grape - a native variety of North Burgundy - in the blend (10%) alongside traditional Pinot Noir. The addition of the Cesar gives the wine a little more heft, adding body to the juiciness of the Pinot Noir. A good choice with turkey, it would complement baked camembert rather nicely too.
One of our wines of the year - but be quick - if you fancy a bottle of this to adorn your festive feast, get your order in now as there are just a handful of bottles of this vintage left.
If turkey’s not your thing for the big day meal, this could be the wine for you. Mind you, if meat’s not your thing for the big day meal, this could also be the wine for you…
From a producer in southern Italy founded with the goal of producing the best of Abruzzo and beyond, Gran Sasso’s signature red showcases the best known local variety in an intense, warming wine perfect for midwinter.
Here the humble, work horse grape, Montepulciano is given the ‘Riserva’ treatment owing to four months of careful barrique ageing which helps give the wine complexity and balance. Ripe red fruit, black fruit and spices; an intense wine that will pair beautifully with blade of beef or robust aubergine dishes.
And for when things don’t go quite to plan, or indeed if there is no real plan at all, how about something to enjoy with last night’s left overs? Here we’ve gone for Rolly Gassmann’s Riesling.
A feature of the winemaking at Rolly Gassmann is the insistence on picking the grapes as late as possible to achieve optimal sugar ripeness and the very best expression of the fruit, plus the wines are aged to perfection in the cellars before release.
Simply joyous Alsace Riesling - and there’s much to savour here - juicy tropical fruit, vivid floral notes, ample stone fruit flavours and a mouth coating, concentrated palate with crisp acidity and just a touch of salinity on the finish too.
We had to include a sherry on our Christmas list somewhere, and so here it is… Serve this luscious, smooth, deliciously sweet sherry with rich chocolate-based desserts, blue cheeses, or rather decadently, pour over the choicest vanilla ice cream you can find, and enjoy!
One of the oldest sherry bodegas, Valdespino was named Fortified Wine Producer of the Year in the Sommelier Wine Awards last year and produces exquisite sherries of all styles. ‘El Candado’ is aged for ten years and made with raisined Pedro Ximinez grapes with the solera originating from wine from casks from the family’s private collection.
‘El Candado’ translates as ‘padlock’, as historically each bottle was sealed with one to deter just anyone from helping themselves to a glass. Which is hardly in the spirit of Christmas, is it?
That well-deserved glass of Christmas Day Port is one of the great institutions of the season, and this next wine has certainly become an integral part of our December over the last year or so. Ferreira is an important name in the history of Portuguese wine making, being the only winemaker to remain in Portuguese ownership since its establishment in the middle of the Eighteenth Century.
‘Dona Antonia’ pays tribute to the redoubtable matriarch that put Ferreira wines on the map. Made using a blend of white Ports and cask-aged oxidatively between 8 to 15 years, this is an opulent, yet elegant Port befitting the great woman herself.
Immensely popular at this time of year, serve this Port chilled where it will make a willing accomplice for all festive afters, from mince pies and Christmas pudding to strong hard cheese and dates and walnuts. Or simply enjoy it on its own.
For a feet-up in front of the telly wine, the last word should go to Nicola here, as Henry is usually fast-asleep by this point. Nicola will happily drink rosé all year round, including on Christmas Day so while Henry snoozes on or helps himself to a whisky, Nicola will toast summer, somewhere and the enduring appeal of pink wine.
This year it will probably be new favourite Folie d'Inès Rosé from Domaine Saint-André, a winery on the coast of the Thau lagoon near the Mediterranean Coast. A rosé made with predominantly Grenache grapes and boasting flavours of raspberries, strawberries and hints of rose petals.
