What wine to serve for a party

Deciding which wine is best suited to serve to large numbers can be tricky. It’s a question of budget (obviously), your own preferences and those of your guests and the type of food you’re serving.

So assuming you’re providing the booze rather than letting people bring their own what should you bear in mind?

1. Wine - like any drink - should be refreshing

A roomful of people tends to be an overheated environment so light, fresh-tasting wines work better than full-bodied ones (although see point 2 below). Wines of between 11% and 12.5% may sound a bit wimpy but are well-suited to parties, especially during the summer months. It’s also worth choosing wines that have a high level of acidity like Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling which will refresh rather than tire the palate. If you're serving richer reds try and keep them cool by leaving them in an unheated room or outside the back door (unless it’s freezing, obviously)

Consider: Whites such as Sauvignon Blanc, Côtes de Gascogne, Riesling, Vinho Verde (a low alcohol Portuguese white wine), Italian whites such as Verdicchio. Reds such as Gamay, Pinot Noir or inexpensive Merlot

2. Hot food or cold food?

As with any other aspect of food and wine matching it’s worth taking into account the type of food you’re serving - hot food like lasagne, a pie or casserole will need fuller-bodied wines than a cold buffet or party nibbles. A sparkling wine like prosecco or cava, for example, is ideal with canapés whereas it would be too light for a robust wintry braise. Just search the dish or dishes you’re planning as a centrepiece of the party under Find a Match or email me at fiona AT matchingfoodandwine DOT com

3. What would your guests enjoy?

That will depend partly on the age group, partly on their interests. Younger drinkers (by which I’m thinking of twenty- and thirty-somethings NOT under-age drinkers, obviously) tend to like sweeter-tasting wines than their parents. A group of fellow wine-lovers will probably have more adventurous tastes than a random assortment of neighbours.

That said, I reckon the most popular party wines all-round would be New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, pinot noir (see Aldi's Chilean pinot I recommended in the Christmas reds below), young rioja and prosecco.

4. Keeping your friends sober

Obviously this isn’t entirely under your control but you can help by not pouring hefty reds of 14.5% and over. People sometimes don’t realise just how alcoholic the wine they’re drinking is. It also makes sense to have plenty of soft drinks available. Big jugs of water with plenty of ice and slices of citrus or cucumber look inviting as well.

5. Staying on budget

Probably the least of your problems as there’s so much inexpensive wine around but please don’t imagine that if you’re buying wine at ‘half price’ or ‘better than half price’ you’re really saving yourself that amount. Even without those apparently dramatic discounts you should be able to get a decent basic white, red or rosé for under £6 and a sparkler for under £10.

Here are some wines I've recommended in recent wine round-ups and features. Remember that you should be able to an additional discount if you’re buying 6 bottles or more. (That applies to wine merchants too who may well have something in the price you're looking for.)

The best sparkling wines for Christmas and the New Year - from the Guardian

Christmas reds and Christmas whites - both from the Guardian but should be useful for New Year's entertaining too

Is Aldi or Lidl better value for your Christmas wine?

Waitrose reds and whites though remember the 25% off deal I mention doesn't currently apply

My pick of Tesco's and Sainsbury's current range. Again no 25% off deal at the moment and that some of the promotions will have lapsed.

Image © papa - Fotolia.com

Sip with supper: Guest columnists Jackie and Bianca share their favourite party wines

It's always great to have a fresh voice on the site and few are better qualified than Jackie Dyer and Bianca Ford to talk about matching food and wine. Having both worked in the wine trade they've decided to put their expertise to good use in a joint venture called Sip with Supper (@sipwithsupper on Twitter) which will be hosting events and making videos about food and wine pairing.

I managed to persuade them to fit in this guest post on the sort of wines they like to serve at Christmas parties. Here are their top tips:

"Less than two weeks to go until the holiday season starts properly but the partying is already underway. We've been turning our thoughts to the wine-matching options for those festive, canapé-laden gatherings where reasonably priced crowd-pleasers will be the order of the day.

Bianca will be back home in Holland for Christmas and Jackie's heading over to France for the New Year celebrations, so we need some very versatile wines with backbone to match a diverse, international range of appetizers.

For our perfect party fizz, we're looking for a well-priced alternative to Champagne and a change from Prosecco, but something with an easy-drinking style. This year, we've been enjoying regional Crémants from Limoux, the Loire and Burgundy.

On a recent trip to Crémant de Bourgogne country, we asked the knowledgeable team at La Maison des Vins de la Côte Chalonnaise for their advice on a fizz for Christmas parties. Their recommendation was a Crémant from white grapes only, a Blanc de Blancs, for preference, but any of the regional fizzes mentioned would handle a good spread of food types with smoked fish, cheese-based amuse-bouches like gougères, and the Burgundian favourite for New Year’s Eve – oysters – being perhaps the best accompaniments.

For still whites we're going for some crisp refreshers from Northern Spain that will be distinctive and not out of place with a mixture of flavours - look for Godello, Verdejo or the lesser-known Treixadura on the label. (Treixadura, or Trajadura as it’s called in Portugal is a grape grown in the Rias Biaxas and Ribiero regions of Galicia which is where Albarino comes from.)

Any of these Spanish whites will go great guns with seafood and olive-based nibbles but will cut through heavier, spicier flavours too. And so would a minerally Pecorino wine from central Italy, usually easy to spot on the shelves because of the logo portraying the local sheep, pecorina in Italian, that as legend has it would eat the grapes as they grazed nearby.

Finally for reds our bet is to go for something fruity and light to medium bodied that can be drunk on its own or alongside a whole host of finger food. Some of our favourite options are red Saumur, Chilean Pinot Noir, or a Sicilian Frappato, the latter perhaps blended with another local grape, Nero d'Avola. Whether your cocktail sausages are on sticks or in pastry, these wines will not let you down!

In Holland, festive gatherings will often feature bitterballen (deep-fried and crumbed balls filled with a creamy meat ragu), devilled eggs and platters of cheese or charcuterie. These too will be happy partners for our red selections.

We're getting in stocks of some of these wines for partying this Christmas while hoping that there will be a few odd bottles left over for the New Year. We’ve given a few recommendations below. In the meantime, may we wish you all the best for a successful season of festive food and wine matching!

WAITROSE Cave de Lugny NV, Sparkling Burgundy ‘Blanc de Blancs’

Normally £13.99 but on offer at £10.99 until 04/01/15

MAJESTIC Montenovo Godello 2013, Valdesil, Valdeorras
£12.49 or £9.36 when you buy two bottles as part of the current Mix and Match offer

TESCO Tesco Finest Frappato 2013
Currently 25% off at £5.99 a bottle

RED SQUIRREL WINES Orsogna Autoctoni Pecorino 2013
£9.99 with 10% off if you buy six bottles or 15% if you buy twelve

For Bianca's bitterballen recipe see here.

An alternative New Year's Eve menu for four

Tired of turkey? Bored with goose? Try Signe Johansen's fresh-tasting suggestions for a simple New Year's supper with friends.

There's nothing like fresh, Mediterranean flavours to revive the tastebuds after the rich eating of the Christmas period. so here is a simple Lebanese-inspired New Year's Eve menu to kickstart 2013. These dishes are all easy to prepare, allowing the hostess (or host) to join in the festivities rather than slaving in the kitchen.

The recipes here make enough for four people - simply multiply for larger numbers.You could either serve the tabbouleh and baba ganoush with drinks as mezze which would be traditional or with the shish taouk. (In the former case you could serve a mixed salad and pitta bread or other flatbread with the meat)

Tabbouleh
Make this one hour before serving to allow the parsley to soften, but resist the temptation to prepare it several hours in advance as the parsley will oxidise and turn black.
2 tbsp bulgur wheat
1/2 onion
1 tomato
1 bunch parsley
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice & zest of 1/2 lemon
Sprinkle of chilli flakes, salt and pepper
Soak the bulgur wheat in double the quantity of boiling water and allow the water to absorb. Finely chop the onion, dice the tomato and then chop the parsley. Place all of this in a bowl and stir in the olive oil, lemon rind and juice and seasoning. Set aside for 45mins-1 hour before eating

Baba Ganoush
1 large aubergine
75ml tahini
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
salt & pepper
Pierce the aubergine like you would for a baking potato. Grill the aubergine for 20- 25 minutes until the skin is charred and the aubergine is shrivelled. If you want an extra smoky flavour, sear the skin over a gas flame, but it's not strictly necessary. When the aubergine's cooked, peel it and scoop out the flesh, place this in a sieve and press the liquid out - this gets rid of any bitter flavours. Then place the flesh in a bowl, mix in the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and season to taste. If the mixture is very thick, add a bit of water to make a more dippable consistency.

Shish Taouk with Garlic Toum
This is based on a dish I had at Fahlkredine. Note the chicken must be marinaded a day in advance to allow the flavours to develop
3 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp lemon
1/2 tsp salt
4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

Chop the garlic and onion, place in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Cover and chill in the fridge overnight. When you're ready to serve, preheat the grill, soak the skewers in water and then put 5-6 pieces of chicken on each skewer. Place on a rack or a roasting tin and grill under a high heat for 5-8 minutes (depending how hot your oven is and how big the chicken pieces are). Turn them once so they colour evenly and serve with the garlic toum dip. Be warned, this is not a dish for garlic-phobes!

Garlic Toum:
2 cloves garlic
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
150ml olive oil
salt & pepper
Crush the garlic, place in a bowl with the lemon juice and whisk in the olive oil as you would if you were making a mayonnaise. (Or do this in a food processor). For a fine textured sauce sieve the toum before serving, but it's delicious with the garlic pieces.

Pomegranate & Orange dessert with Cinnamon and Walnuts
1 pomegranate
1 orange for each person
1 tsp cinnamon
handful toasted walnuts
honey or orange blossom water if you have some
Score through the peel of each orange vertically as if you were cutting it into quarters. Place in a bowl and pour over boiling water. Leave for a couple of minutes then drain the water and remove the peel which should come away cleanly removing the pith. Slice the oranges horizontally 'across the grain', place them on a plate and add the pomegranate seeds, the walnuts and finally drizzle with the honey or orange blossom water, followed by a sprinkle of cinnamon. Chill until ready to serve.

What to drink: Given you're introducing a breath of summer into your New Year's Eve festivities why not serve a dry rosé? Provençal rosés, being rather more expensive than those from the southern Rhone or Languedoc would create a suitable sense of occasion. You could also serve a sweet wine with the dessert like the delectable Vin de Constance.

What to drink at Hallowe'en

Of all the festivities round this time of year Hallowe’en, with its ghouls and pumpkins, is definitely the most kitsch so if you’re inviting a few friends round to celebrate it’s a fun to theme the drinks.

Leave aside food and wine matching for the moment, I think we’re looking for wine - or beer - and occasion matching. Something with a spooky name would definitely be entering into the spirit of things - how about Bull’s Blood the famous Hungarian red, or Devil’s Lair Cabernet, a rather more refined red from the Margaret River region of Western Australia?

Or if you prefer white - and are prepared to splash out a bit how about the brilliant New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc I came across the other day called The Supernatural?

Beer too has its ghoulish bottlings - the British brewery Wychwood specialises in them. Hobgoblin - a strong dark ale - would probably be the most appropriate but there’s also a blonde ale called Wychcraft.

Many other breweries also have seasonal bottlings. Pumpkin ales - also perfect for Thanksgiving - would fit the bill perfectly (though don’t match them with pumpkin pie as the pie will probably be too sweet and cancel out the pumpkin flavour in the beer!). They'd be better with sausages.

An alternative approach would be to make colour your starting point. There are - surprisingly - many black or near-black drinks: stout and porter for a start - or serve a Black Velvet (half a glass of Guinness topped up with champagne). There’s also the aniseed flavoured liqueur Sambuca - not a favourite of mine but it would be quite effective at the end of a meal served in shots alongside shots of an orange liqueur like Grand Marnier and a green-coloured one like Chartreuse, crème-de-menthe or the melon-flavoured Midori. You can even buy black vodka (Blavod) and black whisky (Cu Dhub - meaning Black Dog) or how about this brilliantly spicy ready-made Bloody Mary called Bloodshot which you can buy, like The Supernatural from Lea & Sandeman and from some branches of Waitrose.

Of course you needn’t feel left out if you don’t drink. Teetotallers can sip black grape juice or, even better if you like the taste, prune juice. Again you can offer your guests a selection of other brightly coloured drinks such as bright red cranberry or pomegranate juice, orange mango juice or a green-coloured soft drink such as lime cordial or a kiwi fruit-based drink. Knowing kids they’ll probably mix all four to make an evil-coloured sludge. But hey, it is Hallowe’en . . .