Galette des Rois and Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois

As the kids were off home straight after the New Year we jumped the gun by a few days with the last of the seasonal treats, a celebratory galette des rois. Traditionally eaten in France on the 6th of January (Twelfth Night) it celebrates the arrival of the three kings to visit the infant Jesus.

Recipes differ but in our part of the world the galette is a puff pastry pie filled with frangipane, a soft almond filling and always conceals a surprise gift. Traditionally this was a bean, a symbol of fertility, but now can take any shape (ours was a bee!) Whoever finds the gift in their slice becomes king or queen for the day and is entitled to wear the golden paper crown which decorates the outside of the cake.

To drink I picked a bottle of Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois not because it’s the perfect match (though it’s a perfectly good one) but because it’s a local one and my new year’s resolution is to buy local whenever possible*. Pastry and almonds is a forgiving combination so almost any other light dessert wine would be good too. Or for a final post-Christmas treat, a glass of demi-sec Champagne.* See the reason for the resolution here.

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Turron and sweet sherry

One of the nicest Christmas traditions I've picked up along the years is the Spanish habit of serving a platter of sweetmeats at the end of the meal or on other occasions when you want something sweet. It usually includes different kinds of turron, the Spanish version of nougat which comes in soft and hard versions, some with whole almonds, some without. To that you could add some polvorones (delicious almond cookies) large Moscatel raisins, figs and dates and even a few chocolate truffles if you like.

If you don't have a shop that sells authentic Spanish turron you can probably find French nougat (especially if you stop at a service station in the Rhône Valley as we did at the end of last week. I've never seen so much nougat in my life!)

With it I suggest you offer small glasses of genuine sweet oloroso sherry - my favourite being Gonzalez Byass Matusalem which is made from sherries that have an average age of 30 years. It's also wonderful with mince pies and Christmas cake and even as an alternative to port with stilton.

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Braised pheasant with chestnuts and Vacqueyras

Our final pre-Christmas meal at our favourite local restaurant Culinaria the other night was a real feast of winter flavours. Unusually every dish went well with the bottle we chose, a 2005 Vacquéyras Cuvée des Templiers from Le Clos des Cazaux, a wonderfully full-flavoured blend of Syrah and Grenache that was as good as many minor Châteauneuf-du-Pâpes I’ve tasted. A real treat.

I’ve singled out the braised pheasant with chestnuts as the star match because that was the most pitch-perfect combination but my braised shoulder of mutton with root vegetables and pearl barley also went very well with it. So did our two starters, a deep-flavoured game terrine served with spiced onions and an unusual but incredibly moreish dish of braised squid with fennel, leek and orange which had a subtle touch of Moroccan spicing.

Incidentally before choosing the Vacquéyras we hovered over a 2002 Cune Rioja reserva which I think would also have worked well with this robustly flavoured style of food.

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Fish pie and Chardonnay

With just over three weeks to go to Christmas it’s time to begin planning your holiday drinking if you haven’t done so already. You may have already decided what to eat and drink for the Big Meal itself but chances are you’ll have to provide several other meals over the holiday period for which it’s useful to have an appropriate bottle.

Fish pie is a family favourite in our household not least because it provides a contrast to all the rich turkey and nibbles that seem to dominate our eating for several days. It also has the virtue of being able to be made ahead. I generally make it with cod, prawns and a few tiny queen scallops all folded into a creamy sauce with a mashed potato topping.

Winewise I think it’s hard to beat a fresh young unoaked or very lightly oaked Chardonnay as a companion. I recently came across just such a one in the charmingly named St-Bris le Vineux outside Auxerre from an organically run property called Ghislaine et Jean-Hugues Goisot. It’s a Côtes d’Auxerre 2006 and just delightfully fresh and crisp. Unfortunately they are pretty well sold out of this year’s vintage so that unless you’re passing the domaine or in a good independent French wine merchant you may find it hard to get a bottle but there are many other simple, modest white burgundies - or cool climate Chardonnays from elsewhere - that would do an equally effective job. What you should be looking for is clean, citrussy rather than tropical fruit.