8 great wine and other matches for Stollen

Although stollen is a bit lighter than the classic British Christmas baking some of the pairings I suggested with mince pies (like sweet sherry and tawny port) will work too . . .

As you no doubt know it’s a delicious yeasted German fruit bread, lightly spiced, filled with marzipan and dredged with icing sugar.

It’s the kind of thing you’d most likely have mid-afternoon or as a mid-morning snack so the most likely accompaniment would be coffee or tea. That said if you’ve got some in the house and are disinclined to make a pud you could have it after dinner with a glass of sweet wines. 

Here are 8 ideas that appeal to me.

Coffee

So obvious, perhaps that it doesn’t need saying but the great German tradition of kaffee und kuchen points to coffee with stollen rather than tea. 

Schnapps

Of all the fruit-flavoured schnapps I’d favour an apple or pear-flavoured one or similar Alsace eau-de-vie, apples and pears and almonds being a well-tried and tested flavour combination 

Spätlese, auslese or beerenauslese riesling

Germans make some great sweet wines with lovely acidity that would be a real treat with this festive bake. The Wine Society suggests a vendange tardive gewurztraminer. 

Dark rum

I like this idea more than malt whisky. It should work beautifully given the vanilla and brown sugar notes in many rums

Pineau de Charentes

An interesting suggestion from contributor Lucy Bridgers - this blend of grape must and cognac is normally drunk as an aperitif but would work really well with stollen. As would . . .

Cognac and other oak-aged brandies such as armagnac or Spanish brandy

Stollen recipes like this one often have a touch of brandy though a large cognac might possibly not be appropriate at tea-time ;-)

Marsala dolce

Less common than sweet sherry or madeira but I think rather well suited to pairing with marzipan and dried fruits. As is malaga.

Amaretto

Possibly an overkill on the almond front but if you like the taste of marzipan you may enjoy this extra level in your drink. I’d serve it well chilled or on the rocks, though.

Champagne, prosecco or sekt

It’s often forgotten that champagne is sweetened with a sugar solution called a dosage so although it might strike you as dry there’s a residual sweetness that makes it compatible with cake. And stollen isn’t that sweet. Sekt would of course be the more authentic choice but it’s hard to find a good one in the UK. And prosecco works well with panettone so should with stollen too.

Photo © Olga Bombologna at shutterstock.com

What wine to pair with goose

If you’ve decided to serve goose rather than turkey this Christmas you’ve already opted to be adventurous. So you could arguably be adventurous about your wine pairing too.

I say arguably because family members often get a bit odd around the festive season, digging their heels in and insisting on having something they’ve had hundreds - or at least tens of times - before.

Goose is, of course, stronger-flavoured than turkey - more like game but - crucially - quite a bit fattier which makes it essential in my book to look for a wine that has a fair level of acidity. It also tends to be accompanied by powerfully flavoured accompaniments such as chestnuts and red cabbage. Other traditional (and very good) accompaniments are potato stuffing, apples and prunes which can also affect your pairing:

Here are my suggested options...

Best wine pairings with goose

Top quality German or Alsace Grand Cru Riesling

Probably the best match of all if you’re planning an apple or apple and prune stuffing. A dry spätlese Riesling would be ideal, cutting through the fat and providing a subtle touch of sweetness. The drawback is that your guests may well expect a red - but there’s no reason why you can’t serve both. 

The best food pairings for riesling

Gewürztraminer

A bolder choice still for Christmas. Obviously it’s not to everyone’s taste but if you serve a slightly spicy stuffing, especially one that contains dried fruits and/or ginger it would make a great match. Again look for a top quality wine with some intensity from Alsace or New Zealand which is making some great examples.

The best food pairings for gewürztraminer

Barolo or Barbaresco

My preferred red wine with goose, Both have the structure and acidity to cope well with the rich flavour of the meat. They’re also impressive special occasion wines which is what you look for at Christmas. I wouldn’t be inclined to serve red cabbage with them though.

The best food pairings for Barolo and Barbaresco

Pinot Noir

Probably the most likely wine to please your guests and certainly the one to choose if you’re going for red cabbage, sweet potatoes or other richly flavoured veg. I’d choose an example with some sweet, silky fruit rather than big tannins otherwise you may suffer from palate overload.

The best food pairings for Pinot Noir 

Rioja gran reserva

A safe bet - just as good with goose as it is with game. Likely to be popular with older members of the party.

The best food pairings for Rioja 

Best beer pairings for goose

Strong Belgian trappist beers such as Chimay or beers made in that style

These are just as good a match for goose as wine is if truth be told but there are, admittedly, likely to be fewer takers. No harm in having one or two available though.

Oude gueuze

Probably the most off-the-wall choice on my list but for those who like it - and since writing my beer book An Appetite for Ale I now do - it’s a brilliant match.

A Goose Island beer

Well, why not? This Chicago-based bewery makes great beer and it would be a bit of a laugh to have a few bottles on the side. Wouldn’t go badly either. The most widely available one in the UK is the IPA (India Pale Ale).

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Planning ahead: The best wines to pair with your Christmas dinner

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What’s the best wine to drink with Christmas pudding? (Updated)

There is an argument that you don’t need anything to drink with the classic Christmas pudding*, especially if you’ve sloshed brandy all over it but if you’re pairing other courses of the Christmas meal you might fancy a small glass of something sweet.

How rich is your pudding?

Which type depends on your pudding. Some are much darker and stickier than others. Basically you’ve got a choice of serving something equally intense or going for a lighter, fresher contrast.

Both options have some potential drawbacks. If you serve a rich sweet wine like a liqueur muscat or an ultra-sweet sherry like a PX you can make an already rich pudding overwhelmingly rich. 

On the other hand a lighter dessert wine such as a Sauternes or a sparkling wine like Moscato, can get lost amidst all the rich spicy fruit.

In my view the type of wine that works best is a dessert wine with a touch of orange or apricot. Inexpensive options would be a Spanish Moscatel de Valencia (one of the best value dessert wines around), a Muscat de St Jean de Minervois from Southern France or an orange muscat such as Andrew Quady’s Essencia.

Better still but slightly pricier and harder-to-find would be a Passito di Pantelleria, a glorious marmaladey dessert wine from an island just off Sicily or a Hungarian Tokaji (the latter is also a particularly good match for Stilton and other blue cheeses).

And I recently enjoyed a marsala dolce which brought out all the rich dried fruit flavours in the pudding. A sweet madeira, where the sweetness is balanced by a lovely acidity, would work well too.

All these will work better if you serve your pudding with whipped cream rather than brandy butter which has a strong alcoholic flavour of its own.

If you can’t resist the brandy butter try a 10 or 20 year old tawny port which is slightly less sweet than a ruby port like a Late Bottled Vintage and I think the nutty, treacley flavours work better than brambley ones. Serve it as they do in Portugal, lightly chilled.

If you’re a beer fan you could also put a bottle of barley wine (an extra-strong ale) on the table. A classic example is J W Lees Harvest Ale.

Or serve your pud with a small well-chilled glass of Grand Marnier or other orange-flavoured liqueur.

*For those of you unfamiliar with a British Christmas pudding it’s a steamed pudding full of dried fruits like raisins, currants and figs, often with some citrus peel added.

Photo © Anna_Pustynnikova at shutterstock.com

You might also find the following useful:

8 great wine and other matches for stollen

8 great drinks to match with mince pies

10 top wine matches for a vegetarian (or vegan) Christmas

It’s a sign of the times that when I first wrote this post over 10 years ago I said “Vegetarians often get overlooked at this time of year” That’s obviously no longer the case but veggie - and vegan - options are now so numerous and so diverse it can be tricky to work out which wine would work best with them.

For a start it depends whether they’re hot like a Vegetarian Wellington or a whole. baked cauliflower or celeriac or cold like a crunchy salad. 

It also depends on the flavours - whether they’re classically Christmassy or zingy and spicy. The kind of food you want to wake up your palate just after Christmas.

I’ve picked 10 recipes from popular cookery writers including Felicity Cloake, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Diana Henry and Meera Sodha. 

Hopefully they’ll provide inspiration for Christmas eating as well as drinking ...

Felicity Cloake’s Vegetarian Wellington

The centre of this recipe is a glazed butternut squash surrounded by a mushroom-type stuffing. I’d probably go for a fruity pinot noir from, say, Chile or New Zealand’s Central Otago or a full-bodied chardonnay.

Thomasina Miers baked cauliflower with roast almond and prune mole

Mexican mole is dark and spicy so even though cauliflower is quite a mild-tasting vegetable this is a powerfully flavoured dish with which I’d probably drink a grenache or garnacha or a grenache/syrah/mourvedre (GSM) blend.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Vegan Tart

There’s not much in the title to tell you what’s in it but the flavours are quite simple and creamy, designed to fit in, I think, with Christmas sides like the chestnut and prune stuffing for which he also gives a recipe. On its own it’s the sort of dish I’d serve with a Chablis or a chenin blanc with the stuffing a rioja or a Côtes du Rhône.

Diana Henry’s Pumpkin, Chestnut and Stilton tart

You’ll have to get behind the paywall to access this but I think you’re allowed 3 free visits a month. (I’m not a Telegraph reader but I DO love Diana’s recipes). On its own I’d probably go for a rich chardonnay or a rich southern Rhône red like a Vacqueyras or Séguret - probably the latter if you make her potatoes with smoked butter and mushrooms on the side. A southern Italian red like a nero d’avola would also be good.

Melissa Clark’s Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole

I’m thinking pinot noir with this or a barolo if you feel like pushing the boat out. Again behind a paywall but it’s worth paying for the New York Times excellent food content.

Anna Jones celebration celeriac and sweet garlic pie

Anna Jones says of this pie, which you’ll also find in her ‘Modern Cooks’ Year’ “It’s everything I want in a pie: a cheddar and winter herb flaky pastry; a creamy filling, sweet with balsamic garlic and roasted celeriac; and a crisp, grated celeriac roof.” I

’m actually thinking of a good artisan cider with this but a merlot would be delicious too.

Sophie Godwin’s vegan Christmas wreath

A light, pretty centrepiece for the Christmas table that includes pops of cranberry and sour cherries as well as spinach and tofu. I’d probably go for a gamay but you could drink an Italian white like a gavi too.

Meera Sodha’s Sprout Nasi Goreng

This is the perfect recipe for after Christmas when you’re taste buds are feeling a bit jaded and you’re craving spicy food. It comes from Meera Sodha’s brilliant book East. With chillies, garlic and sesame it definitely needs an aromatic white like an Australian riesling

and two veggie stalwarts ...

Nut roast
You probably already have your favourite nut roast recipe and I’ve already posted some suggestions for wine pairings but if you’re making it for the first time you might want to trawl through these 10 nut roast recipes that won’t let you down from the Guardian

The trimmings without the turkey
Personally I tend to head for the southern Rhône with my Christmas dinner and would whether it was veggie or not. You need a big rich exuberant red so shiraz would also work well as would a malbec.

Top photo of a roast cauliflower is by Magdanatka at shutterstock.com though not of the recipes in the post