The best pairings for sweet oloroso and PX sherry

Sherry gets a bad rap for being granny’s tipple of choice but if you’ve never tried an authentic Spanish style sweet sherry you haven’t lived.

There are two main kinds: sweet olorosos (though no longer officially referred to as that) which are aged without a protective layer of flor (yeast) and which I always think taste like liquid Christmas pudding and intensely treacley PX which is made from raisined pedro ximenez grapes. And cheaper cream sherries which are sweetened olorosos.

They are, of course, delicious to sip on their own but here’s some suggested pairings

Sweet oloroso and dark cream sherries

Blue cheese such as Stilton, Dorset Blue Vinney, Gorgonzola and Cabrales, especially with grilled figs

Mature Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan) or Grana Padano

Mature sheeps cheeses such as Manchego

Mince pies

Eccles cakes

Panforte

Stollen

Christmas cake

Turron (Spanish nougat)

Dried fruits such as figs, raisins and dates

Nuts, especially brazil nuts

Pecan pie and walnut tarts

Pumpkin pie

Tiramisu

Chocolate creme brulée

Chocolate chip cookies

Coffee-flavoured cakes and desserts

Barbados cream/muscovado cream (see Nigella recipe here)

Caramelised banana desserts such as banana tatin

Millionaire's shortbread (shortbread with a toffee and chocolate topping)

Bitter orange- and marmalade-flavoured cakes

Gingerbread

Game terrine (I’d generally go for a drier sherry but it can work as you can see here)

Foie gras, if you eat it.

PX sherry

Ice cream especially vanilla, rum and raisin, brown bread and salted caramel ice cream (poured over as well as drunk with)

Dark chocolate

Chocolate brownies

Chocolate sorbet as in this delicious dessert

Intense, dark chocolate tarts

 

More food and sherry matches:

• The best food pairings for dry oloroso sherry
• The best food pairings for amontillado and palo cortado
• The best food pairings for fino and manzanilla sherry

 

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

I suspect many of you decide what you’re going to eat for Christmas and buy in wine without connecting the one with the other. From a food pairing point of view ,however, it would obviously be better to plan your drinking around the meals you’ve decided to make.

So what are the best wines to pair with Christmas dinner? Here’s a quick guide, pulling together the various Christmas posts on the website to help you choose what to buy

Which wine should I serve with the turkey

First of all the centrepiece of the traditional Christmas dinner. If you’re serving turkey what is the best wine to choose? Remember it’s more about the stuffing, sauces and sides than the bird itself - you want a wine as bright and fruity as the cranberry sauce you dollop on the plate! I’d go for a fruity red like a Central Otago pinot noir, a velvety merlot or a shiraz. You can find other suggestions here

Top wines to drink with turkey

What wine goes with Christmas ham?

There’s usually a glaze on Christmas ham which calls for a wine with a touch of sweetness - much the same type as you’d serve with turkey, actually which makes life easy if you’re serving them both at the same time. I also have a soft spot for Beaujolais, especially once the ham is cold or a rich jammy grenache

Six of the best wine pairings with Christmas ham

I’m having goose - what wine should I pair with that?

Ah, slightly different register here. Goose is a darker, more savoury meat then turkey but also quite fatty so you need a wine with the acidity to cut through. Personally I’d go for an Italian red like a barolo or chianti but a spätlese riesling from Germany or grand cru riesling from Alsace would also be delicious if the family don't insist on a red.

What wine to pair with goose

How do I kick the day off? Which wine should I serve before the Christmas meal?

Well champagne’s the obvious festive choice isn’t it or, a sparkling wine that's more local to you (an English sparkling wine in my case). Both are perfect if you’re having a few nibbles before the meal rather than a starter which is what we tend to do. You could also serve a good Chablis or Loire sauvignon blanc like Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé both of which go well with seafood like oysters or smoked salmon.

10 different drinks to pair with smoked salmon

Should I serve wine with the Christmas pudding?

Go for it! I prefer a richer dessert wine like muscat or moscatel rather than a light, lemony one like Sauternes. Moscatel de Valencia or passito di Pantelleria would both be delicious with all that dried fruit.

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

If you’re serving a French style buche de Noël or other chocolate yule log, you could could go for a sweet RED like a Maury or a recioto della Valpolicella

The best wine and liqueur pairings for a chocolate yule log

And does it have to be sherry with mince pies?

Of course it doesn’t *have* to but Santa might be disappointed if you forgot his glass. Cream sherry, of course! A sweet madeira is also great with mince pies as is mulled wine . . .

8 great drinks to match with mince pies

What about a pairing for Christmas cake?

Whisky! Honestly! Trust me. It’s so delicious particularly if it’s been aged in a sherry cask. Or a rich Irish whiskey like Midleton Rare. Or try an Aussie Rutherglen muscat.

What about the Christmas cheeseboard?

Cheese is a whole other subject! Port of course is traditional at Christmas, particularly with Stilton but there are other good options such as sherry (yes, again) and madeira. Or whatever red wine you’ve been enjoying with the main course ...

Dive into into one of these posts:

8 great drinks to match with stilton

How to create a great Christmas cheeseboard

Photograph ©Lightfield Studios at shutterstock.com

Which foods pair best with tawny port?

We rarely think of tawny port as a flexible pairing for food. We serve it with stilton, obviously and with hard cheeses like cheddar, with nuts and dried fruits and over Christmas with fruit cake and mince pies but that’s usually as far as it goes.

True, its sweetness suggests desserts and cakes rather than savoury dishes but like other strong dessert wines it can do sterling service at the start of a meal, particularly if it’s - as is increasingly fashionable - lightly chilled. And even with sweet things you should ensure - as is the case with other dessert wines - that your dessert is not far sweeter than your port.

On the spot
A Portuguese favourite with tawny port are the rich eggy pastries that you find in the pastelerias (patisseries) and creamy desserts such as crème caramel. Figs and (elvas) plums are also considered good matches. (According to Christian Seely of Quinta do Noval tawny is superb with fig tart) My own star match, improbable as it might sound, is bread pudding, a brilliant combination I came across on a visit to Lisbon a few years ago.

Sheep's cheeses also work well especially what is by common consent one of Portugal’s finest, the rich creamy Queijo Serra - highly prized by cheese connoisseurs

Why not try:
10 year old tawnies with:

• sherry-style with salted roast almonds

• chicken or duck liver parfait or other meaty pâtés and terrines

• presunto (Portuguese air dried ham) or Spanish jamon iberico

• pecan, almond or walnut tart or cakes

• apple, pear or banana tatin

• a compote of dried fruits

• crème brûlée

• cheesecake (without red fruits)

• ginger-flavoured cakes and puddings

See also my post on caramel-flavoured desserts and tawny port

20 year old tawnies with:

• foie gras - a rich, nutty alternative to Sauternes, it will pick up on a sweet accompaniment such as balsamic vinegar or prunes

• roast lobster (according to Calem)

• feathered game such as pheasant and partridge

• hard sheep's milk cheeses such as Ossau Iraty and Manchego, mature Gouda, parmesan

• dark, bitter chocolate and chocolate truffles (Valrhona’s Caraibe and Choua are recommended by the Chocolate Society)

• biscotti

• panforte di Siena

• roasted chestnuts (a great suggestion from Jose Carneiro of Wiese & Krohn)

In the kitchen
Tawny port is a useful ingredient for any cook to have to hand, especially for deglazing pans. It works particularly well with chicken livers, lambs liver and kidneys and will also add richness to slow-braised meat sauces.You can also use it as a base for a sabayon or zabaglione

A version of this article was first published in Decanter magazine

Image ©anna_shepulova at Adobe Stock.

Best beers for Christmas

How many of you will be putting beer on the table at Christmas? Not that many, I suspect, but if you can bring yourself to break with tradition you could be in for a treat. Most supermarkets now carry a sufficiently wide range for you to be able to serve a different beer with each course, should you be so minded. And here’s how to do it:

• As an aperitif or with the smoked salmon I suggest a good quality pilsner or a fragrant cloudy witbier like Hoegaarden or a Bavarian weissbier

• With turkey I’d go for a blonde beer like Leffe, a strong Belgian ale such as Duvel or an American IPA such as Goose Island IPA

• With the pudding - or Christmas cake - you could try a stout or a porter such as Meantime’s (the strong, dark, bitter flavour of the beer will be a great contrast to the sweet, sticky dried fruits) and with the cheese, especially the Stilton, I recommend a vintage ale such as J.W.Lees Harvest ale or other barley wine

There are a number of seasonal beers around such as Young’s fruity, spicy Christmas Pudding Ale but I suggest you again drink those with the cheese or enjoy them on their own rather than pairing them with Christmas pudding, as the name perhaps suggests. The sweet, spicy pudding will knock out the same flavours in the beer leaving you with a dry thin-tasting drink.

For more seasonal beer drinking ideas, check out these posts: 

• Which beer to drink on New Year’s Eve?
• 5 great beer pairings for roast turkey

Image © ELEVATE