Christmas pairings with port, sherry and madeira

You may well have given a fair amount of thought by now to what you’ll be drinking with your turkey or goose and have set treasured bottles of Bordeaux or Burgundy aside for the main Christmas meal. But what about all the other occasions over the festive period which these days tends to stretch a good 10 days into the early New Year?

If your house is anything like mine you will have wildly overcatered and your fridge, storecupboard and cellar will be overflowing with ingredients and bottles that might be required for unexpected guests.

You will also, I guess, have many occasions when a snack rather than a meal is required or when you simply can’t face making a pudding on top of all the other cooking you’re doing.

This is when your battery of fortified wines comes into its own, turning a scratch meal into a treat, creating an unusual and tempting cheeseboard or, along with a selection of festive cakes, biscuits, dried fruits or chocolates, keeping the sweet-toothed happy at the end of a meal.

Here is a selection of ideas for seasonal food and fortified wine pairings, some classic, others a little more off-beat.

Fino and Manzanilla sherry

In danger of being overlooked amidst all the bottles of port and sweeter sherries, a fresh fino or manzanilla is exactly what you need as a refreshing Christmas pick-me-up. You can obviously drink it with olives (especially green ones), nuts (I’d suggest Spanish Marcona almonds which are particularly delicious) and tapas such as chorizo, serrano ham and Manchego cheese but this style of sherry is also particularly good with strongly flavoured seafood such as garlic prawns and smoked fish (surprisingly it’s one of the best wine matches I’ve found with smoked salmon).

You could also pour a glass with a few crostini or toast spread with those excellent inexpensve fish patés which you can now buy in any supermarket or even drink it with an antipasti plate of mixed salamis and grilled vegetables. A must for every Christmas fridge.

Pale cream sherries and white port

Particularly delicious with fresh fruit-based starter salads such melon and ham or pear and blue cheese or with fresh fruit desserts such as a fruit salad (served well chilled like a dessert wine). An attractive and unusual pairing for milder blue cheeses such as blue Brie, Gorgonzola dolce or with panettone.

Dry amontillado sherry/palo cortado/dry (e.g. verdelho) madeira

A fuller, richer style of sherry or madeira that also goes particularly well with nuts especially almonds, brazil nuts and hazelnuts (try it with the middle eastern spiced nut and seed dip, dukkah) It is also a less conventional, but successful partner for hard cheeses such as cheddar, Manchego and other sheeps cheeses.

It’s great strength though is with the fabulous Spanish jamon iberico and with hot tapas such as mushrooms in sherry and ‘albondigas’ (little meatballs) that make a good snack meal during the holiday period. Serve cool rather than at room temperature or fridge-cold.

Dry oloroso sherry/full-flavoured dry madeira

Producers at sherry dinners often partner this style of sherry with main course game dishes such as partridge or pheasant. It’s always an impressive match but one I think we’re all less linclined to indulge in over Christmas when there are so many good bottles of red wine around.

Leftovers though are another matter. This style of sherry and madeira is the perfect ingredient to jazz up a few tasty morsels of cold pheasant, duck or, best of all, goose or a sandwich made with any of those meats. It’s also the perfect accompaniment for a cold game pie or a rough country paté or terrine. I also tend to reach for this style of sherry with smoked meats such as duck, and venison and with cured meats such as bresaola and it makes a good match with strong hard cheeses such as mature Gouda, Mimolette, Parmigiano Reggiano and Asiago.

While you’ve got the bottle open, a dash - heretical though it may sound to suggest it - also does wonders for a gravy or a rich beefy stew.

Sweet oloroso sherry/bual madeira, malaga, sweet moscatel

Sweet oloroso sherries, madeiras and moscatels can taste like Christmas pudding themselves so you may feel it’s overkill serving them wtith a Christmas cake or pudding. I’m not so sure about that. Christmas is a time for overindulgence so on the basis that you can’t have too much of a good thing I’d suggest adding a generous dollop of mascarpone or ice cream to your pud which will show off the puddingy flavours of your wine to perfection. T

They’ll also go with other Christmas bakery such as Stollen, panforte and similar products such as the delicious Australian Norcia Nutcake (in fact almost anything with dried fruits such as figs, dates or prunes). I once had an old Bual with a prune sabayon and it was a wonderful match.

You could also, if you fancied a break from mince pies, lay out a selection of Spanish nougat (turron), biscuits such as Polvorones and Ines Rosales (sweet olive oil-based biscuits) and dried fruits such as figs, dates and large moscatel raisins and serve them with sweet sherry instead of a dessert as a kind of sweet tapas.

And for another break with tradition why not try sweet sherry or madeira rather than port with your cheeseboard, especially with richly flavoured cheeses such as Mimolette and blue cheeses such as Gorgonzola or Cabrales.

PX sherry and Malmsey madeira

Almost too rich to serve with anything else sweet with the possible exception of vanilla ice cream or - a signature dish at London’s much loved restaurant Moro - Malaga raisin ice cream with Pedro Ximenez. The temperature helps cut the sweetness. The sherry adds a real luxury note to the ice cream.

Late bottled vintage and other younger ruby ports/vin doux naturels such as Banyuls and Maury/late harvest Zinfandel

Dark chocolate is the pairing par excellence for these dark, rich brambly wines, especially chocolate desserts that incorporate cherries or other red fruits. Young ports really will cope where other dessert wines falter. Try them lightly chilled with a buche de Noel (French style chocolate ‘log’ or roulade)

They’re also particularly good with blue cheese, most famously stilton (though I do think at Christmas vintage port has the edge as I’ve suggested below). Why not serve an all-blue cheeseboard for a change including a mild blue for those who can’t cope with stronger flavours?

A snack of a warm mince pie, a couple of fine slices of crumbly Stilton and a small glass of Late Bottled Vintage port goes down particularly well when you can’t face anything more substantial to eat. And don’t forget port makes a great addition to any mulled wine.

Tawny port

Probably my favourite Christmas drink because it’s so versatile. You can drink it chilled as an aperitif like an amontillado sherry, serve it as a substitute for dessert wines (especially with any dried fruit or nut-based dessert or bring it out with the cheese (it has a particular affinity with sheeps cheese and membrillo (Spanish quince paste) and with Cheddar)

The best pairings with depend on the age of the wine. The older the tawny the more likely it is to go with raisiny, figgy flavours - 20 year old tawny is an excellent companion for Christmas cake. Younger, 10 year old ports especially modern styles like Otima, are particularly good with any dessert that has a caramel or toffee note - creme brulée, apple or banana tatins or sticky toffee pudding for example.

They’re excellent with nut-based tarts like walnut or pecan pie, with pumpkin pie (I’m getting hungry, here) or plain, moist, densely-textured cakes like madeira and pound cake. You could also sip a chilled young tawny with panettone as an alternative to Vin Santo. And they’re an indulgent partner for a dried fruit compote.

Vintage port

The bottle you’re most likely to have open at Christmas I would guess. And yes, it probably is the ultimate match for Stilton, in terms of what people expect though it’s an equally good pairing with mature Cheddar. To assist the combination I would suggest you lay on some quality dried fruits such as moscatel raisins or fresh Medjool dates.

Like late bottled vintage port, vintage port is also good with chocolate - a flattering accompaniment to top quality hand-made chocolates and artisanal chocolate bars or (particularly delicious) chocolate covered figs.

This article was first published in the December 2007 issue of Decanter magazine.

Photo © philipbird123 @fotolia.com

8 great drinks to match with mince pies (updated)

Mince pies are so popular we all start eating them well before Christmas so what’s the best drink to pair with them?

If you’re sneaking one as an afternoon snack it’s most likely to be a cup of tea but they do pair particularly well with fortified wines like port, sherry and madeira, wines that also go well with Christmas cake in case that’s on the menu too.

For those of you who don’t live in the UK and are unfamiliar with mince pies, they’re a small sweet pie traditionally made from minced meat but nowadays made with dried fruits such as currants, raisins and sultanas.

Although there lots of variations on mince pies nowadays I’m thinking mainly of the classic mince pie ‘cos Christmas is all about tradition ... 

* Mulled wine - Never mind the match it’s just what you offer the carol singers on Christmas Eve isn’t it? To tell the truth - whisper it - mulled cider is just as good. Find my favourite recipes here

* Sweet sherry - again a traditional pairing and I think a good one. One of my favourites is Matusalem but own label cream sherries are perfectly good.

* Sweet madeira - less traditional than sherry, but just as delicious. Basic blended madeiras like Blandy’s Duke of Clarence, are fine otherwise look for a Bual or Malmsey

* Tawny port - you may be used to drinking a ruby port like a Late Bottled Vintage but why not try a nutty 10 Year Old Tawny for a change? Otima is a modern interpretation that goes particularly well with mince pies

* Sweet port-like wines from the south of France like Banyuls, Rivesaltes and Maury - maybe a little harder to track down but ideal if you want something different

* Barley wine - which is not actually a wine but a strong, sweet-tasting beer. Any indie with a decent beer range should have one.

* Christmas ales - I’m never totally convinced about Christmas ales with savoury food - except perhaps ham - but they’re great with Christmas baking.

* Black tea Which you might think hardly bears saying but try making it from loose leaf tea, in a pot rather than with a teabag and taste the difference.

photo by Monika Borys For Unsplash+

3 things you need to think about when pairing wine with chocolate

Chocolate is supposed to be impossible to match with wine but like any other ingredient it depends on the chocolate and how it’s used.

In general I’d discourage you from serving a lighter dessert wines like Sauternes but if the chocolate flavour is not too intense and some kind of fresh fruit (strawberries or passionfruit, say) is involved it should be fine.

If you’re trying to find a wine pairing for chocolate it helps to ask yourself these three questions. (The answer may not necessarily be wine!)

What kind of chocolate?

Are you trying to match milk chocolate or dark chocolate or even white chocolate though some would argue that isn’t really chocolate at all? The lighter the chocolate - and the airier your dessert - the easier your task is. See these suggestions for chocolate mousse for example. With a chilled chocolate soufflé you could even serve a glass of bubbly, rosé champagne or sparkling wine for preference.

What are you serving with it?

Think of the fruits that match with chocolate and it’ll give you a clue as to which wines - and other drinks - work too. Cherries are great with dark chocolate for instance and would make a sweet red dessert wine like a Maury or a late bottled vintage port a good match (or a cherry beer or liqueur).

Orange and chocolate? A well-tried and tested combination. An orange-flavoured moscatel or marmaladey Tokaji will echo those flavours . Dried fruit like raisins and figs pair with chocolate too as does a figgy, raisiny sweet sherry or madeira while a chocolate dessert with nuts is a great match for a tawny port or amaretto.

(See this post on the best matches for a chocolate yule log which vary depending on the filling.)

Is it hot or cold?

A cold chocolate dessert is easier to match than a hot one, the trickiest being a molten chocolate fondant pudding. Serving it with cream or ice-cream will help but you’re still better to choose a fortified like a liqueur muscat rather a conventional dessert wine (PX sherry, I've discovered, is insanely good with warm chocolate brownies and ice cream.) Oddly enough a dark beer like a porter or imperial stout is particularly good with molten chocolate puds as you can see from this post.

Image © al62 - Fotolia.com

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The best wine and liqueur pairings for a chocolate yule log

A chocolate yule log or ‘buche de Noël has become an increasingly popular dessert at Christmas but what kind of wine should you pair with it?

As usual with chocolate it depends how intense the flavour is and what the log is filled with.

A simple shop-bought log filled with whipped cream or a light buttercream doesn’t need as powerful a wine as a rich home-made one with, say, a chestnut filling.

You may of course feel that a sweet wine is over the top with something that’s already incredibly sweet and that you’d rather have a cup of black coffee or tea with it. But it is Christmas and I suspect most of you probably won’t!

Here’s what I’d suggest:

* For a shop-bought log I’d go for a Brachetto d’Acqui - a sweet, gently fizzy Italian red wine that isn’t too high in alcohol. If you’re serving it with fresh berries you could even serve a sparkling rosé or rosé champagne

* With a slightly richer homemade log with a chocolate cream filling you could try a stronger sweet red wine such as a recioto della Valpolicella, Maury or a black muscat like Elysium. If it’s flled with boozy cherries try a vintage character or late bottled vintage port.

* With a log with orange in the sponge or filling like this chocolate and clementine log try an orange muscat, Passito di Pantelleria, a lovely marmaladey dessert wine from an island off the coast of Sicily or a South African straw wine. Or you could serve an iced shot of Cointreau

* With a rich chocolate and chestnut yule log like this rather delicious-sounding version from Felicity Cloake I’d go for a dark cream sherry or sweet oloroso sherry, sweet madeira or Australian liqueur muscat

* If there are nuts or Nutella on or in your log as in this recipe try a tawny port or, if it includes almonds, a glass of amaretto.

What I personally wouldn’t go for:

Sauternes or similarly citrussy dessert wines - simply because I’d rather have orange flavours than lemony ones with chocolate. Ordinary non-vintage champagne because it’s too dry (though a demi-sec champagne would be fine with lighter recipes) and Asti because it’s a bit too light. But if you disagree go for it!

What other drinks have you enjoyed with a Yule log?

You may also find these other suggestions for what to drink with Christmas desserts useful:

Wine matches for Christmas pudding

Wine matches for mince pies

Wine matches for trifle

Photo © noirchocolate - Fotolia.com