Pairings | Christmas

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

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.

10 offbeat Christmas wine pairings to suggest to your customers

10 offbeat Christmas wine pairings to suggest to your customers

One of the reasons people most appreciate independent wine merchants is that they can talk to them about the kind of wine that will suit the meals or occasions they're planning.

Six of the best wine pairings for Christmas ham

Six of the best wine pairings for Christmas ham

If you're serving a ham or gammon as a roast this Christmas you need a more substantial wine with it than when you serve ham as a cold cut. Which one depends on the glaze.

What wine to pair with goose

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 for goose, too.

Wine with Turkey: Six Crowd-Pleasing Pairings

Wine with Turkey: Six Crowd-Pleasing Pairings

You may already have your own favourite wine pairing for turkey but if you're looking for inspiration here are some wines that I think go with turkey best.

Some food and wine pairing tips from What Food What Wine? 2012

Some food and wine pairing tips from What Food What Wine? 2012

I’ve just spent the past two days at What Food What Wine? tasting wine alongside dishes as disparate as smoked salmon and apple crumble, Stilton and steak and lasagne and lamb - a bit of an assault on the palate (and stomach!) but one of the best ways to work out what wine really works with your favourite recipes

Which foods pair best with whisky?

Which foods pair best with whisky?

I’ve been a bit of a sceptic in the past about pairing food with whisky. Not that there aren’t some great combinations but I find it hard to sustain for more than one dish.

The best food pairings for Tokaji Aszu

The best food pairings for Tokaji Aszu

Tokaj or Tokaji Aszu from Hungary is one of the most historic and delicious dessert wines which now has it’s own dedicated day on December 10th but if you’re looking for the ideal food pairing you can take it much further than the dessert course.

5 great beer pairings for roast turkey

5 great beer pairings for roast turkey

Even those who normally drink beer feel the need to have wine with turkey but beer is actually just as good, if not a better accompaniment.

New Christmas traditions: my 24 hour post-Christmas break

New Christmas traditions: my 24 hour post-Christmas break

It’s the evening of December 27th and my daughter and I are holed up in the luxurious Rosewood hotel in London tucking into a club sandwich (her) and a lobster macaroni cheese (me) on room service.

Is Aldi or Lidl better value for your Christmas wine?

Is Aldi or Lidl better value for your Christmas wine?

Just as UKIP has shaken up the political landscape so Aldi and Lidl have changed the face of retailing in the UK. You might not have considered buying your wine there before but you certainly should this Christmas.

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

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

It’s a sign of the times that when I first wrote this post 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.

10 excuses to drink champagne this Christmas and New Year holiday

10 excuses to drink champagne this Christmas and New Year holiday

Given the amount of champagne that’s on special offer at the moment you’d think people would drink nothing else but most I suspect will just have a celebratory glass before Christmas lunch or to see in the new year.

8 great bottles to give for Christmas 2022

8 great bottles to give for Christmas 2022

Bottles might seem like a bit of a cop-out but they're a treat that the recipient is unlikely to buy for themselves. Here are some that are a bit out of the ordinary ...

Polish spiced Christmas cookies

Polish spiced Christmas cookies

Even if you don't normally bake it's worth taking the time at Christmas and what could be more perfect than this Polish spiced Christmas cookie recipe from Ren Behan's lovely book Wild Honey & Rye

Christmas pudding and cognac

Christmas pudding and cognac

Sometimes the simplest pairings elude you. If you flambé a Christmas pudding with brandy why on earth shouldn’t you drink brandy - or rather cognac - with it too?

Christmas cake and Rutherglen muscat

Christmas cake and Rutherglen muscat

Funny, isn’t it, how there are lots of pairings for mince pies but few for Christmas cake. Maybe that’s because we tend to eat it mid-afternoon well before wine o’clock but that could equally apply to Christmas pudding for which I also have plenty of recommendations.

Wine for turkey: the difference between a Thanksgiving turkey and a British Christmas turkey

Wine for turkey: the difference between a Thanksgiving turkey and a British Christmas turkey

Looking at the recipes online for Thanksgiving turkeys, stuffings and sides they’re very much sweeter (and more imaginative) than the typical UK Christmas turkey. They’re often brined, glazed or spiced (or all three), sometimes deep-fried and often accompanied by cornbread-based stuffings and sweet-tasting vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash.

How to create a great Christmas cheeseboard

How to create a great Christmas cheeseboard

The question I’m often asked at this time of year is what makes the perfect Christmas cheeseboard. It’s as difficult a question as what makes the perfect Christmas lunch.

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

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

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 to create the perfect Christmas cheeseboard

Those of you who've looked up my recommendations on cheese before will have picked up that I'm not a big fan of large cheeseboards. Especially with red wine. But at Christmas people tend to expect them so how do you create as harmonious as match as possible?

Dark, sticky Christmas cake with prunes and Guinness

This delicious cake, which comes from my book An Appetite for Ale, is based on a recipe from one of Britain's best bakers Dan Lepard. Do use organic dried fruit in it - you’ll get a much better result.

10 wines I enjoyed in 2019 that I'd like you to try too

10 wines I enjoyed in 2019 that I'd like you to try too

Why do we enjoy making (and, hopefully, reading), lists? I guess for some, like the “top-5” obsessed staff at Nick Hornby’s imaginary record store in High Fidelity, the idea of selection and hierarchy has inherent merit. For others, it can be the idea of taxonomies: putting some order into the chaos. Probably for all of us, the opportunity of thinking back to what we have experienced is what makes a landmark special. So, with the New Year approaching, I thought back to the wines that marked 2019 for me.

What to buy the winelover who has everything

Some of the most difficult people to buy presents for are serious wine collectors. Unless you have a cellar of your own from which to pluck a suitable bottle it’s quite hard to find something that will ring their bell (obscure sweet wines and sherries, I generally find, being the best bets)

Spiced almond biscuits

Spiced almond biscuits

One of the most captivating cookbooks this year is Anja Dunk's Advent a book of 'festival German bakes to celebrate the coming of Christmas'. It's full of the most amazing recipes and beautifully illustrated with lovely photographs and linocuts.

The 2020 Matching Food & Wine cookbook giftlist

The 2020 Matching Food & Wine cookbook giftlist

Thanks - or rather no thanks - to Covid I’ve spent more time cooking from cookbooks this year than any other I can remember. And actually cooking from a book really separates the wheat from the chaff. Or the the sheep from the goats or whatever.

How to cook a turkey without having a breakdown

How to cook a turkey without having a breakdown

There’s a myth that cooking a Christmas turkey is simple - a slightly souped up version of an ordinary Sunday roast. In fact it’s quite tricky because of the size of the bird and the number of other things you have to get ready at the same time.

Cranberry gin sling jellies with spiced cream

Cranberry gin sling jellies with spiced cream

A simple and delicious Christmas dessert from my mate Sarah Randell, food director of Sainsbury's Magazine, which combines two of my favourite things, jelly and cocktails.

Roast turkey and Chivite Coleccion 125 reserva 2001

Roast turkey and Chivite Coleccion 125 reserva 2001

A bit of a departure with the turkey this Christmas - a magnum of Chivite Coleccion 125 from Navarra we unearthed in a cellar sort-out the other day. It's based on Tempranillo with a proportion of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon - I'm not sure what the percentages were that year - but was probably at the optimum moment for drinking - the fruit still bright but super-smooth and beautifully in balance.

Roast turkey and 2009 Beaujolais

Roast turkey and 2009 Beaujolais

We decided some time ago we were going to drink Beaujolais with our turkey in memory of the late Marcel Lapierre who very sadly died back in September. I thought his vibrant fruity 2009 Morgon would be ideal with the classic Christmas feast and so it proved to be, mirroring the tartness and fruitiness of the cranberry sauce.

Celeriac, leek, chestnut and cranberry pies

Celeriac, leek, chestnut and cranberry pies

If you're vegetarian - or catering for one - you expect more than the Christmas sides while everyone else tucks into the turkey. This delicious pie from Rachel Demuth of Demuths Cookery School in Bath fits the bill perfectly.

A Champagne (or sparkling wine) tasting and Russian-style smoked salmon and 'caviar' feast

A Champagne (or sparkling wine) tasting and Russian-style smoked salmon and 'caviar' feast

In the run-up Christmas there’s not much time for time-consuming dinner parties so this tasting and light supper is a fun and indulgent way to entertain good friends. Ask each of them to bring a chilled* bottle of bubbly - Champagne or otherwise - provide a couple of your own, cover up the bottles and taste them ‘blind’. Great fun for a start to see who can spot the ‘real’ Champagne (don’t worry if you can’t - many professionals are fooled by these kind of exercises) and a delicious way to get into festive mood.

Tarte au citron with Helmut Lang Beerenauslese Chardonnay

Tarte au citron with Helmut Lang Beerenauslese Chardonnay

Citrus flavours are difficult to match with wine, as I’ve mentioned before, but a classic lemon tart with its combination of sharpness and sweetness is particularly tricky. The better a tart is the more it will tend to strip the flavour out of any accompanying wine, so much so that it’s almost worth serving a shop-bought one (of which there are some very good examples) if you have a serious dessert wine to show off.

Roast goose with Nebbiolo

Roast goose with Nebbiolo

As a chef friend who recently took over a farm had some geese to get rid of we had goose for our main Christmas meal this year - stuffed somewhat improbably with hay (long story. Not such a good idea!)

Fish pie and Chardonnay

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.

Saltram Mamre Brook Shiraz 2008

Saltram Mamre Brook Shiraz 2008

If you want to drink interesting wine pop into your local indie. Shouldn’t need saying but even I sometimes forget

How to make an eggnog

How to make an eggnog

I have to admit I was never very grabbed by the idea of eggnog until I tried it out for myself and discovered just how delicious it is - like velvety, vanilla-and-rum-scented air.

Sloe gin and Stilton

Sloe gin and Stilton

The port and Stilton combo has become a bit of a cliché. Not that it doesn't work - it's hard to fault - but if you want to really impress your guests and take them out of their comfort zone, serve your stilton with a shot of sloe gin instead. It has much the same brambly flavour as a Late Bottled Vintage port but, despite being stronger, manages to taste lighter, fresher and less alcoholic.

Roast turkey and Mencia

Roast turkey and Mencia

By now you might think I’d have explored all possible permutations with turkey but sommelier Jacob Kocemba was singing the praises of Mencia with turkey on Twitter the other day and as we had a magnum handy I thought I’d give it a try.

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