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Wine Pairings for your Festive Feasts
Christmas is the season for indulgence and luxury. We all look forward to having our Christmas Roast, seeing friends and family and for some, enjoying a glass (or two) of wine. Are you having turkey? Beef? A nut roast? All three? The question of what to pair with your Christmas dinner can seem daunting due to the plethora of options available. Hopefully, our wine expert Ollie Waddon will make the decision easier for you with some options and some tips for pairing on the special day.
Christmas morning would be incomplete in my eyes without a glass of fizz, especially when you wake up just in time for lunch, like myself. For me, the Barons de Rothschild Brut Concordia Champagne hits the spot every time! This elegant wine gives off notes of lemon, apricot, brioche, and honey and is the perfect palate cleanser or a wine to pair with a smoked salmon starter.
Planning on roast turkey? A full-bodied Chardonnay is a great place to start for white wine fans. This wine is big, intense, and fruity and can handle the turkey and many other elements of your Christmas dinner. Our go-to here at Waddesdon is the Baroness Nadine from the Rupert & Rothschild vineyard in South Africa.
For the red lovers, you want to find a light to medium-bodied wine that has a great intensity of flavours and aromas. A Burgundian Pinot Noir like the Domaine Machard de Gramont Le Chapitre is the obvious choice for me. This will work for those looking at plant-based alternatives like a nut roast, or mushroom wellington due to their lighter nature and flavour profiles.
For those having beef, my first choice is to go for a big and elegant Saint Emilion. The Chateau des Laurets Baron 2016 is a great choice here. These wines tend to have more body, intensity and more tannins to latch onto the protein from the beef. For those who pick a beautiful joint-of-ham on Christmas Day, I think an Australian Shiraz with a nice bit of peppery spice and a sweeter fruit profile is a comfortable choice.
To round off the meal, I recommend a glass of Port for your chocolate desserts. Sauternes is commonly referred to as the holy grail of sweet wines, and for me, Chateau Rieussec reigns supreme!
Finally, make sure you are drinking wines that YOU enjoy. Feel free to use these recommendations. However, if there is a wine that you can’t wait to open, or you have a special bottle that you have kept for years waiting for “the right moment” (you know who you are), why not make Christmas the time to try something new?