There's a lot of pressure at Christmas to get it right. Everyone wants to have the perfect Christmas day, and we all wish for a "merry" Christmas, right?
As a wine student, blogger and wannabe sophisticate, I imagine the perfect December 25th to go something like this... Wake up to a chilled glass of Asti to accompany the fresh fruit salad breakfast. Someone cooks a nice bacon sandwich. The dry cure is washed down by a super-chilled Manzanilla. We merge seamlessly onto Vintage Bollinger while we await the main event. The wines are paired perfectly with the 3 courses which require zero washing up. We finish up with a range of sweet treats paired with sweet sherry, Banyuls, Sauternes, or Tokaji Eszensia. If we're peckish later there will be Port and cheeses galore.
It's never worked out like that in all the years I've been in charge of my own kitchen. Do such picture perfect Christmases exist? It goes a little differently at my house. Firstly, no-one else is going to prepare breakfast, and all pretensions to health go out of the window so we forget the fruit salad. The manzanilla wasn't in the fridge and the fino was accidentally opened and drunk when no-one was looking during the final of Strictly Come Dancing. Champagne isn't to Mr Purple Teeth's taste and we'd drunk our only chilled fizz on Christmas Eve. (See above - a rather fabulous Cava from the cellars of Ell Bulli no less).
But this is no sob story. It's become a tradition to visit our local hostelry for a beer or two around noon at Christmas and this is the scene of the first drink of the day. I'm not quite sure what part of "sophisticate" orders a pint of Guinness, but in my defence, your honour, the landlady of said establishment is Irish.
We return home already "relaxed" and ready to do battle. But this is where my lack of cookery prowess turns positively advantageous. Our meal is courtesy of two executive chefs I know well: Mr Marks and Mr Spencer.
As a wine student, blogger and wannabe sophisticate, I imagine the perfect December 25th to go something like this... Wake up to a chilled glass of Asti to accompany the fresh fruit salad breakfast. Someone cooks a nice bacon sandwich. The dry cure is washed down by a super-chilled Manzanilla. We merge seamlessly onto Vintage Bollinger while we await the main event. The wines are paired perfectly with the 3 courses which require zero washing up. We finish up with a range of sweet treats paired with sweet sherry, Banyuls, Sauternes, or Tokaji Eszensia. If we're peckish later there will be Port and cheeses galore.
It's never worked out like that in all the years I've been in charge of my own kitchen. Do such picture perfect Christmases exist? It goes a little differently at my house. Firstly, no-one else is going to prepare breakfast, and all pretensions to health go out of the window so we forget the fruit salad. The manzanilla wasn't in the fridge and the fino was accidentally opened and drunk when no-one was looking during the final of Strictly Come Dancing. Champagne isn't to Mr Purple Teeth's taste and we'd drunk our only chilled fizz on Christmas Eve. (See above - a rather fabulous Cava from the cellars of Ell Bulli no less).
But this is no sob story. It's become a tradition to visit our local hostelry for a beer or two around noon at Christmas and this is the scene of the first drink of the day. I'm not quite sure what part of "sophisticate" orders a pint of Guinness, but in my defence, your honour, the landlady of said establishment is Irish.
We return home already "relaxed" and ready to do battle. But this is where my lack of cookery prowess turns positively advantageous. Our meal is courtesy of two executive chefs I know well: Mr Marks and Mr Spencer.
A 20 minute stint in the oven sees a perfectly grilled Lobster Thermidor. Meanwhile, our aperitif becomes the white to pair with the seafood. Txakoli (pronounced Chacoli) is not a wine you're likely to come across much outside of the Basque region of Spain. I'd managed, fortuitously to get the last bottle on offer at Waitrose Wine (online). We became fans of this delight through foodie holidays in San Sebastian where it's poured from extreme heights, but we've never had to pour it ourselves. As such, we've not quite mastered the art of pouring it from on high. Even without the flashy pour and despite this being a rather aged 2010, this was fresh and vibrant with the slight spritz that's usual in this wine, it gave a celebratory feel but with a relatively low alcohol 10.5%, making it easy to drink. The food may not have been Arzak standard but the wine was perfect. We had a hard time not finishing the bottle, but I fancied keeping some to see how it would go with the cheese. If you fancy some, it appears the Wine Society have the 2011 on sale for £10.95 a bottle. Or you could fly to San Sebastian!
Next up was a red meat based dish, requiring a red wine. But Christmas seems to bring out everyone's sweet side, so we piled on the honeyed parsnisp, the red cabbage etc. I felt that it would be good to pick a red with some residual sweetnes (or at least the appearance of sweetness) but gave the ultimate choice (from a much narrowed field) to my other half. Well, he likes to contribute. The selection was Amarone della Valpolicella, and was perfect. Again, this one had come from Waitrose.The Cantina di Negrar is £17.99 - a bit pricey for a Tuesday. But then it was Christmas day. Although the name Amarone means "the great bitter" in Italian, you'll find nothing bitter about this wine. Ripe, soft, almost velvety in texture, full bodied and brimming with fruit, chocolate, raisin and dark fruits, it matched perfectly with the steak pie, gravy and all those sweet vegetables that fill the plate at this time of year. It also went on to compliment the rather hefty and pungent cheese board. We tried both wines with cheese and both worked relatively well, though the variety and strength of our cheeses would challenge most wines.
And that was it. Christmas was over. We didn't even manage a pudding! In a total disgrace to wine-lovers and epicureans everywhere, I managed to pair a ginger tea with my mince pie later in the evening.
On the plus side, there were no hangovers and no heartburn to contend with, and we had plenty of nice bottles left for another day. Christmas is just another day in the Purple Teeth household, and with only 2 at home for dinner, I reckon we got the balance right. I'd love to hear how your festive wine pairings went. Do feel free to mention in the comments below.
On the plus side, there were no hangovers and no heartburn to contend with, and we had plenty of nice bottles left for another day. Christmas is just another day in the Purple Teeth household, and with only 2 at home for dinner, I reckon we got the balance right. I'd love to hear how your festive wine pairings went. Do feel free to mention in the comments below.
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