Wine with christmas dinner
Christmas is not a dish but an evening: drinks, starter, main, cheese, dessert, and eight people with eight opinions. You do not need a different bottle for every course. Three styles cover the evening, and in the right order you will not have to convince anyone.
Three styles that work
- 1
Champagne to start, and to continue
One bottle of bubbles for the aperitif is not enough. A good Brut with some age runs from the amuse-bouche through the fish and the poultry, and keeps the table fresh. Grower champagne gives more character than a big house for the same money; crémant is the saving nobody notices.
- 2
Rioja Reserva with the main course
Game, beef, a roast duck: Rioja Reserva has done the ageing in the bottle that you did not wait for yourself. Soft tannin, dried fruit, a touch of leather. It is the red wine that the father-in-law and the niece who only drinks Malbec can agree on.
- 3
Oloroso with the cheese, PX with dessert
Sherry wins twice here. A dry oloroso with the cheese board, where red wine fails, and then a small glass of Pedro Ximénez over the vanilla ice cream or beside the Christmas cake. Two bottles that stay good in the fridge for months after Christmas, as most fortified wine does.
Without alcohol
Alcohol-free sparkling for the whole evening
Put it next to the champagne in the same cooler, in the same glass. Then whoever is not drinking has nothing to explain. Choose a dry one; the sweet versions turn cloying after two courses.
Frequently asked questions
How many bottles for eight people?
Count on three quarters of a bottle per person across the evening: two sparkling, three red, one oloroso and one PX. Leftovers keep, except the bubbles.
Which wine for a Dutch gourmet evening?
Gourmetten is everything at once in tiny pans, so one flexible wine: a rosé brut or a light, chilled red such as a young Rioja. Great wine is wasted money here.
No scores, but an opinion. The bottles I name I tasted myself; how each reached me is stated at the bottom of every review.