Wines for Christmas 2022

  
​Some different wines and food pairings this year

We have been urged to host another virtual tasting event, buoyed by the success of our previous Christmas wines virtual tastings. So, join our Wine Club team for a pre-Christmas evening of fun and pairing suggestions to make your Christmas more enjoyable!

At the time of setting up this event, we are looking forward to a relatively normal Christmas for the first time in three years. Actually this year is not quite normal as we are challenged by the threat of Avian 'Flu, which may threaten the supplies of Turkey and Goose, coupled to the current economic challenges (maybe a permacrisis according to the Collins Dictionary). Join us to find out how our recommendations stand up!

We have followed the form of our two previous Christmas Virtual Tastings when we asked participants to go online or visit their local supermarkets to hunt down a selection of readily available wines which we paired to a variety of food dishes and snacks. This year we have focused on the amazing wines of Bordeaux, the largest wine growing area in France, producing over 700m bottles of wine each year, ranging from everyday table wine to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world. Although this will be our tenth virtual tasting, surprisingly we have never actually recommended any Bordeaux wines. So it is time for a change and we are offering a shortlist of four wines at different price points and all excellent value.

For our Christmas recommended purchases and shortlist, we have chosen a fizz (actually an old favourite from previous tastings) with a great white and red, and finally a pudding wine. All are available from Waitrose (who have just resurrected their 25% discount if you buy six bottles). We recommend ordering online at www.waitrosecellar.com, where stock should be more readily available (and best of all opting for click and collect if you want to avoid their modest delivery costs!). In order to provide some lower cost (but still good value) alternative wines, we suggest you can buy two wines from Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range in store. We will taste these two wines during the virtual tasting as they provide a comparative contrast to our shortlist of great Bordeaux wines; you are invited to join us in this comparative tasting, or stick to our shortlist and join in the fun!

Preparation: buying your wine and planning for the food!

We will be providing detailed tasting notes and Christmas food pairing suggestions shortly, but so that you can get your wine orders in and also think about food to accompany the tasting, the wines we recommending and talking about are:

The recommended shortlist from Waitrose Cellar which comprises:

• Cave de Lugny Crémant de Bourgogne Blanc de Blancs NV (£13.99)
   
• 2013 Château Rahoul Blanc Graves (£18.99)
   
• 2019 Château La Croix de Marbuzet Saint-Estèphe (£19.99)
   
• 2015 Château Suduiraut, Sauternes (£17.99)

And the two Sainsbury's Taste the Difference wines are:

• 2019 Bordeaux Supérieur 
  Taste the Difference (£8.88)
   
• 2021 Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc
  Taste the Difference (£6.50)
   

For the virtual tasting we will focus on the red and white wines. We will be tasting and comparing the 2013 Château Rahoul Blanc Graves and the 2019 Château La Croix de Marbuzet Saint-Estèphe from Waitrose against the two wines from the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range, the 2021 Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc and the 2019 Bordeaux Supérieur.

Although we are thinking about pairing these wines with your Christmas Dinner, we will also need to have some suitable snacks for the tasting:

None of our virtual tastings would be complete without some gougères – easy to make and easy to eat with any of the suggested wines. As we are basing this Christmas selection around Bordeaux wines, another French (albeit from the Alsace region) speciality you might wish to try is tarte flambée, thin crispy pizza dough covered with crème fraîche, onions and bacon.

If you don’t want to cook for the tasting, a couple of fish based cold suggestions to accompany the white wine are a retro prawn cocktail – try adding some thinly sliced cantaloupe melon, lime juice and a sprinkling of poppy seeds for a change – or smoked salmon, plain or in a pâté with cream cheese and ricotta, flavoured with a little dill. With the red, a selection of French charcuterie with cornichons to garnish, some (Italian) bresaola dressed with olive oil and some rocket, or a baked camembert cheese with cranberries for a festive touch, all accompanied with a crusty baguette and salted French butter.

See you on Friday the Ninth!

Members and registered Event Account Holders can click on this Participant Listing link to see who has booked.

We will send you and your guests the Zoom link and our usual more detailed food and wine notes for the event closer to the date.

Dress code is of course "Christmassy"