Festive Food and Wine

The Turkey may be the star of the show but the trimmings make it all come together. With that in mind, when choosing a wine to pair with Roast Turkey or perhaps Pheasant and Goose, it is always good to pick a wine with low tannins and more savoury, earthy notes to pair with the gamey meats. You need lots of red fruit flavours to highlight the cranberry sauce, which would also bring out the sweetness in the roasted vegetables and the meatiness in the pigs in blankets.

• Pinot Noir from Burgundy is a classic choice and Tupinier Bautista’s En Sazenay oozes luxury with its supple velvety tannins.
• Domaine de la Madone Fleurie is a heady wine made from Gamay. It has a fine structure and soft, expressive red fruits like cherry and wild strawberry.
• For white lovers, roasted white meats are delicious with Chardonnay. We would suggest Saint Veran ‘En Pommards’ Maison Matisco, which is a truly magnificent example of Maconnais Chardonnay.  It is a fleshy wine with vibrant lemon notes, apple and floral aromas, and all-around a fresh mineral finish.

A joint of Beef is a fantastic alternative to Turkey and is popular due to its intensity of flavour. To match up to that rich meatiness, you will need a red wine with firm tannins, plenty of structure, dark fruits, and body. It needs to have a bit of oomph!

• The classic choice would be a Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Bordeaux.  La Legende de Fonreaud is a lovely, approachable wine with ripe cassis fruit, firm tannins, and spicy notes. Graphite notes come through on the pallet which is long and laded with black fruit, damson, and exotic spiciness. Elegant and fantastic value for money. 
• If you want big and bold, look no further than Wild Boar Syrah from Consolation. It is a full-bodied, modern, lush style of Syrah with warm dark fruit flavours of damson and blackberry. Powerful on the pallet, yet fresh on the finish with savoury notes, hints of chocolate and sweet spice. 
• Natural wine fans will love Domaine Sainte Croix Magneric, which is a powerful yet elegant red, reminiscent of Chateauneuf-du-pape. It is a full-bodied blend of Old Vine Carignan, Old Vine Grenache, and Syrah along with a splash of Mourvedre. It is packed with cassis and redcurrant fruit, black olive, fig, raspberry, and pepper spice.

As a general rule, rich oily fish such as Salmon need to be paired with full-bodied whites. However, if you really prefer a red, then you can easily pair Salmon with a light low tannin red wine like Pinot Noir or Rose. We love rich white wines such as Chardonnay, Viognier, or Roussanne. If you are serving other seafood, then lighter crisp whites like Pouilly Fume or Albarino would be perfect. 

• Viognier ‘Pied de la Rue’ Domaine de la Madone is the first Viognier to be made in Fleurie. Aged in barrel for 6 months this is an exceptional wine and a truly remarkable expression of the Viognier grape. It is a full-bodied white with bright stone fruit and textured honey notes that keep developing in the glass.
• Consolation ‘Juliette’ is a benchmark example of the excellent and overlooked Roussanne grape. The grapes are picked super ripe and handled reductively to retain varietal aromas and freshness, then barrel fermented in oak barrels. There is a honeyed note to the stone fruit aromas in this wine, with peach and nectarine, but overlaid by soft cashew and delicate herbs and spices. It is a full-bodied, dry, and textured wine that is delicious with roast chicken.
• Sebastien Treuillet’s Pouilly Fume is a wonderful example of the classic dry, flinty Sauvignon Blanc based wine. It has great depth and a tangy mineral complexity which is wrapped around the zippy green fruit. It’s the perfect wine to partner with Scottish seafood.

A glazed baked ham is a thing of joy. Recipes do vary widely but if you are serving your ham with a sweet glaze, then you need something to cut through the sweetness and counteract the saltiness of the meat. White wine would usually be recommended here but a medium-bodied red with juicy fruit would be perfect. We suggest one of our new Italian reds from Romitorio. 

• Chianti Colli Senesi by Castello Romitorio is a charming modern classic made from 100% Sangiovese. It has a haunting balance between the bright red currant and Morello cherry fruits and the earthy oak flavours which bring a dark spicy complexity to the wine. There is a great depth to this wine behind the very fresh and elegant flavours.
• For a white why not try a Pinot Gris. Meyer Fonne’s Pinot Gris Reserve would blow your average Pinot Grigio out of the water. Half of the grapes for this wine originate from the Kaefferkopf Grand Cru vineyard which gives real finesse and delivers intense aromas of ripe stone fruits, touches of honey, lime, smoky hints, and a fresh minerality. 
• Sybille Kuntz’s Riesling Spatlese is a complex and brilliant wine and an amazing advert for Mosel Riesling. The wine has fantastic texture and richness on the palate which is fleshy and intensely flavoured with green fruits, nectarine and honeysuckle. It is elegant, sophisticated and a joy to drink.

Gone are the days where Vegetarian food would be a boring pasta dish or vegetable side dishes would be served as a main! The horror! There are now a plethora of amazing recipes that cater to Vegans and Vegetarians. Anything goes for Christmas but many people like to stick with the favourites such as Nut Roast or a deep-filled Tart. The wines here will complement the fat/richness of the nuts and the buttery pastry.

• Gran Bohedal Rioja Blanco is consistently one of the best white wines we stock. It is also loved in restaurants all over Scotland. The Viura grapes come from 90 year old vines. These old vines produce a wine of great concentration and finesse which is fermented separately in three different types of oak barrel – French, American and Romanian – before being blended together. The resulting wine is immensely complex and the balance between toasty coconut oak and peachy, zingy, limey, herbal fruit is world class.
• Domaine Jean Dauvissat 1er Cru ‘Vaillions’ is a superb and robust Chablis with an almost perfect balance of ripe fruit and classic minerality. There are lovely spice notes behind the apple and mouth-watering lemon fruit which dominate the palate. The wine finishes with a saline twist, crushed lime and dry stone. It is a wine of immense character and complexity and a particularly full bodied expression of Chablis.
• Domaine Tupinier Bautista’s Bourgogne Rouge is everything you’d want from a Burgundy Pinot Noir. It is aged in oak barrels of up to 3 years old. After 10 months of ageing in oak casks, the wine is blended in vats and bottled 2 months later. It drinks beautifully on release but will develop over several years. It is voluptuous, fruity, round and delicate. There is no shortage of red fruit – strawberry & raspberry – with blackberry & violet notes in the background.

Christmas Pudding is the traditional pudding of choice but these days, perhaps we should not forget about Trifle or a Chocolate Yule Log!

• What to drink with Christmas Pudding – Part des Anges from Domaine Sainte Croix is a sweet wine made from late-harvest Old Vine Carignan which oozes with the essence of black mulberry and fig on the nose. The fermentation is allowed to stop naturally to leave a sugar content of 65g/hl before aging on the lees for 24 months in old barrels. The palate is luscious with fig, prune, sweet spice, black chocolate and Turkish coffee on the palate. It is a delicious alternative to Port and the would be the perfect match for Christmas Pudding.
• What to drink with Trifle – Domaine Fontanel Rivesaltes Ambre is a delicious Vins doux Naturels made from Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris. Like Port, the wine is fortified with grape brandy to stop the fermentation and leave the wine higher in alcohol and sweet. It is then aged in large oak barrels so makes on an amber colour and oxidised notes over time. The result is a wine with immense flavour and complexity which is delicious with pudding and cheese. There are sherry type flavours along with Christmas cake aromas, dried fruit, orange peel, figs, dates and walnuts.
• What to drink with Chocolate – Based in the sandy hills of Roero, north-west of Alba, Marco Porello and his family have been quietly producing outstanding wines made from the area’s native grape varieties. The Roero region is a veritable kitchen garden famed not only for grape production but also for honey, peaches, pears, asparagus, mushrooms and truffles. The Birbet is a fantastic sweet fizzy red made from bunched Brachetto grapes. It has flavours of fresh raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants. The low alcohol and good acidity makes it a gret partner for some desserts and fruit puddings. It is a real Piedmontese speciality!