How did my wine selections go down this Christmas?
In my post before Christmas I gave you the low down on the wines I had selected. Some were tried and tested, some were new to me with the odd wild card thrown in for good measure. So how did it go?
The Sparkles
An Unexpected Hit and a Discovery
What was expected?
Usually everyone else in the family prefers Prosecco. It is me (ably assisted by my stepson) who are the Crémant nuts.
In anticipation of the usual procedures I had made sure I had a number of bottles of their favourite Prosecco chilling in the fridge. But…………….
And the discovery?
I just love Crémant as an aperitif. Everybody else did as well.
But prompted by a suggestion I heard at a wine event I tried having it with food. Particularly when we were eating leftovers.
Think refried vegetables and cold meats. Turkey (obviously!) but also some delicious ham. It went so well together.
How 2 Top Tip!
Try having sparkling wine with food.
Best when your sparkles are dry, refreshing and flavoursome like a Crémant or a blanc de blanc Champagne.
The Reds
The biggest hit in the reds was definitely the old vine Zinfandel from California.
The one we had was a 2011 Scotto, wonderfully mellow and smooth with delicious rich flavours.
An ideal accompaniment to our Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner of slow roasted pork.
Christmas Day’s red was an Amarone della Valpolicella, also a hit with everyone.
More alcoholic and very rich, it went down very well with roast turkey and all its rich accoutrements.
Wild card – hit or miss?
The wild card was the English red wine, St Edmundsbury from Gifford Hall which was our Boxing Day red.
It was a nice wine, it had fruity flavours. However perhaps it was unfair to make it follow the old vine Zinfandel and Amarone della Valpolicella of the previous two days.
What English red wasn’t going to tasty watery when set against those two.
However it was all drunk and the story went down well. “We went to the winery ourselves, bought the wine from the owner, had a walk around the vines……”.
As I always say if you have got a story that people will be interested in they are more likely to give you, and the wine, the benefit of the doubt.
Conclusion? A near miss.
The Whites
When I went to the wine shop to buy our white Burgundy and white Rioja I got a bit carried away with the white Burgundy.
I stretched the budget and bought a Pouilly Fuissé.
What a good move, another wine that went down REALLY well.
The white Rioja was nice and people liked it but it was definitely the Pouilly Fuissé that was the preferred white.
Sweet wine – very strange!
I don’t know what my family were playing at this Christmas but we didn’t open one bottle, not one!
If anyone needs some Monbazillac I know where there are at least three bottles.
I have absolutely no doubt they will get drunk and of course being sweet they will keep, but I still can’t quite believe that we never got around to opening any.
Overall conclusion?
Quite a few hits, some near misses and no disasters, I learnt some things and we had fun with wine. All in all it was a great Christmas and New Year.
