My family complains about my behaviour in food shops. ‘You stand in front of things and stare at them. For ages.’ That’s because, inside my mind, as I gaze at the sprouts, multiple feasts and variations on them are unfolding. Ottolenghi’s sprout and pomegranate slaw? Parmesan sprout gratin? It takes time to mentally taste them all and reach a decision.
I am very grateful to The Wine Society for asking me to write about the bottles on my Christmas drinking wish list, a task that allowed me to spend hours staring out of the window while imagining various festive thirsty moments, and call it work. Rather than attempting to cover all the Christmas bases, I’ve limited myself to highlights. The following are the 12 wines now so deeply embedded in my imagination that I can’t let go of them.
‘The following are the 12 wines now so deeply embedded in my imagination that I can’t let go of them.’
The first is a magnum of The Society’s Champagne Brut NV, an Alfred Gratien Champagne with a relaxed sense of grandeur. Incredibly well-priced, it exudes quality, has a gently spicy warmth (ex-Burgundy barrels used for the first fermentation) and is the Good King Wenceslas sort of Champagne I want in my glass while talking to friends while the fairy lights twinkle.
On Christmas Eve, though, we love to drink rosé sparkling wine or Champagne with fish pie or coquilles St Jacques and chips and after tasting The Grange Pink Hampshire Brut NV I think I have found the one: sleek and classy, with a lovely fragrance of wild raspberries. This is also going to be amazing with rare roast beef sandwich.
‘a ‘house white’ … that feels like just enough of a hug in winter.’
My first ‘house white’ option is Le Bosc Grenache Blanc 2025. White grenache has an airy texture and a softness that feels like just enough of a hug in winter. With gentle notes of peach and pear, as well as citrus, it’s a good wine to pour just for a glass but also with prawn cocktail or Boxing Day turkey.
For a second white, I like Luigi Baudana Dragon Langhe Bianco 2025 from the Piedmont region of Italy which is made by the Vajra family and has the clear Vajra hallmarks of tight precision and limpidity. The blend is surprising but very effective: 44% chardonnay with 42% sauvignon blanc and a little nascetta (a semi-aromatic native grape with a faint smell of honeyed clover) and riesling that come together to form a white that is more creamy than a straight sauvignon but still bright, lithe and citrussy. I’m not saying it tastes like either of these but it's one to open in the Gavi de Gavi or Pouilly Fumé slot. Smoked salmon? The Dragon will do it. Though with gravlax, with its brown-sugar sweetness, dill fragrance and tender, melting texture, I’m in for the electricity and riffle of Zilliken Butterfly Riesling Feinherb 2025. This riesling dances and is off-dry (16g/l of residual sugar) so it’s also going to be gorgeous with any change-of-pace Thai salads or noodles (sweet-sour lime dressing?) you might make across the 28/29/30 December.
‘The red I left [the] press tasting determined to order is…’
The red I left The Wine Society’s last press tasting determined to order is Château Vignelaure 2016 Côteaux d’Aix en Provence, a Vignelaure ‘library stock’ purchase that is absolutely on point: still fresh and nicely structured but with some mature aromatics. A 60-40 cabernet-syrah blend in which cassis mingles with tobacco and dark berries: think of it as a mini Trévallon.
There’s often call at Christmas for an easy-going yet unboring red Bordeaux that will please a table and I have two good options. Both Château de Pitray 2019 and Château Puygueraud 2014 are likely to be familiar names to claret-loving Wine Society members. Both are right bank wines based on merlot with at least 20% cabernet franc in the blend and both are absolutely on form here. The Pitray is so generous and welcoming that as a first glass you’ll probably prefer it; by the second glass I think you might be voting for the Puygueraud. Which is to say that they’re both jolly good.
Two final reds now, each of which would work well with roast ham and have plenty of other uses across this time of year. Domaine des Escaravailles 2022 Côtes du Rhône Sablières has a couple of dismal online reviews for earlier vintages but there was plenty of praise for this new 2022 vintage from the colleagues whose palates I trust at The Society’s recent press tasting so I wasn’t the only one who appreciated its soaring fragrance, flavours of crimson fruit and the way it evokes the dry hills around Rasteau. It’s about two-thirds grenache, a grape whose slightly suedey texture goes really well with roast ham.
For a pinot noir, to bring succulence to the ham, Dalrymple Vineyards Tasmanian Pinot Noir 2023 is glorious: all the fluency and lift you hope for in a pinot, careful oak and flavours like a kaleidoscope of red and black cherries with a hint of five spice.
‘Madeira is the wine I forget to buy at Christmas and the one I most enjoy drinking …’
I saved the strong and sweet wines until last but really The Society’s Exhibition Bual Madeira Colheita 2016 Madeira would be joint top of my wish list, alongside the magnum of Champagne. Madeira is the wine I forget to buy at Christmas and the one I most enjoy drinking. This one’s all dried and fresh figs, raisins, roasted macadamia nuts. It’s the bottle to sequester for your own private supply, to pour a small glass in the late afternoon. Also, it is magnificent with Stilton.
Finally, Rivesaltes Tuilé Parcé Frères 1982 is a very rare vin doux naturel (lightly fortified wine) made from grenache and it is wonderful. If this is the birth year of someone you know, I think you have just found the perfect Christmas present.
