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| Don’t waste your finest
on relatives |
Prune wine from Sussex and Belgian beers
will make a welcome change on Christmas Day
DO you enjoy or endure Christmas? It isn’t only that we’re
bullied into spending money we haven’t got.
It’s a risky and unhappy time when, far from being deliriously
happy, we’re most likely to fall out with our families, decide
we can’t stand the person we’ve lived with for 15 years
or find ourselves homeless.
Alcohol is a potent influence on family breakdown, violence and
serious accidents. This isn’t to say we must not drink. Our
recommendation is, on the contrary, for a cheap, cheerful and different
Christmas. We offer the following guidelines.
n Don’t drink the most expensive wines you can find. In particular,
don’t waste your best wines on your relatives – whatever
you give them they’ll go back to Liebfraumilch (a wine unknown
in Germany) and Mateus Rosé (“We’ve loved it since
our holiday in Portugal in 1973”) after Christmas.
Any decent red will go with turkey and its trimmings. Look for the
£3.99 Maçon Superieur from Morrisons (if you can get
it).
n Try something different. Rather than masses of cheap, fruit-laden
new world wines, why not a Belgian fruit beer? Belle-Vue (cherry
or strawberry flavours) has been matured in oak barrels for three
years. At 5.1 per cent (£1.85 for 375ml in most supermarkets),
this is a clean tasting and pleasant alternative to cheap wines
that leave you with stomach ache. It goes well with poultry.
Alongside it on the supermarket shelf you’re likely to find
Lielmans Frambozenier raspberry beer at £2.29 (also 375ml)
4.5 per cent. This is fruitier but slightly less potent. Alternatively,
you could try some real German wines, which are unfashionable and
less expensive.
n Instead of resorting to Trivial Pursuit or puerile TV programmes
made last August, why not a blind tasting of three wines? You’ll
be surprised at how much this adds to your confidence in choosing
wines. You’ll also be surprised at how unpredictable this process
is, particularly if you go for three price ranges.
As you use up the remnants of the Christmas turkey, a few experiments
with simple wines like the supermarket Portuguese reds will enhance
the food. Better still try an independent delicatessen such as Portuguese
specialists, the Wine Cellar, at 159 Kentish Town Road.
n The question of champagne. This is the exception to our advice
not to be seduced by costly labels. Conventional wisdom has it that
the most expensive champagnes are the best. Neither of us has drunk
enough champagne to say definitively if this is true.
However, we’re prepared to back André Simon’s award
winning cuvée from Angelino Wines (020 8348 7399) at £15.99.
Alternatively, Morrisons are offering Heidseck Blue Top non-vintage
at £12.99.
Otherwise, if you can get it locally and can afford it, what about
a sparkling wine from Kent or Sussex? Nyetimber or Ridgeway sparkling
wines should be available from Majestic, Waitrose or Laytons. But
there will be more in this column on champagne in two weeks.
A final note: if you’re buying a case at a time, it’s
still worthwhile checking the internet for direct suppliers in France.
See, for example, Château Peyrabon or Château Guillotin,
both reported in November. If you’re planning a shopping trip
to Calais before Christmas, beware of very cheap offers. If you
can put in the internet research, contact agents for the individual
estates you have in mind.
What are we planning? A quiet session with a glass of Carr Taylor’s
prune wine (£4.95 plus postage, 01424 752501, enquiries@carr-taylor.co.uk).
Don’t laugh: prune wine is a real discovery. It’s little
known outside Sussex and a good substitute for tawny port, which
it resembles.
Put all references to school meals and other comic propensities,
which have nothing to do with the merits of this interesting English
fruit wine, out of your mind. Champagne may be the ideal Christmas
drink. But, for our pockets, this will be good enough.
– wine@camdennewjournal.co.uk |
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Don't waste your finest on relatives
DO you enjoy or endure Christmas? It isn’t only that we’re
bullied into spending money we haven’t got.
FULL STORY
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