I thought it might be helpful to match a selection of this month’s great value wines with the kind of foods we might be having over the holidays. You don’t need to spend a fortune to have great, enjoyable wines with your family feast.
Food and wine matching is tricky business and I will be exploring it in more detail in a Pro Tip article in the new year. For now, here are some quick, general ideas for matching the wines on sale this month in B.C. Liquor Stores with some typical holiday and New Year’s dishes.
In general, the great range and variety of dishes we have during the holidays does not readily lend itself to precision wine matching. Sure, you can think about what goes well with the turkey but if you look at the full spread of a holiday feast, there is a lot more going on besides the turkey.
Your flotilla of dishes could well include: sweet potatoes with maple syrup, green beans with almonds, rosemary mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and bacon, herb stuffing, cranberry sauce, roast parsnips and so on. In short, holiday dining is less like a string quartet and more like a battle of the bands.
Even the turkey itself can be pulled into various flavour ranges depending on the recipe. I have over the years personally made the following:
Turkey with Curry Gravy
Turkey Wrapped in Pancetta
Greek Style Turkey with Lemon and Garlic Gravy
Bacon Roasted Turkey with Sweet Onion Gravy,
Teriyaki Glazed Turkey with Shallot Gravy.
So which wines can best mingle and jingle with this eclectic crowd of flavours?
Let’s start with the wines that might not work so well. If you are making Beef Wellington or something more red meat based, then a juicy cabernet, malbec, savoury, Italian or Spanish red will tend to work well but the bigger tannins found in these kinds of wines will be less friendly towards, ham, poultry or vegetable dishes.
One helpful guideline in food and wine matching is that the wine should have more flavour than the dish. Otherwise the wine will get lost in the mix. Thus, I would avoid lighter, milder, more ethereal wines like chablis and diaphanous Provence Rosés. Rosés with deeper colour and flavour do work especially well however.
Appetizers
For openers, just go with sparkling wine and you will be fine. The prosecco will be lighter in flavour than the other two so match it with lighter foods like simple seafood or chicken or what have you.
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