Wines for your Holiday Table

Lots of articles come out this time of year suggesting wine pairings for large, rustic holiday meals and dinner parties with many conflicting ingredients. Indeed, there are perfect food and wine matches to be discovered. However, I use holidays like these to pair the wines with the guests more so than with food, especially with the wine novice guests. So many people have horror stories from college involving neon colored jug wine and have refrained from wine ever since. Others are just intimidated by the subject and are scared of looking unsophisticated. I know what you’re thinking. With Bob the Wine Guy around it’s almost impossible to look unsophisticated. Unless you’re surrounded by fellow hardcore wine lovers, the holidays are not really the time to break out the really good stuff, open it and argue over the vintage while dinner gets cold. There is a time for serious wine discussion and a time to simply enjoy the wine as it was meant to be consumed.

The first wine we’re going to talk about is Vinho Verde, which literally means “green wine”, a delightful green apple tart wine, slightly fizzy from Portugal. The tagline from one of the most prominent producers of this wine is, “Goes well with life”. Easy and very enjoyable, you can ice it down and sip with appetizers. There’s a delightful Vinho Verde being served oddly enough at the Souza Winery every weekend, come and try it.

Let’s talk about sparkling wine, I think every large dinner should include at least one sparkling wine and I usually take the chance to teach someone how to safely open such a bottle. Make sure it’s not pointed at your face, hold the cork as tightly as possible and gently twist the bottle, that’s the trick, until the cork eases out. There are many very reasonably priced sparkling wines and we have them at the tasting room.

The holidays abound with dessert and here’s the one high-alcohol wine I’ll submit, the dessert wine: Port. It’s reasonably priced can be sipped slowly and carefully for hours after the plates have been cleared and your guests have retired to their favorite sitting spot. We have a blended version of port at the tasting room that’s laced with a taste of chocolate; it has always been a hit.

As far as reds go, either a Zinfandel or Cabernet would be a very logical first choice for a full-bodied experience. The red wine is a very good choice with a lot of the holiday meals such as beef, pasta, or pork. Also not a bad choice with some of those wonderful spiral cut hams, yes, the honey glaze. Yum, yum.

Personally, I think the best thing about the holidays is leftovers. Always try to have wines ready for this vital snacking period. I call this the Day after Wine. A light Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio will go easy on a full stomach that’s trying to make room for just one more scoop of sweet potatoes. You get the picture.

Check us out and like us on Facebook to see what events are coming up at Souza Family Vineyard. We are continuing our Celebrity Bartenders for Charity, twice a month, as well as Wine Down Fridays, which include catered dinners by Mill Street Kitchen, and live entertainment. Another scheduling note we will be opened on the Friday following Christmas Day, and the Friday following New Year’s Day, we hope to see you sometime during this holiday season.

In closing some words of wisdom: You just can’t trust atoms, they make up everything.

Till next time, BTWG

Abbondanza Fortuna