Khoollect tips: festive wine pairing for beginners
***Rachel Khoo would like to thank all the inspiring people who helped make the Khoollect studio a hive of creativity. Although the Khoollect studio’s doors have now closed, you can keep up with Rachel’s newest adventures on RachelKhoo.com and on Rachel’s Instagram and Facebook pages – and, continue to enjoy the Khoollect website’s stories and recipes, which will remain available.***
For many of us, pairing wine with food is more of an afterthought than a priority on Christmas Day, simplifying our pairings down to such basics as ‘white with fish’, ‘red with meat’ and, in an ideal world, bubbles until you are well and truly tipsy. (At least that’s how Christmas worked in my house.) But the pairing of wine and food needn’t be some unfathomable mystery left to the experts.
Here are our tips for pairing wines with your festive fare:
- When it comes to the perfect roast turkey recipe, the wine options are open. While you might think to reach straight for a full-bodied red, a full-bodied white or a lighter red would be a better choice. Turkey is a lean meat, hence its tendency to dry out without regular basting or brining, so you don’t want to overpower the flavour with a hearty tannic red.
- White Burgundys are a great option for matching with white meats, as these Chardonnays tend towards the fuller body with a hint of oak, while also offering a crisp apple brightness. Louis Latour is a well-established vineyard (they have been making wines since 1797) and at an affordable £13.85 (available from Waitrose) it’s a great option for the big day.
- For a lighter red, try opting for a Pinot Noir, again a Burgundy, which would also be a good match for sweet spices like cloves and cinnamon. A low tannin wine (tannins are the dry, chalky mouthfeel you get from red wines) is a good choice here, as it won’t compete too much with the rest of the meal, particularly with the mix of flavours going on around the table, from cranberry sauce to sagey stuffing.
- Now here’s a bit of a left-field choice, but it’s an organic Sicilian wine I really love at the moment. The Baglio Blanco 2015 is technically an ‘orange’ wine, which is a darker white-style wine (verging on orange in colour) created when white grapes are left to macerate and ferment on the skins and stems. The result is a really full-bodied white with minerality, and is highly quaffable.
- With the stellar combo of mustard and sausage going on in these stuffing bombs with melted Fontina cheese, I’d look no further than a really bright and minerally Alsatian or German Riesling, like this Weingut Braunewell at £12.95.
This post has been created in partnership with Hellmann’s, Maille, Knorr and Colman’s
For many of us, pairing wine with food is more of an afterthought than a priority on Christmas Day, simplifying our pairings down to such basics as ‘white with fish’, ‘red with meat’ and, in an ideal world, bubbles until you are well and truly tipsy. (At least that’s how Christmas worked in my house.) But the pairing of wine and food needn’t be some unfathomable mystery left to the experts.
Here are our tips for pairing wines with your festive fare:
- When it comes to the perfect roast turkey recipe, the wine options are open. While you might think to reach straight for a full-bodied red, a full-bodied white or a lighter red would be a better choice. Turkey is a lean meat, hence its tendency to dry out without regular basting or brining, so you don’t want to overpower the flavour with a hearty tannic red.
- White Burgundys are a great option for matching with white meats, as these Chardonnays tend towards the fuller body with a hint of oak, while also offering a crisp apple brightness. Louis Latour is a well-established vineyard (they have been making wines since 1797) and at an affordable £13.85 (available from Waitrose) it’s a great option for the big day.
- For a lighter red, try opting for a Pinot Noir, again a Burgundy, which would also be a good match for sweet spices like cloves and cinnamon. A low tannin wine (tannins are the dry, chalky mouthfeel you get from red wines) is a good choice here, as it won’t compete too much with the rest of the meal, particularly with the mix of flavours going on around the table, from cranberry sauce to sagey stuffing.
- Now here’s a bit of a left-field choice, but it’s an organic Sicilian wine I really love at the moment. The Baglio Blanco 2015 is technically an ‘orange’ wine, which is a darker white-style wine (verging on orange in colour) created when white grapes are left to macerate and ferment on the skins and stems. The result is a really full-bodied white with minerality, and is highly quaffable.
- With the stellar combo of mustard and sausage going on in these stuffing bombs with melted Fontina cheese, I’d look no further than a really bright and minerally Alsatian or German Riesling, like this Weingut Braunewell at £12.95.
This post has been created in partnership with Hellmann’s, Maille, Knorr and Colman’s
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