Nigel Lelew on Wine

Mid Sussex Citizen Star Wine Buy 1995 Seaview Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs Widely Available £8.99 Get Christmas lunch off with a bang! With the Millennium just round the corner, I know that 'fizz fatigue' may set in, but this really is an exceptional sparkling wine that is made in the same way as Champagne, but on the other side of the globe! Whether you serve it on its own, or with fresh orange juice to make a great Bucks Fizz, this really sparkles in more ways than one. It has all the citrussy freshness of its Chardonnay roots together with an elegant yeasty flavour. This is a refreshing crisp fizz to serve to friends and family as they gather for the Christmas celebrations!

The art of matching any wine with food is to try and balance the flavours in the food with those in the wine. So a delicate Salmon starter will be best matched to a Chenin Blanc or a Sauvignon Blanc rather than a heavily oaked Chardonnay. The real key then is to match the weight of the flavour in the food with the that of the wine ... it really is that easy!

Established wisdom would have white wine served with the turkey. I'm suggesting that's not altogether right, especially with some of the stronger flavours of the trimmings. A red wine is going to cope better with the spicier taste in the stuffing, the sausages in bacon and the gravy certainly. Christmas lunch needs a red wine with a bit of spice about it, and where better to look than to the other side of the world. What about trying Sainsbury's Australian Shiraz. At £4.99 it's not going to break the bank, its subtle oak and spice with its great black cherry aroma and taste will go down a storm with turkey and all the trimmings this year.

Having already broken with the "white with turkey" brigade, its worth thinking about a sweet desert wine to serve with the Christmas pud! Yep, wine with the pudding is the next thing to get your head round. The sweetness and fruitiness of the pudding demands a desert wine that's not going to be overpowered.

Again from Australia, Seppelt Rutherglen Show Muscat from Oddbins at £7.49, comes in a wonderfully slim, almost waif-like, half bottle. Just bring it to the table with the pudding ablaze and people will talk! Now pour the wine and let your guests discover the sweet maple syrup and raisin flavours of the wine and how well the wine matches the pudding. Its almost a marriage made in heaven!

So with the wines crossed off the list of things to do, life has just got easier ... well a little bit anyway!

If you have any comments or questions please e-mail me at nigel@vinrouge.co.uk