Holiday Wines for 2005

As an alternative, why not try a Beaujolais (not, please, a Beaujolais nouveau - it doesn’t have enough body to complement the turkey)? Here the 2003 crop was wonderful, full of flavor and fruit essences. DuBoeuf is always reliable, and his classified crus range from $8 - $12. As a special treat, serve a magnum if you can find one. And don’t forget to chill the wine for an hour or two before serving.

          Christmas.  This is a time for hearty eating. If you have a traditional roast goose for the main course, a robust Chateauneuf du Pape always goes well. The priciest, Chateau Beaucastel, varies from $44.99 for the 1999 to $59.99 for the 2001. (Since 2002 was a year of excessive rain just at the time of harvest, the Perrin brothers, owner of this fine estate, did not issue their wine in that year. Instead, they bottled a wine called “Les Sinards,” which is lighter than the usual wine, as one might expect, but still of good quality.) Other possibilities include a 2000 Domaine Grand Veneur Chateauneuf du Pape at $26.99, or a 2000 Vieux Telegraphe at $39.99. If you can find it, a magnum adds a very festive air. A 2000 Le Bousquet des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape Magnum at $47.99 or a 2000 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape Magnum at $72.99 would of itself be cause for celebration

          Many people have never tasted a white Chateauneuf du Pape. These wines have good flavor and body, and also age well. If you served bottles of both white and red Chateauneuf du Pape, that would stamp you as an imaginative host. Try a 2001 Domaine de Vieux Telegraphe white Chateauneuf du Pape with your first course for $29.99. 

          Other dinner possibilities, such as Cornish game hen with sage and chestnut stuffing, or duck (with cherry sauce, not orange), or a roast of pork with a rich berry sauce, might be accompanied by a robust red Burgundy wine. I used to think that the fine Nuits St. Georges wines were still relatively undiscovered. Well, their prices are now rising as well. Better give them a try before they rise even higher! Entry level now is probably an Ambroise “Vieilles Vignes” 2002 at $39.99. Top of  the line would be a Chevillon “Les St. Georges” 2000 at $59.99.

            New Year’s Eve.  I’m not forgetting the champagne for New Year’s Eve. What you prefer depends upon your own palate, whether a light champagne (Taittinger) or a fullbodied one (Bollinger), or something in between the two (Mumm, Perrier Jouet). You can get very good nonvintage champagnes from any of these houses for $35 or less. Their vintage champagnes, blanc de blancs, or rose champagnes can cost up to five times that, and more. I’m not sure that New Years Eve, often a mob scene, is a time for rare and expensive champagnes anyway.

          But let’s say this is going to be a special occasion, for just the two of you, and hang the expense. In that case, I would suggest a 1995 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blanc ($119), or a 1996 Perrier Jouet Fleur de champagne ($90). These are sensational wines, very tasty and luxurious, a special occasion by themselves.

         New Year’s Day.  For New Year’s Day dinner, with the traditional roast beef,  you have quite a choice, but increasingly, an expensive choice. Going through the holiday season at retail rates for fine wine might just be the best reason for you to make a New Year’s Resolution. This is the year that you are going to start a wine cellar! The sooner you start, the more mature wines you will have to drink in the future. It certainly beats trying to buy mature wines, if they are available at all, a bottle at a time at very high prices.

         Let’s settle for a good Bordeaux from the fine 2000 vintage. This is no easy matter, for the vintage has already been priced out of sight for most of us. The up side is that the vintage was uniformly good, so that you don’t have to spend top dollar for the pricy grands crus in order to have a fine wine. The crus bourgeois, not to mention the fifth and fourth growths, were also excellent. Try a Haut Bages Liberal at $29.99 from Pauillac, a D’Angludet from Margaux at $31.99, or one of my favorites, a Chateau Meyney from St. Estephe at $29.99. The second wine of Gruaud Larose, a fine St. Julien, named Sarget de Gruaud Larose, goes for $19.99, while the always reliable Chateau Grand Corbin Despagne from St. Emilion costs $27.99, while La Croix de Gay from Pomerol is $35.99.

          You may, on the other hand, be serving a fine honeyed ham, or perhaps a flavorful fish, such as salmon, rockfish or swordfish. Any of these dishes would suggest a substantial white wine from your cellar. From Burgundy, a Jadot 2002 Puligny Montrachet ($38.99) would be a compliment to your guests. From Bordeaux, so would either a 2001 Plantiers du Haut Brion ($34.99), or a Larrivet Haut Brion ($29.99) from the same year. These are the second wines, respectively, of two of the rarest and most expensive white wines, Chateau Haut Brion Blanc, and La Ville Haut Brion, quality wines that approximate the expensive grands crus, at a fraction of their cost.