MY family has suffered disastrous Christmas dinners at my hands. Kicking against the turkey routine every so often, I've dreamt up some wildly original but fiddly alternatives and ended up alone in the kitchen, letting off more steam than a pressure-cooker. Slowly, sense is dawning. How much wiser, how much easier (and - all right, I admit it - how much more delicious), to stick to a more or less traditional menu and add touches of excitement all the way through with an interesting choice of wines?
In one sense, you can't go wrong. Turkey and goose, the mainstays of the Christmas table, go reasonably well with such a variety of wines that you may level tempted (as I have often done in the past) to buy a few bottles of a favourite red and hope for the best. But why not aspire to gastronomic heaven - or at least have a bit of fun - trying to match flavours more precisely?
With that in mind, I've had another look at this year's two books on matching food and wine, by Kathryn McWhirter and Joanna Simon.
First the turkey. The main message here is to choose a rich, fairly fruity red rather than one that may be lean and tannic. Australian Shiraz emerges as a star choice, combining with the flavour of the bird in truly glorious fashion. There are plenty of good examples, besides our sumptuous Bottle of the Week. Tyrrell's Old Winery Shiraz, Rosemount Estate Shiraz, Yaldara Shiraz or Shiraz/Cabernet blends such as Penfolds Koonunga Hill or Wakefield would all do roast turkey honour. Purists with Old World preferences should probably stick to the same grape in its French homeland and plump for a star of the northern Rhone such as a Cote Rotie, Saint Joseph or Hermitage, provided it has had time to soften. If you're on a budget, however, a flavoursome Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon will work well, too.
Cabernet Sauvignon comes into play even more with goose. Traditionalists will see it as the perfect excuse to open a good bottle of claret - ideally a sensuous Margaux, rather than anything more muscular - or perhaps a spicy Chateauneuf-du-Pape. New World fans may home in on Cabernet from California or Coonawarra, but if you feel like trying something slightly different, the sweet spiciness of North American Pinot Noir is terrific with the slightly sweet, rich flesh of goose. With the Parsnip Puree and Honey and Clove Gravy, it would be especially delectable.
Once you've sorted out the main course wine, sandwiching it between the right before- and after-bottles is easy. With smoked salmon - the nation's most popular first course, livened up in John McKenna's recipe for Warm Salad of Smoked Salmon with Sour Cream - the best choice is probably a good white Burgundy or an oaked Californian Chardonnay. Australian and Chilean Chardonnays tend to be a bit too overpoweringly fruity to work well with smoked salmon, especially in this combination of ingredients. For a low-cost solution, consider a Chardonnay Vin de Pays instead.
Opinions differ widely as to the best dessert wines to partner straightforward Christmas pudding, never mind Christmas Cake Ice Cream, this could be the moment to jolt your assembled company back to life by giving them a choice. Why not line up a few half bottles? Fortified Muscats like Beaumes de Venise, Rivesaltes or (if you want to be a bit more recherche) St Jean de Minervois are all contenders, along with dessert Rieslings - from the New World rather than the old, for substantial rather than subtle flavours.
But here are two other ideas - both suggested by Kathryn McWhirter and Joanna Simon as Christmas pudding partners but equally worth trying, I believe, with the ice-cream. The first is Asti, Italy's fruity, frothy bubbly - once termed Spumante and derided as tacky but now on the quality trail. Think about it. It would be sweet enough to match the rich flavours of the cake crumbs, zingy enough to cut through the cream and light enough to allay any sensation of stodginess. The second suggestion is to try a super-sweet sherry. Not only does it go splendidly with Christmas cake, but in south west Spain it's a traditional accompaniment for vanilla ice-cream.