Perfect Wines for Christmas

I know that many of you are fretting your little hearts out about what wines to serve with Christmas dinner and/or lunch. Worry no more, help is at hand, we at Bliss not only know our onions but our wines as well.

To start with a blindingly obvious choice for those of you who live in colder climates:
a nice Glühwein or mulled wine which should be served the moment your guests arrive. You serve it hot and it's very nice for those who are in danger of freezing one or more body parts off. It works a bit like anti-freeze but is suitable for human consumption, unlike the real deal.
If you live in hotter climes or your guests have been totally thawed out at long last after imbibing vast quantities of mulled wine, you could serve them a nice glass of bubbly. Champagne is served cold, so put it in the fridge a couple of hours before you serve it.
What's that I hear you moan? But, but YE there's a credit crisis going on, I can't afford champagne. Not to worry my dears, have I ever let you down? You don't have to buy the real thing, as champagne may only be called champagne when it's from the Champagne area in France and the good ones cost a small fortune, simply buy a nice fizzy wine from Italy, Spain, Germany or even from a non-Champagne area in France and pay less than half the price. And steer clear from the sweet stuff, try the dry, very dry or, if you must the semi dry (semi secco, halb trocken) ones. They taste really great and go well with all kinds of finger food.
Personally I like the Italian Spumante very well, but it's very dry so perhaps not the one to buy if so far you've only tasted the sweet fizzy wines.

Enough of fizzy wines let's progress to the real stuff; the non fizzy wines. As a rule of thumb you serve dry white wine with fish and chicken, dry red wine with meat and cheese and a dry rose with lamb. That was generally speaking of course, but personal taste comes into it too and some wines are more suitable for a certain type of guest than others. What if you had some very special guests for dinner, like gardeners for instance, what kind of wine would you serve them? Well, how about this one?
A lovely bordeau from France, made from the Merlot grape. It's a dry red wine.

Or, if you had Poppins, Dee, Barbara, Katarina or yours truly to dinner you couldn't go wrong with a wine like this:
A lovely Italian wine.
With dessert you could serve your guests a sweet wine like this one for instance. What gardener could say no to a drop of Passion flower wine?And although it looks very oriental it's actually made in Germany.There is a suitable wine for every occasion, for every dish and every kind of guest, even for guests you do not like all that much. If, in the unlikely event, you'll find yourself having guests for dinner who are less than simpatico, do not worry, I have the right wine for them as well and here it is; a remarkably full bodied dry red wine from Australia:
Make sure that the label is very visible and hopefully they will take the hint and make themselves scarce, pronto!

Cheers!

copyrigth 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen