Best Christmas wines

Best champagne and sparkling wine for Christmas

Christmas always needs fizz, of course. Good champagne (check out our guide for the best bottles to buy) is properly celebratory but also properly expensive – keep your eyes out for tempting discounts. Pol Roger is my (and Winston Churchill’s) favourite brand – try the lovely Brut Reserve – while the pretty pink Delacourt Rosé Brut from M&S is also worth seeking out. Get more bubbly bang for your buck by looking to other regions of France for crémants – made in the same way as champagne but commanding gentler prices. Try this Calvet Crémant de Bordeaux or Cave de Lugny’s sparkling chardonnay (one of champagne’s chief grapes) from Waitrose. Both would be great for a party.

Best white wine for Christmas

Look for simple, refreshing white wines that go with oysters, smoked salmon and other festive seafood treats, as well as for glugging alone. Muscadet has rather fallen out of favour, so often offers great value for crisp, zingy wines such as Fief Guérin’s Côtes de Grandlieu Muscadet Sur Lie. Or try a more trendy albariño from northern Spain – Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Albariño is aromatic and really refreshing.

Best red wine for Christmas

Pinot noir is my choice for light, quaffable reds that are versatile with food, especially if you chill them a little before serving. Laithwaite's Rapaura Springs Pinot Noir 2019 has plummy fruit, cloves, black olives and sage balanced together in a really stunning wine. Made by Cramele Recas, Romania’s biggest and most forward-thinking winery, Sarcoma Pinot Noir is cracking value for money. Ripe and juicy fruit with a touch of cinnamon and chocolate.

For warming, spicy reds that will sit as well with meat as with earthy veggie dishes, try Cap Royal Bordeaux Supérieur, a friendly, gently oaked Bordeaux made in the modern style. Happy festive drinking!

@katehawkings

The best Christmas wines to try...

Lyrarakis Dafni, Psarades Vineyard, £12.95, The Whisky Exchange

An ancient grape known to be grown by the winemakers of ancient Knossos on Crete 4,000 years ago, Dafni has intense notes of bay leaves and roasted nuts. It would be brilliant with our beetroot risotto, as well as anything accompanied with a bay-spiked bread sauce.

Corney & Barrow 20-Year-Old Tawny Port, £36.75, Corney & Barrow

Tawny port is a great multitasker: sweet but with a pleasing freshness, and scents of dried fruit, orange peel and spice, it’s great served chilled with all manner of festive puddings, as well as a cheeseboard. This one is top notch.

Chapel Down Rosé Brut NV, £24.99, Waitrose

This lovely pink fizz is made from pinot noir and has a raspberry richness that makes it great with food – perfect with canapés or a decadent smoked salmon brunch.