What Wine to Pour this Holiday Season (without overspending)

Ep 83

Are you scrambling to find the perfect wine for your holiday gatherings? I’ve got you covered with sparkling, white, red and dessert wines that will be perfect for your Christmas dinner.

In today’s episode I’m sharing with you a cost-effective yet sophisticated alternative to Champagne as well as food-friendly white wines that will add a rich note to your holiday dinner, because we don’t just have to drink red wine for the holidays!

But if you do prefer a red wine, I’m sharing wines that are acidic and have a wonderful flavor profile. And we can’t forget about dessert! I’m sharing 3 amazing dessert wines that will go perfectly with your holiday sweets. 

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the endless wine choices for your holiday festivities and you are looking to make your Christmas dinner memorable with the perfect glass of wine, today’s episode is for you!

Grab my FREE Holiday Wine Guide! https://corkandfizz.myflodesk.com/holidaywineguide

Episode Highlights:

• Wine recommendations for the holiday season

• Alternatives to Champagne

• My go-to white wines

• Cozy, traditional, and unique white wine options

• My go-to red wines for Christmas

• Red wines that pair well with food

• Unique red wine options

• Dessert wines

Transcript

0:15

Okay. Welcome back to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine cast. Today, we are sticking with the holiday theme. If you're anything like me, that is pretty much what's on the top of your mind right now. So I wanted to share some wines that I think would be perfect for your holiday dinner table because I know that's a time when a lot of us want to serve wine, but we're not quite sure which bottles to have on the table. And then maybe you wanna bring a bottle of wine over to a dinner party you're going to, and you just you just wanna bring a good bottle that people enjoy. And that's, you know, that's all you're worried about. So that is what so that is what this episode is about. I also have a full printable well, not even printable, but, a full downloadable holiday wine guide. It includes 16 specific bottles of wine that I would recommend for the holidays. This podcast is going to essentially go over why I think those wines are so great and tell you a little bit more about them and throw in a few other, styles of wine that I think would be good. Let's dive into it. So when it comes to wines for the holidays, I think the go to for a lot of people is to share this fancy, special bottle of wine that they've been saving. And, honestly, I say freaking go for it if you are going to do that. Like, when is a better time than when you have all the people you love around together? And for me, a lot of times, a special bottle of wine is made even more special when you're around other people. Now that said, that is only applies to some situations. Right? Because for 1, sometimes that special bottle of wine might not go with the food that you are serving with your holiday dinner. Right? So if wine and food pairings matter to you and you want something that matches well, maybe not the best idea. The other thing to keep in mind is who are you sharing the wine with? Right? Like, is it your, you know, your your dad who got you into wine and just really loves, you know, trying new things and is super enthused and you know will love the wine as much as you? Or is it, you know, your great uncle Bob who just wants to have something in his glass, you know? Like, think and right. And you don't wanna have only a glass of your, you know, $60 bottle of wine and have somebody else who, like, would have enjoyed a $15 bottle just as much drink the rest of it. Right? So I know that sounds I hope that doesn't come across as mean. I think it just it's, like, keep in mind who is drinking the wine and what they would appreciate. And, I mean, again, share your wine with whoever you want to share it with, but I'm gonna give you some wine recommendations that match more of the wine and food pairing and are also around 15 between $15.40 a bottle. So it keeps it a little lower cost just in case you have folks who just prefer to drink, just want something that tastes good, and they don't care as much about the actual wine itself. So we're gonna go over 4 styles of wine. So we're gonna start with sparkling, then we'll go into white wines, red wines, and, of course, some dessert wines for the holidays, which, like, when is a better time to pull out a dessert wine than with holidays? So starting off, I feel like having some sparkling is always good. Right? We're thinking New Year's, also just good to have something to celebrate over the holidays, something to pour in people's glasses when they arrive. Like, how cool would that be? I feel like family Christmas might be like even better. Like, when you arrived, it's like, here is your glass of sparkling wine. So when it comes to sparkling, I think a lot of people automatically think of champagne. Champagne is wonderful, but champagne is freaking expensive. So I'm gonna recommend a style of wine that is made exactly like champagne, also in France, just not in the region of champagne. So it's made in the exact same style. It's gonna have very similar flavors, but it's typically only around 20 to $30 a bottle, and you can actually find bottles, I think, around, like, $12 at Trader Joe's. This style of wine is called cremante, c r e m a n t. And, typically, on the bottle, it will say Cremant, and then it'll say Cremant des or Cremant du, the region in France that it is from. So one of my favorites to recommend, if you're looking for something that is a pure champagne alternative, is Cremonthe Bourgogne, Bourgogne. And this is and this wine comes from the Burgundy region in France, which is not far south from Champagne, and it is made with the same grapes that they use in Champagne. So literally, the only difference between a Cremont de Bourgogne and a champagne is where the wine is made and the price difference. So this is one of those really great little wine hacks. It shows you know a little bit about wine, and everyone's going to love it. But, honestly, you can find Cremont des wherever. I love a Cremont de Jura. This is from a little region just east of Burgundy. Uses similar grape varieties as Burgundy, but also some fun unique ones. If you like a little bit of a lighter, brighter a lighter, brighter style of sparkling wine, go for a Cremont de Loire or a Cremont de Bordeaux. Those are great options for something a little bit brighter, not quite as I don't wanna say heavy because that sounds bad. I love a Cremont de Bregogne. It's just a little richer, a little more yellow apple versus the Cremont de Loire, Cremont de Bordeaux is gonna be more of this, like, citrusy flavor coming through. So, like I said, when you are shopping for these wines, just look for Cremont Day or Cremont Due. I give some great options. At Total Wine, there's 1 La Ver Cremont De Brecon Brut. Just means that it has a little bit of sugar in it, but trust me, it is not gonna taste sweet. This one is $20 at total wine. And then there's a Tranel Cremat de Bregogne. This one I found on wine.com. This one is $34. Again, these are gonna be top notch sparkling wines that, like, if they were a champagne, they'd be $50 plus. But the nice thing is they are Cremont. I've also seen a Cremont de Bourgogne at Trader Joe's. I think it has, like, a orange label. I'm trying to remember what the, like, name of it is, but I've seen it at Trader Joe's. That is a great one to purchase as well. And like I said, go check out my holiday wine guide. I will link it in the show notes for you, and I've got 2 other bottles that I recommend. Now moving on from sparkling wine, let's talk about some white wine to have on the table. I know everybody thinks winter time we only gotta drink reds, but there are some great white wines that are gonna go really well with your food. So one of my favorite styles to recommend when we're thinking of something that's food friendly, but we also want it to be a little bit more, what do I wanna say? Like, cozy. We don't want it to be, like, too bright and acidic. Right? Because that makes us think of summer. We want something a little cozier. So what I recommend is a Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend. Now those are 2 different grapes. Sauvignon Blanc is a grape and Semillon is a grape. So when I mean a blend, it means it's a wine made from those two grapes. This blend was made, famous and popular in Bordeaux, France. So it's often called the white Bordeaux blend. So if you ever seen a Bordeaux Blanc, it is made with these grapes. There are also wines that are made from these two grapes, and in this style just outside of Bordeaux, France, sometimes they'll call it a Bordeaux blend style or they'll just call it a white blend and you gotta find out what those grapes are in there. But I really love this style of wine because it has those fresh and familiar notes from Sauvignon Blanc which pair really well with a lot of different types of foods, but then it has this richness from Semillon that just goes perfect with cooler, cozy nights. So some bottles that I would recommend here. So like I said, if you see a Bordeaux Blanc, this is a good one to get. There's one called Chateauguibon Blanc, g u I b o n, Guibon. I still don't speak French at all, guys. Sorry. I'm really bad at this. But this is a great choice. It is $25.25 at total wine. This is a French Bordeaux style. So kind of more in that traditional route. Another great option, Another great option, also from Bordeaux, France, is the Di Bordeaux, Liezion, Sauvignon Blanc, and Semillon. This one as well comes from Bordeaux. It actually comes from the region called Entre du Meres, which is basically this region between the two big red regions, but it's between the rivers that go through Bordeaux, and they make a lot of really great white wine. So this one is about $22. And again, you can find this at total wine. Now, if you're looking for something outside of Bordeaux, France, one of my absolute favorite white wines comes from a winery here in Washington called the Lille Cellars. And their white wine, the Charler Blanc is just phenomenal. It's a little more expensive. These run about $42.42 a bottle. But they are really special, super delicious. Like, even people who don't drink white wine, I share this with them and they're like, oh, oh, that's kinda good. It's just it's it's so smooth and just like it just hits the spot. One other one, you can also find these Sauvignon Blanc Sauvignon blends from Australia is another cool spot to look up. And so I I'm sharing this bottle called Howard Park Mayimup, and this is from Australia. You can find it on wine.com for $17. So a really good deal on that one. I've also seen a Bordeaux Blanc again at Trader Joe's. I always wanna mention this too because I know that a lot of folks shop there. If you're, like, hosting a lot of people and you need to buy more than one bottle of wine, I've had the Bordeaux Blanc at Trader Joe's, also delicious. You would be great grabbing that as well. Beyond Bordeaux Blanc, I also wanna give you a couple other recommendations for white wines, that you could bring it to your holiday party or have on your dinner table for the holidays. So if you want to kind of impress some folks and go a little more traditional, I think a white burgundy would be amazing for the holidays. These are wines that are made in the burgundy region of France, so we're going back to burgundy. We're having a very French Christmas so far if you can't tell. But this is a wine made with Chardonnay, but don't worry, it's not overly buttery. I think you would impress a lot of people who, like, didn't realize they would like a Chardonnay. If you want something that's like higher acidity, really bright, go with the chablis, c h a b l I s. These are wines that are made in the most northern part of Burgundy. They pair super well, with seafood. So if you're going that way, but, honestly, they also pair really well with rich dish dishes like ham. What else am I thinking of? Oh, like a like a cheesy dish. Like, if you have mac and cheese at your Christmas dinner, that would go really well with this. So Chablis is a good option. Another great spot if you're looking for something that like a little more traditional, but you don't wanna spend $50 a bottle, look for a burgundy labeled hot Cote de Bon or haute Cote de Nuit. And this is kind of a newer region within burgundy, but these come from the grapes that are on the top of these, like, the in burgundy, the best wines are typically made with grapes that are found on the hillsides, but there are also grapes that are on top of these hillsides and on the opposite side. And they are still great grapes, they still make great wines, And so, Hote Cote de Beaune comes from the Bon region in, the yeah. Comes from the Beaune region in the Cote d'Or, which is where the most expensive burgundy wines come from. And, Nuit, comes from the Nuit region, which is also in the Cote D'Or. And like I said, these are just like great bottles where you can get them at a little bit of a lower cost, but they come from that really top region. Another great region that is kind of popping up in Burgundy is Cote Chaloner. Chaloner, is this region in mid Burgundy to Southern Burgundy, that is just kind of being discovered right now. So if you walk into your wine shop, ask them about a Cote Chaloner burgundy and see what they come up with. Lastly, if you have a bunch of folks who just love trying unique funky wines, try a Pecorino. I've probably talked about this. If you follow me on Instagram, this has been like my wine of the fall, but I also think it's a great winter wine. Pecorino, yes, it's a cheese, but it's also a wine. And it comes from Italy, And it's just this really it's got that nice bright acidity of Sauvignon Blanc, but similar to our Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend, it has this richness to it that just, like, smooths it out. And it's gonna make it a perfect food friendly wine, but also a great wine just to have while you're sipping during the holidays. Okay. Let's talk red wines. Now my number one recommendation when it comes to pairing red wine with your dinner over the holidays, we're gonna go with the Cabernet Franc. Now, I know a lot of you are like, no, what about like the big bold Cabernet Sauvignon? That's great if you're into it, but if we're wanting a more food friendly option, we want a Cabernet Franc. It's got similar flavors, but it's not quite as heavy and it has higher acidity levels. Acidity is always a good thing when we're trying to pair with food. And it has more of these herbal earthy notes like green pepper and fresh herbs. And if we think about what we like to, you know, how we season the turkey or the ham over the holidays is we like to have a lot of herbs and we like to have a lot of veggies and earthiness with it. So this wine is going to work perfectly. And you can find Cabernet Franc all over the world. The nice thing is this is lesser known as well, not as popular as Cabernet Sauvignon, so guess what? It's also cheaper than Cabernet Sauvignon a lot of the times. Now I give a I always like to give, like, a good variety. So, Cabernet Franc, the most traditional version is gonna come from the Loire Valley in France. And one of my favorite little regions in there is Chinon, c h I n o n. And this is where you're gonna find great value for the wine. Like, it's ridiculous how little you have to pay to get such a high quality wine. In my gift in my holiday wine guide, I recommend a Chinon, Le Pre Vazure. And this is a $23 bottle of Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. You can get it at Total Wine. You can also find Cabernet Franc from, New York, believe it or not, in the Finger Lakes. This is a very popular style. One of my favorite producers of this is Ravines, r a v I n e s. They have a great bottle. You can get one for $29 atwine.com or, honestly, you'd probably find that at a lot of local wine shops. Another great place if you're in the US to find Cabernet Franc is Virginia. I have highlighted a few Virginia winemakers, I believe, on this podcast. I sing so many high praises for Virginia Cabernet Franc. It is just like it tastes like Thanksgiving to me. I know we're past Thanksgiving now when you're listening to this. Well, maybe if you're relistening to this some other time, this is also a perfect wine for Thanksgiving. But it just it has these lovely cranberry, earthy, fresh, just notes to it. And this fruitiness in Virginia of this Cabernet Franc is just perfect without being overwhelming. If you are looking for 1, locally and you're not in Virginia, I have found this one Horton Tower series, Cabernet Franc at Total Wine. I don't know if it's at every Total Wine, but I have found it here in Washington. Otherwise, next time you have some time, do some online shopping and look at some of the great Virginia wineries. There are some wonderful ones. Go back in the podcast. I know I've interviewed some wonderful Virginia winemakers, and you can find some great ones and kinda stock up so you're ready the next holiday season. Alright. Remember oh, man. Let's try that again. Okay. And, of course, I'm not just gonna give you one recommendation for a red wine over the holidays. If you're looking for something that's a little more, not like affordable, but easier to find, something a little more fruit forward, something a little different that folks may have not have tried, look for a Gamay. Gamay is another great one to have, over the holidays because, again, it's got this nice acidity to it. It's not super heavy. It's got lots of fruit flavor to it. Everyone just, like, enjoys drinking. It's very easy to drink. It goes really well with ham, which is my go to, for Christmas dinner. But it also goes well with a lot of different foods. It can work well with red meat too. And so a great place for Gamay is Beaujolais. And you remember we talked about this in a previous episode. Beaujolais is a region just south of Burgundy. They make absolutely phenomenal wines, and it is so affordable. Just go to your local wine shop, go to Total Wine, look for some Beaujolais. It is spelled like beau j o l a I s. It does not look anything like how it's said. But even just ask for a recommendation. Ask for a it said Beaujolais. Beaujolais. And so that would be a great one for the holidays. And, again, if we're looking for something a little more unique, you got some, like, wine enthusiasts coming over for dinner and you wanna impress them with something unique and different, go for an Etna Rosso. This wine comes from Italy. It comes from the Etna DOC, which is actually situated on the slopes of the Etna volcano on the island of Sicily. It is such a cool wine. Everyone I introduce it to absolutely loves it. I don't know what it is. It's like that perfect blend of fruity and earthy and rich and deep without being overwhelming. It's made with 2 grapes you've probably never heard of, Norello Masculese and Norello Capuccio, but it is just it's really good and you can find it at, like, your local total wine, your local wine shop, and so I highly recommend if you want something that's kind of different, and like I said you got some wine enthusiasts, you wanna kind of impress and be like, oh, I didn't just got the I didn't just bring the normal Cabernet Sauvignon that I always bring. I found this cool at Noronoso. And they'll be like, oh, tell us about it. And be like, it comes from a volcano. Like, it's just a really, really cool wine. And, again, food friendly, so it's gonna pair with a lot of things that you are eating for the holidays. Okay. Last up, let's talk dessert wine. I know a lot of people, turn their noses up at dessert wine, but this is a perfect time to enjoy something good. Whether you wanna pair it with your Christmas cookies or you just wanna have some wine for dessert, I'm gonna recommend 3 different styles. So the first one we're gonna talk about, I think, is gonna be the easiest one to find. It's called Tawny Porte. So Tawny Porte, it's a fortified wine from Portugal, and that means that fermentation is stopped. So that time when they're turning the grape juice and the sugar and the grape juice into alcohol, they stop that process by adding neutral grape spirit. So it keeps the alcohol content high, but it leaves behind some residual sugar in the wine. So it makes this wine really rich, really sweet, but, like, balanced because it has this full body. It's not like it's never syrupy sweet. And I always warn people when they're having port is, like, friendly reminder, this has a lot of alcohol. You might not notice it because it tastes so good, but be careful having more than a glass. And this is also one of those that you serve in, like, one of those little tiny, glasses because you really only need a couple ounces. But it's just it has those really rich red fruit, like dried fig and raisins, and then it has this cinnamon and caramel. I just I am a sucker for a good Tawny port. And, again, you're looking for Tawny, t a w n y, port, not ruby. That's gonna be more fruit forward and less rich. Still great, just not quite what I'm talking about. You can find a lot of different styles. Now you'll notice that Tawny Porte doesn't have a specific year on it, but it'll say sometimes it'll say things like a 10 year old, a 20 year old, and what that means is that is the average age of the wine that went into this blend. So Tawny Ports are usually a blend of multiple different vintages, and that 10 year old means that it's like the average age of the wine that went into the blend. So 10 year is a great one. You can get a great one from Taylor Flaggate, a 20 a 10 year old sorry. Excuse me. 10 year old Tawny Porte for $26 at total wine. Now if you wanna, like, really impress, there's a great bottle of Graham's 20 year old Tawnypore. And the more that the the older that the Tawnypore is, less fruit, more of those kind of, caramel, cinnamon, more of those age characteristics are going to come out. It is delicious. But if you like more fruit, go for a younger one. But this grams 20 year old Tawny Porte is a little more expensive. It is $71 at total wine. But the nice thing about Porte, again, you're only drinking small amounts of it at a time, and you can save this even if you just you just put the cork back in it like normal. Because it has that higher alcohol content, it'll last at least a month, if not longer. Okay. The 2 other the 2 other dessert wines that I'm going to recommend, the first one is called ice wine. It's just like fun and in the holiday spirit. So ice wine is made by actually freezing the grapes. So most of the time it's made where the winemaker will leave the grapes out on the vine, the temperature will drop, the grapes will freeze, all the water in the grapes freezes, And then they press those frozen grapes, and they just get the sugary juice out of it, and it leaves behind all of the water content because it's all frozen. Right? So it creates this really delectable sweet, just it honestly, like, elixir I feel like is the way to describe an ice wine. Some great versions. I think some of the best that I've had come out of Canada, in Germany. Those are gonna be like my 2 top spots for getting ice wine, but I've also had a great ones in different spots in Wisconsin. I am from Wisconsin, which is why I've tried a lot of it there. Also Washington, New York makes some good ice wine. Think of areas where it's actually gonna get cold enough that they can make ice wine. The other one I'm gonna recommend is Vinsanto. This one's really special. This is from Italy and it is made with grapes that are dried on straw mats. So you'll notice both the ice wine and the Vinsanto. The idea is get rid of the water content so you just have that, like because you you just want that, like, concentrated flavor and juice in the grape. So you're gonna dry the grapes and then you're going to press those, and then they go through a really special aging process. And the crazy thing is, Vinsanto smells like it has a lot of alcohol, but does not taste like it, and it doesn't actually have a lot of alcohol. But it's perfect for, like, dipping biscotti into. And it's, like, definitely what I feel is, like, a, like, a sophisticated dessert wine if there ever was such a thing. Honestly, all of these are very sophisticated. Like, imagine getting, like, little glasses out just to pour, like, little bits of dessert wine for everyone at the end of the night. Alright. That is my recommendations for your holiday wine. If you want to find all of these written down with specific links, I don't include all of the wines in the holiday wine guide. You're just gonna get the first wines that I say, but you can find all of those at corkandfizz.myflodesk.com/holidaywineguide. Yes. That was a mouthful. I will also put it in the show notes so you can click on it there. It is a totally free wine guide if you want some help picking out your wines. Of course, also reach out to me on Instagram at corkandfizz if you wanna hear for recommendations for the ice wine, the vincento, the arroso. Reach out. I'm always help I'm always happy to help you out. And if you know a wine lover in your life that would enjoy this podcast, please share it with them. You can find your favorite episode and send it their way or take a screenshot right now and post it on your social media. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. I release new episodes every Wednesday. Now I have a special treat for you over the holidays. Don't worry, we're not skipping any episodes around here. I know it's Christmas and New Year's but, like, you got some time to listen to some podcasts. So the next two episodes are gonna be my interview, with Dale, who is a Portuguese and Mexican wine importer. She is an expert on Mexican wine. It is such a unique area that I have not learned a lot about. And then she also imports a lot of these wines into the US for us to try. It was such a fun interview. You're going to absolutely love it. So make sure you you get those downloaded and you're ready for those come the holidays. Alright, thanks again for listening, and if you want to learn more about wine come follow me at quorkandfizz on Instagram, and if you're interested in exploring new wines, just like the ones I've listed above, and joining an incredible community of wine lovers, be sure to sign up for my virtual tasting club, The Cork Crew. Head to corkandfizz.com/freeclasspass to come check out a tasting for free. Cheers.