The Corkscrew | 12 drinks for the 12 days of Christmas – plus a recipe for mulled wine
In keeping with the spirit of the season, this is a time to celebrate
“Twelve wines (mostly) of Christmas” isn’t as hummable as the song of a similar name, but the drinks below are practical, affordable (have you seen the price of a partridge in a pear tree lately?), and tasty, too.
1 The first wine is champagne, of course, because it’s Christmas and time to celebrate. Plump for a bottle from the first lady of champagne, Madame Clicquot, who became the veuve (French for “widow”) of producer Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin when her husband, François Clicquot, passed away in 1805. She was a woman of many firsts: exporting champagne to Russia; making a rosé champagne; and as a woman successfully heading up a champagne house.
2 The second wine would be just that: a fabulous second wine. Many top Bordeaux chateaux make such tipples from grapes deemed not quite good enough for grand vin, but using the same top winemaking teams. A good choice is Echo de Lynch-Bages, from Château Lynch-Bages, a fifth-growth from Pauillac.
3 What to bring to a gathering of friends and family for a bit of Christmas cheer? Try something that’s familiar to all: Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc, a wine that put New Zealand’s Marlborough region on the map for many drinkers. If you feel like splashing out, buy single-vineyard offering Te Koko.