Finnginn’s Favourite Festive Drinks: Number 5 - Wine

 I know we’re not supposed to admit it, but getting drunk occasionally is quite good fun. And the best kind of drunk in this drinker’s opinion is wine drunk. That’s why wine forms the backbone to my Christmas day drinking. 

There’s the indulgent morning glass of fizz that we have already examined and we may yet come to the best sweet and heady fortified number with which to wash down the final crumb of stilton. But for today let’s look at the still and unfortified wines that I’ll be sampling whilst marking an X in the base of the sprouts and glazing the Xmas ham.

What is it?

Wine is fermented grape juice.

I’m going to keep this brief, as it’s hard to write about wine without sounding like a pompous prick: I don’t want to know that “The vintners of the Côtes de Gascogne region are working miracles with lesser known varieties such as gros manseng…” I want to know if I can get it in Aldi for less than a fiver.

White

I like my white wine to taste of citrus and slate - like licking lemon juice from a defelted snooker table. So naturally, my first choice for wine is always a bone dry Sauvignon Blanc. 

Rosé

Rosé is not just for summer! We’ll definitely have a chilled box of La Vielle Ferme in the refrigerator over Xmas for any rosé fans that pop by. 

Red

As far as crowdpleasers go, you can’t go far wrong with a South American Malbec. Personally, I’ll be tucking into a Romanian Pinot Noir with my Xmas dinner. Yum!

If it’s not too late to add it to your Christmas list, there’s a great dialogue by Plato called The Symposium - the version I have is translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley. I love how it opens with a discussion of how drunk the assembled Athenians of note should get (they are all hungover from the public celebrations the previous night):

“Whereupon it was unanimously agreed that this would not be a drunken party and that the wine was to be served merely by way of refreshment.”

I think that sums up the spirit of my approach to drinking wine on Xmas day! Everything in moderation! And don’t be the Alcibiades at the party! (The Athenian statesman and general turns up to the symposium late, pissed, and insistent on singing love songs).

Teetotal Alternative

Being very much a supportive husband, I willingly sipped a bunch of non-alcoholic wines when my wife was pregnant and, with the exception of some of the “No”secco style fizzes, they were all awful. Just go with grape juice or Appletiser.

Have you got any wine recommendations? Share them in the comments or on social media.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash