A Little Holiday Wine-ing

When I first conceived of this blog in my food-loving little heart last year I knew it had to include discussions about wine. It is a big part of my dining & entertaining life, so my inaugural post devoted to that nectar of the gods is here to help those who might feel a little intimidated by selecting the right type of wines for holiday festivities.

If you are hosting a holiday gathering you MUST offer wine to your guests, but keep it simple: offer a red and a white. Most holiday parties (at least the ones I have attended) are fairly informal; think ugly itchy holiday sweaters and finger foods. People are not going to be questioning the wine’s vintage or the year the grapes were harvested. If they do, throw them out!

That being said, I beg of you to not serve swill at your parties. Yes, I know it is tempting to buy those jumbo bottles, which cost all of $8, and are practically screaming at you from the kiosk as soon as you walk into the liquor store “Buy me, I’m a bargain!!!” However, you can find decent bottles of wine for $15-20 per bottle that your guests who drink wine on a regular basis will appreciate – I cannot count the number of parties the hubs and I have attended which resulted in us discreetly tossing our glass of wine because we JUST COULD NOT DO IT. 🤢 Also, by serving a decent wine to your guests you are performing a public service – those guests who know nothing about wine are getting a taste of what wine SHOULD taste like.

Two selections of red wine that are easy to find at your local liquor store.

White wine tends to be less expensive than red wine.

When serving red wine to your guests, go with a Cabernet or Merlot. Most red wine drinkers will drink those, and every liquor store is going to have decent selection of these varietals. Cabs tend to be dry and full-bodied, whereas a merlot is known to be an easy drinking red. 2 of my favorite $15-$20 bottles of these are Rodney Strong and Charles Krug – both offer Cabernet and Merlot varietals.

In deciding your white wine selection to serve, go with a Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio (or pinot gris, as some call it). Most white wine drinkers defer to one of those. Chardonnays are dry and oaky in flavor and pinot grigio is usually lighter-bodied and fruitier. Really depends on what you are going for. The good news in buying white wine it is almost always less expensive than red wine, in general. Again, Rodney Strong is a strong choice. King Estate carries an excellent $18 pinot gris.

Hopefully, this will help a little with your holiday entertaining. Incidentally, as all of these wines are under $20 you can buy them for your friends, family members, or picky boss, and end up impressing them all without breaking the bank. Now THAT is something to celebrate. Cheers!