A Very Berry Christmas and a Glucklich New Year!

So, this was Christmas and thanks to my growing knowledge of wine I had the privilege of selecting the vast majority of the Christmas wines! A challenge I was extremely excited to be undertaking. Also rather a difficult one as there was a lot to think about. The wonderful thing about Christmas day is that it is the only day of the year where we drink wine with breakfast! Well, sparkling wine of course! So there were lots of pairing (and pacing) considerations. I'll begin:

Breakfast
To continue the sparkling wine tradition a lovely Cava was served up with the smoked salmon and scrambled egg, a Brut Castilla Perelada Cava purchased from the Castilla itself, fruity and buttery thanks to the traditional method and cheap enough to not feel guilty when transforming it into a Bucks Fizz.

Lunch
Well, what a feast. Goose and turkey and gammon! So the traditional Chateaux Leoville 2003 St Julien Bordeaux magnum was dragged up from the cellar and a very nice 2005 Chateau St-Pierre St Julien too, these very well selected by my dad and perfect with the goose (most excellently prepared by my sister Anne-Louise). I popped in a Lebanese classic, the Chateau Musar 2007 to add a little Arabian spice and excitement and that was the contribution to the main meal. I had decided that post-lunch wine could be my focus. So after eating and eating and drinking and eating we drank some more, this time a wonderful wine introduced to me during the WSET level 3 course at Berry's. A vino da meditazione, a wine to just enjoy and while away the time, no food required. This delightful smooth, caramel and cherry tasting extravaganza is definitely wine for an occasion at £47 a pop, we were drinking a 2009 Amarone de Valpolicella Classico Riserva, Le Balze. After a little break from the food came the cheese!

Cheese
My friend Lucy and her mum Barbara joined us for this part of the day. All the cheeses were from Neal's Yard Dairy in Borough Market apart from the Comte, which was bought from the stall selling mostly Comte in Borough Market. To pair with the Comte and other nutty hard cheeses I chose a white Gravonia Rioja Reserva 2004, my other sister Marie-Claire quite controversially said it tasted like water!? In a way she had a point, she was drinking it after having a glass of the rather lovely Waitrose Brut Special Reserve Vintage 2006 Champagne produced by Piper-Heidsieck, which with it's high levels of acidity and bubbles would make many white wines taste blander by natural comparison, but that was a bit unfair. I really liked the Rioja, but I have to say when I had tasted it the first time at the Winchester Wine fair I was more taken with it, in hindsight now I might have opted for it's slightly more expensive older sister the Tondonia Rioja but it still had a lovely mellow, mildly nutty flavour, yet surprisingly light, which I welcomed at that point of the day.
Also on offer with the platter of cheese was another Berry's discovery and a wine I shall love for the rest of my life, a Malvasia, 10 year old, Vinhos Barbeito, Madeira. An unctuous dried fruit and honey delight (Christmas pudding in a glass! Kind of, except I don't like Christmas pudding but I liked that), this just tasted amazing with everything! However, because we had to try even more wine (it was Christmas) a very little bottle of the sweet Coteaux du Layon reared it's tiny head and made a big impression with the very large quarter wheel of Stilton. And this is why I am now on a serious diet! I do have to say though that I am so happy that I have discovered Coteaux du Layon recently, it is a fabulous wine and I have managed to get a few friends to buy bottles (from Waitrose), so I shall continue in 2015 to spread the Layon love. The one I bought was from Davy's Wine Shop in Greenwich. I don't have the details and can't remember the name (shame on me) but they only had the one kind. It is quite difficult to buy in this country and is easily as lovely as a good Sauternes.
So here's the photo of most of the wonderful line-up. The Rioja made it into Boxing day! Went very nicely with Christmas dinner no. 2.

The diet however did not start on New Year's Eve! I was in Germany visiting my friend Erika and her German fiance Sven. I was lucky enough to be invited to eat at a wonderful restaurant not far from their home in Flensburg called Norditeran. It was a fabulous 8 course tasting menu - see below and see if you understand it - I couldn't, but it didn't matter as it was all delicious!

To accompany this fine array of flavours we got well stuck into a beautifully aromatic Markus Molitor 2013 Pinot Blanc which was a wonder to behold with lobster. I then chose a French oaked Chardonnay, following that Erika picked an outstanding Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir to you and I) which I have to say was probably the most lovely Pinot Noir I have ever drunk (and I'm not it's biggest fan), but it being NYE and me having photography issues, I didn't get it's name!! Biggest regret of 2014! I'm on the case though. So not a Riesling consumed but my eyes (and tastebuds) are now so more open to German wines, and rather sad that there are not more of the varieties mentioned above readily available to buy over here. In my next post I will be continuing the German theme with a couple I bought at the airport (no other choice, only had hand luggage). One will feature in my new Wine of the Month post. Auf Wiedersehen!