a few weeks back, i was fortunate enough to be invited along to a wine pairing evening in central london with marks and spencer's wine buying team. i mean, they'd know, right? this was not my first rodeo though - i've done a few wine tastings in my time, so i didn't think i was going to get much out of it (except suitably tipsy)(which is kind of ok, as that's how i like spending my free time anyway). but, oh did they prove me wrong!
we started with bubbles, as any party should. i'm a prosecco girl, me, always have and always will be, so was pleasantly surprised to learn that the fizzy wine we started with was home grown! it might please you too to know that more and more wine is being made here in england, and the news last week proclaimed that in the next five years wine will become one of the uk's biggest exports. pretty cool, huh! sadly though, when i went in-store to pick up some more of the marksman sparkling for our christmas-tree-putting-up-day in the flat, they didn't have any. what they did have was infinitely better: half priced champagne. nothing tastes like christmas quite like champagne.
as we aaaaall already know, white wine goes with white meat and seafood, and red wine goes with red meat. but did you know... that's all a massive lie?! your palette is your palette, and while it's more common to drink white with white and red with red, it really all comes down to your own personal taste. like, i am not a red drinker, at all, so much so that the tannin in the wine actually tastes like poison to me. according to the experts, this makes me a "super taster" - someone who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than most, with a heightened sensitivity to bitter tastes. like red wine. bleeuuurgh.
my flatmate isn't opposed to a glass of red, but when faced with the champagne, she soon sided with me. we then ran riot buying all the christmas food we could find in store (plenty) that would pair nicely with the sweet, bubbly wine. we settled on: everything. that's not even a lie. we had prawn balls and chicken kievs, pigs in blankets and pulled pork bites, mince pies and biscuits, and cakes and ohmygod there was so much food! we've literally been existing on a diet of leftovers since that weekend, which... i ain't mad at. sadly though, the bubbles disappeared in no time. again: it was christmas-tree-putting-up-day; what do you expect?
we listened to spotify's christmas playlist, danced around and sang along, and stuffed our faces while we decorated the flat. we don't get to spend a lot of one-on-one time together as we're just both such social butterflies, but it was so nice to be able to come together over a fancy glass (or three) of wine, and celebrate our first christmas together in the flat. save for a few arguments over how many lights are needed on a seven foot tree (i maintain 40 is plenty)(she has over 500 at last count), it was a really special day, and possibly that's down to the wine. also: christmas time is the happiest time of year, ain't it!... which is why we have two trees; everyone's happy now.
what are your christmas day wine preferences?
*thanks to m&s for the lessons in proper wine pairing, and for the food and drink for christmas-tree-putting-up-day*
