South Africa: where Old and New Worlds meet

At the top of my list of wine regions that I haven't visited yet, but am desperate to see, is South Africa. Dramatically sited vineyards surrounded by boundless natural beauty; the cosmopolitan restaurant scene of Cape Town, sandwiched between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean; whale-watching at Hermanus; endless sunny days under African skies. Doesn't sound too shabby does it?

For a New World country, South Africa has been at this winemaking game for a long time. The first vines, planted by pioneering settler Jan van Riebeck, produced grapes that were made into wine back in 1652. To put this in perspective, this was some years before Benedictine monk Dom Perignon became cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers and so helped to begin the story of Champagne as we know it.

However, as the saying goes, “always something new out of Africa” and South Africa's latest generation of winemakers have overcome the insularity that characterised the lost years of Apartheid and have some great wines to show the world. They are building on the long-standing traditions of their country and, often, working hard to develop sustainable growing practices which support the globally important bio-diversity hotspot of the Cape Floral Kingdom.

Here are some of my current favourites from the dark continent.

Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2010 - £10.44 from www.waitrosewine.com online, £12.49 down to £9.99 if you buy 2 bottles at Majestic

The ubiquitous charms of Sauvignon Blanc can pall with over-exposure. Iona is a new venture set the coolest vineyard site in the whole of South Africa in the Elgin region, exposed to the chilly ocean winds, which are known as the Cape Doctor, for their role in keeping the vines cool and dry and thereby avoiding problems with damp and rot. Here they have managed to produce a wine that is neither a copy of New Zealand, nor the original models of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé.

Generally Sauvignon Blanc is viewed as a DYA wine – drink youngest available. Its youthful vibrant, racy fruit can quickly turn to less appealing flavours of tinned peas (remember those?). Iona, however, seems to be able to age with some grace and the 2010 vintage has plenty of citrus zip and a lingering minerality.

Mullineux White Blend 2009 - £17.76 from Hand Picked Burgundy (www.hpb-wines.com), Berry Brothers have the 2010 vintage for £15.75

It seems that the posher a wine is, the less it tells you about itself on the label. Do persevere though, as this blend of predominantly Chenin Blanc from the schist and shale soils of Swartland (try and say that after a couple of glasses) is a stunner.

Some wines are great for glugging while you concentrate on something else; others are more demanding of your attention, and drinking them can be an intellectual exercise – this wine is definitely the latter. Not overtly fruity, it's the kind of wine that you are drawn back to again and again, as new flavours and aromas unfold in the glass. Honey, pumice stone, blossom, baked apple and a myriad of other flavours mingle on the palate, held in place by a wall of tangy minerality. At nearly three years old this wine is just getting into its stride and still has a future ahead of it. Mullineux is surely one of the names to watch in South African wine.

Boekenhoutskloof The Chocolate Block 2009 - £19.49 for the 2010 vintage from SA Wines Online

Syrah is the other variety that seems to thrive in the warmer climate of Swartland and winemaker Marc Kent is a specialist in the variety. Boekenhoutskloof has just been voted winery of the year in the highly-regarded Platter Wine Guide 2012 – so expectations are high when you taste this wine. The Chocolate Block blend is slightly tweaked each year but is predominantly Syrah, with Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and white variety Viognier making up the balance.

Dense, almost completely opaque in colour, this is no shrinking violet, but it does have surprisingly nuanced and perfumed blackberry fruit allied to more savoury flavours (partly thanks to all those varieties) and great balance. While undoubtedly a heavyweight, its a “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” Muhammad Ali.

Meerlust Rubicon 2004 - £23 from The Wine Society

Rubicon is a bone fide icon of the South African wine scene and has quite a pedigree. Made by Meerlust, who proudly proclaim “since 1693” on their labels, it hails from Stellenbosch, a region long synonymous with quality and classic grape varieties.

Bordeaux is clearly the model for this blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc – but claret would never have quite the level of ripeness and softness that you find here. It's like Bordeaux but with the edges knocked off it. Eight years into its life, the fruit is maturing with leather, tobacco leaf, coffee bean and spiced fruit along with a lovely rose-petal scent on the palate. A treat for the mind and the senses.

Pick a variety, any variety...

Grape variety that is. There are a handful of internationally famous ones that have managed to put down roots all over the wine world. These are the A listers of the wine world, but there are many hundreds of other grape varieties which have every bit as much class, but which have stayed in their native lands, quietly helping to make unique and characterful wines.

One place which can lay claim to having more such varieties than anywhere else is Portugal.

Despite being firmly attached to its larger neighbour, Spain, it has a distinct linguistic, cultural and geographical identity, thanks to its relative isolation. In wine terms Portugal is like a dragon guarding a vast hoard of treasure in the form of myriad indigenous grape varieties, most of which have never travelled abroad.

Twenty or more years ago you could be forgiven for wondering why they bothered, when many of the wines that Portugal produced appealed only to local tastes: reds typically had rasping acidity, astringent tannins and any fruit long since dried out due to long years of barrel ageing. However, luckily for today's drinkers they persevered and, largely, did not succumb to the lure of the international jet set varieties.

Because over the intervening years Portugal has seen a revolution in wine-making and are now in the envious position of being able to apply modern techniques to their unique range of grape varieties.

Just how many native grape varieties are there in Portugal? Not an easy question to answer. Some sources quote as many as 500 – though this doesn't take account of the complex web of names, whereby the same variety can have two or more names – but equally the same name can be applied to what are, in fact different varieties. Some even go so far as to change sex, such as the white variety, Fernão Pires, which becomes Maria Gomes as it travels from south to north.

Here's an attempt to clock up more varieties than you might usually meet in a dozen bottles, in just three wines, though I'm recommending them for their deliciousness:

Casa de Mouraz 2010 - £9.95 from The Wine Society

Here is a typical cocktail of indigenous varieties. First on the list is Malvasia fina, which is part of the vast family of grapes (some more in-laws than blood relatives) which go by this name. Malvasia in some form or other crops up again and again across the Iberian peninsula, through France and Italy and on into Slovenia, Croatia and Greece. One of its most famous incarnations is as one of the varieties that contributes to that great, underrated fortified wine, Madeira – in this country we have anglicised it to Malmsey.

One of the few things that people know about Malmsey is that someone once drowned in a butt of it. That someone was George Duke of Clarence, brother to Plantagenet King Edward IV and to the future Richard III. The drowning was no binge drinking-fuelled accident, but the method of execution chosen by the Duke himself, having been condemned to death for plotting against his brother Edward. If you were artistocratic enough it was possible to avoid the unpleasantness of hanging, drawing and quartering for such a crime – though of course he still died at the end of it. And it must have made family Christmases a bit awkward.

Next we find Cerceal (pronounced sair-see-al) Branco. Our brush with Madeira might make you think Cerceal, must be a synonym for Sercial, another grape variety of the island. But apparently you'd be wrong, and it isn't. Encruzado is probably a new variety to you, but contributes a certain leafy character. It's all rounded off with some ageworthy Bical, which has the charming synonym Borrado das Moscas, or fly droppings.

Redoma Branco 2010 - £17 from The Wine Society

This is from the stable of Dirk Niepoort, who has arguably done more than any other winemaker to raise the profile of unfortified wines from the Port-producing Douro Valley.

Here we clock up another five varieties in a single bottle: Rabigato (meaning cat's tail), Codega (aka Roupeiro in case you wondered) and the fresh acidity of Arinto. Also in the mix is Gouveio, which is a type of Verdelho – but not the same variety as either Verdelho in Australia or Verdejo in Spain. This variety is known as Godello in Spain. Still with me? Finally there's Viosinho, a traditional variety used in the making of white Port.

The wine is made in the Burgundian style with fermentation and ageing in French oak barrels and casks – but the many-layered flavours which unfold on the palate are uniquely Portuguese, thanks to that cornucopia of varieties.

Monte de Peceguina 2010 - £18.99 from Selfridges

Wine lovers owe a lot to the Alentejo: the expansive, undulating plains of southeast Portugal are home to the world's biggest cork oaks forests. Alentejo is also the country's New World of wine – here native varieties happily rub along with their more famous international cousins.

Here we have: Aragonês, better known outside Portugal as Tempranillo, Spain's major grape variety, which is called Tinta Roriz in Douro and the north. Alicante Bouschet is generally viewed at best as a workhorse variety – unlike most black skinned grapes, it also has coloured flesh, contributing colour to otherwise weedy wines. Only in this corner of Portugal does it seem to have found its niche and produces wines of inky, dense fruit. Touriga Nacional is arguably the jewel in Portugal's crown as far as grape varieties go: it is the keystone of many Douro red wines, not to mention its finest Ports. It contributes dark, violet-scented fruit and a hint of spice. Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon complete the picture.

This is the kind of wine that you can drink whatever your mood. Like a favourite armchair it will envelop you with its generous, juicy fruit – but it also has the backbone to stand up to food.

Well I make that 14 varieties in just three wines – and believe me, there are plenty more to go.

Malbec: reigniting an old flame

Back in my days working at Oddbins, where, in return for a pitiful wage I (wo)manhandled cases of wine and occasionally sold a few bottles of it, along with the packs of Marlboro Lights and cans of Foster's, I fell in love.

The object of my affections was rather exotic: muscular, mouthwatering and full-bodied, with a touch of Gaucho swagger and great to sit down with over a juicy steak. Aahh, Malbec (for it was he) swept into my life and seduced me with his, or its, easy charm. Full-on juicy black fruit, a whisp of tannin and a mouthwatering juicy freshness made it a great choice for food, but equally at home as a “DVD wine”. And, importantly for impecunious wine lovers, it was pretty cheap.

Malbec started its life back in la belle France, its stronghold the beautiful, hilly region of Cahors in the southwest of the country. Variously known as Cot, Auxerrois, and a string of other aliases (I fear it may have had something of a long and colourful past), it was also grown in Bordeaux – there are still small amounts of it there today. Malbec took off for the New World some time during the 19^th century and made landfall in Argentina. There, in warmer, sunnier climes, the variety blossomed and captured the hearts of the local population, many of whom were Italian, French and Spanish immigrants, who brought their grape-growing, wine-making (and wine drinking) habits with them.

Back to my own vinous entanglement and here the story takes a sad turn. With hindsight it seems so obvious. I should of course have realised that I wasn't the only one who had succumbed to Malbec's easy charms. My cheap date had become the wine of choice for a certain brand of skint wine lover, but in the process of becoming more popular, as so often happens, it changed.

Buoyed by its newfound celebrity status, Argentine producers were no longer satisfied with the fresh, straightforward flavours of Malbec in the raw and succumbed to the lure of the winemaker's playthings: new oak barrels and lots of them and “premium” super cuvées with more of everything – concentration, glossy oak, alcohol, stupidly heavy bottles – and a correspondingly bigger price tag to match. Malbec had become a high maintenance WAG of a wine.

A few years back I tasted my way through a line-up of “premium” Malbecs – and what a depressing lot they were: they resembled shiny-haired, airbrushed models, surgically enhanced with silicone, pumped up with collagen and sporting a Botox-frozen expression – and they left me cold. Undoubtedly these were technically well made wines, but all that glossy new oak, those selected yeasts, the acidification and ultra-concentration had robbed them of their true identity. They could have been made from any grape variety, from anywhere. My old flame had gone out, it seemed, never to be relit.

Recently, though, a chance meeting in London fanned the flames of that first crush. I rediscovered the excitement that Malbec had stirred in me all those years ago, when I tasted wines from Argentinian producer Doña Paula. These Malbecs were fresh, lively, fruity – and oh so drinkable. Maybe now is the time to welcome my old flame back into my life with open arms – and a juicy steak maybe, or just stay in with a DVD...whatever you fancy.

Malbecs to make the heart race:

Doña Paula Estate Malbec 2010, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina - £11.95 from slurp.co.uk, also available at Argentine eateries Gaucho Grill in London and CAU in Guildford

Slightly jammy black fruit aromas of cassis and juicy blackberry. Zingy fruit on the palate and a more savoury dimension with good freshness. The tannins mean it will be better with food. This has spent 10 months in a mixture of new and older French oak barrels.

Doña Paula El Alto Parcel 2010, Urgateche, Mendoza, Argentina – a new wine that's yet to hit the streets here

Leafy, herbal notes on the nose, along with attractive, lively fruit. Plenty of layers of flavour and good freshening acidity - hints of Bordeaux there, with lacy, dainty fruit. Gentle, well-balanced tannins on the finish. Incredibly drinkable.
 

Le Cèdre, Château le Cèdre 2007, Cahors, France - £29.95 from slurp.co.uk, also at les Caves de Pyrène, Guildford

Back where it all began, in Cahors, southwest France. Malbec from here has never lost its fresh appeal – though at this price, as you can imagine, there is plenty of concentration too, along with the forest floor-tinged black fruit and more tannic backbone than you find in Argentina. A thoroughbred.

Why you should buy Champagne now

Why on earth am I writing about Champagne in January? The answer is simple – buy your bubbles now, resist the temptation to pop the cork straight away (easy to do at this time of year) and you'll find that, come next Christmas, your Champagnes have improved in the bottle to give more pleasure.

We tend to think of fizz as something that should be drunk as soon as the bottle is properly chilled. After all, most of the bottles we buy are non-vintage, with no year of production on the label – they don't look like candidates for ageing. But, in the words of Jancis Robinson MW, “better-quality young sparkling wines with their high levels of acidity can often improve considerably with an additional year or so in bottle”.

When we think of Champagne, we tend to think of the big names, the Veuves, Taittingers and Moets. And this is one of the quirks of the region – nowhere else is so dominated by brands. In Burgundy, the nearest fine wine region to Champagne, terroir is king and the best bottles will hail from an intricately delineated vineyard parcel. In Champagne, however, we seem happy to part with the best part of 40 quid, knowing nothing more than that the grapes come from somewhere within the growing area of 34,000 hectares (nearly 85,000 acres), as long as the right name is on the label.

The reason for this peculiar state of affairs is that Champagne is structured like no other wine region in the world. 90% of the land is owned by growers, leaving only 10% for the Champagne houses. Many of these houses own no vineyards at all, relying entirely on agreements to buy grapes from the growers to meet their needs.

Around a third of the 15,000 growers, incidentally, produce their own Champagnes from their vineyards. These can be some of the most indiviual and rewarding Champagnes to drink, as you can make a direct link between the terroir and the wine.

Champagnes are, of course, stylistically overwhelmingly similar: sparkling (predominantly) white wines, marked by high acidity, lightness of body and elegance. However, once you've tasted a few, it's hard not to develop favourites and, before you know it, you can get hooked on the nuances of difference between producers and their various cuvées (blends).

Here, then, are some of my current favourites - recognizing that my next favourite may be one that I haven't tried yet.

Mailly Grand Cru Brut Reserve NV - £27.99 as part of a mixed case at The Wine Reserve in Cobham, this is also Berry Brothers' Champagne, £25.95 at bbr.com

This blend of 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay is made by the high-quality co-op of Mailly Grand Cru. Mailly is a village in the Pinot Noir heartland of the northern Montagne de Reims south east of the city. All its vineyards are decreed Grand Cru, the top of the quality tree in Champagne, and all the growers in the co-op contribute grapes only from these exalted sites.

The high proportion of Pinot Noir makes this a great winter weight Champers, with the depth of flavour and backbone to stand up to even quite rich foods.

Bruno Paillard Brut Première Cuvée - £30.52 from Bibendum

Whereas most Champagne houses fall over themselves to emphasize their historical roots, Paillard is unashamedly modern. The house was founded in 1981 and its purpose built winery and “cellars” dates from 1990. With no tradition to follow, Bruno is free to create Champagnes in the style that he favours – luckily, this style has also found plenty of fans prepared to buy.

This is an odd recommendation in that I wouldn't advise you to drink this Champagne any time soon. I was lucky enough to taste this “multi vintage” (as opposed to non vintage) blend at differing times since it was disgorged. Disgorgement is when the ageing on the lees finishes and the plug of dead yeast cells is expelled from the neck of the bottle and the final cork is put into the now fully sparkling wine, usually along with a small “dosage” of wine and sugar. Most Champagne houses will release wines within a few months of disgorgement, yet, as you might imagine, the suddenness of this intervention and the addition of foreign elements has a profound effect on the wine's development which can take many months, even years, to play out.

Bruno Paillard recognizes this by printing the disgorgement date on all bottles of his Champagnes – the current available cuvée was disgorged during the first quarter of 2011. I much preferred the same cuvée at six and even fourteen years since disgorgement – you might have to exercise some patience to see if you agree with me!

Bollinger Grande Année 2002 – widely available at around £75, including The Guildford Wine Company in Shalford. The Wine Reserve in Cobham has the 2000 for an unbeatable £59.99 as part of a mixed case.

Bollinger, favourite of Patsy and Edina, James Bond and countless others is a very English Champagne – 40% of its production ends up here. They are are also proud to be part of an exclusive club of independent family-owned houses which also owns 60% of the vines needed to supply its needs. 2002 was a great year for vintage fizz and the best (when you can find them) are drinking beautifully now. Mathieu Kauffman, Bollinger's cellar master, says that 2002 is the best year since 1996 (I'll take his word for it). A blend of 60% Pinot Noir (for power, depth and backbone) and 40% Chardonnay (for elegance and finesse) that has been aged on its lees for 7/8 years (the law stipulates a minimum of 3 years for vintage Champagne). You could sip this on its own, but it would be a shame to pass up its nutty, wild mushroom and hint of Christmas pudding (yes) flavours with food. Long-lasting and lively – try it with fish, lobster, scallops, even guinea fowl and pheasant.

Do you detox?

Now is the time that many of us, for the only time of the year, give some thought to our livers. We toy with the idea of “doing something” and think of giving it a thorough detox as an antidote to the excesses of December.

The British Liver Trust, a fount of knowledge, as you might imagine, informs me that the liver is our largest internal organ and plays a vital role in keeping us alive, carrying out 500 different functions. It is the factory of the body, making proteins, blood clotting factors and products to help with digestion and energy release. Your body uses it as a store for energy and iron; it also purifies the blood of bacteria, by-products of digestion, alcohol and drugs.

It is this last function that interests us, for one month of the year at least, as many of us undertake to lay off the booze in January. The idea of becoming slimmer, shinier and healthier by giving the liver a rest is undoubtedly attractive.

There are those who want to take things further by going on some kind of detox diet. Sipping water and lemon juice during meals in order to aid digestion and thereby support liver function is currently modish – though there's no scientific evidence to support it. Just a glass of water with meals is likely to be just as valuable.

There is some evidence that green tea, with its high levels of antioxidants, can be helpful – if you can stand the taste of the stuff. Much more palatable to me is the finding that coffee can also be supportive of good liver function – guilt-free flat white please.

However, the idea that we need to detox our liver at all is undermined by the British Liver Trust's finding that “there is no evidence that toxins build up in the liver”. So it looks like we don't need to spend more money and energy on investing in the latest snake oil to rid ourselves of the poisons that we've been busy ingesting for the past few weeks.

Nevertheless, we can't avoid the evidence that alcohol does damage our livers and we drinkers could all benefit from giving our systems a few days off to recover.

But a whole month? Come on, January feels like the longest month already, without making it wine-free. Do our systems really need weeks to recover? The official line at the NHS is that even heavy drinkers should be through withdrawal symptoms (let's hope we're not at that stage) and be on the road to liver recovery within 3-5 days.

So a few days off is really all our systems need. Month-long abstinence is much more to do with testing our will power and self-discipline than any proven health benefits. But there are other upsides: alcoholic drinks contain calories, so cut them out and you might find you're slimmer and trimmer – as long as you don't swap the wine for more food!

Alcohol causes dehydration (the root of many a hangover) so cutting it out should result in better skin and overall healthiness. And there's no getting away from the fact that drinking costs money – cutting out the vino could also help with the wallet hangover of Christmas too.

The trouble is, it's easy to view a booze-free start to the year as a deposit in the good behaviour bank and to excuse excesses later in the year with the comforting thought that you did spend a whole 4 ½ weeks off the drink. But of course the body doesn't work that way and what we really should all be doing is avoiding excess and keeping within sensible drinking limits – and a few wine-free days each week of the year should do the trick. Hmmm. I'll keep you posted on that one.

2011 review: my best bits

If you're feverishly searching for last minute Christmas wine recommendations – and you really are cutting it fine – then please have a look at my previous two posts on this blog.

In the caring sharing spirit of Christmas, I offer here just one nugget that could save your bacon. If you seek the perfect wine match for Christmas pudding, then look no further than Moscatel de Valencia, a ridiculously under-priced dessert wine from Spain. Its luscious sweetness with an orange marmelade edge makes the pudding sing. Sainsburys' version is just £3.98 a bottle. If you're quick you might just make it...

This column is devoted to a review of the best bits of 2011. Here, in no particular order, are my personal highlights of the year:

• Tasting top class Aussie Rieslings courtesy of Jacob's Creek at “wine workshop and kitchen” 28-50 in London. The 2005 Steingarten Riesling was the highlight, but Jacob's Creek Riesling Reserve 2010 was pretty delicious too: fresh and lively (and limey), floral but dry – a great palate cleanser.
  
  
• A Bollinger Grande Année masterclass, with chef de cave Mathieu Kaufmann, where I learned that I have expensive tastes when it comes to Champagne. Bollinger Grande Année Rose 1996 was my favourite, if you're reading this, Santa. Completely beguiling, luxurious stuff which, sadly, I can't afford.
  
  
• Marcelo Retamel, Chilean winemaker (at the family-owned De Martino winery) and Iron Maiden fan, describing his return from the Dark Side of wine-making. Tasting the first vintage (another 1996) of his single vineyard Carmenère was a delicious reminder of how good wine can be when allowed to mature without the added glitz of selected yeasts, new oak and other winemaking frippery. Look out for the 2010 vintage of the Alto de Piedras Carmenère when it arrives at the Wine Society, which marks his return to the more natural style of winemaking that characterised that first vintage back in 1996. 
   
• I can't honestly remember what the exact bottle was, but drinking fizz in spring sunshine at our Royal Wedding street party felt both modern and traditional at the same time.
  
  
• Meeting Chester Osborn, legendary Australian winemaker at d'Arenberg and infamous wearer of loud shirts, and his collection of wine-themed fluffy toys at a wine “speed tasting”. His Money Spider Roussanne 2009 was one of my favourites at the whistle-stop tasting.
  
  
  
  
  
• Tasting Tio Pepe “en rama” at Bar Pepito in King's Cross (a must for sherry lovers) and then seeing how well it stood up to their excellent range of tapas. The summer weather may have been a let-down, but that day was a true taste of the Mediterranean. “En rama” is a special, full-flavoured, unfiltered bottling of Tio Pepe that sells out (mostly to those in the know in the wine trade) almost as soon as it hits these shores. The classic Tio Pepe, however, is widely available for around a tenner.
  
  
• Getting to grips with the new face of Portugal's Vinho Verde at a fascinating tasting this summer. I learned that Vinho Verde is not green and doesn't have to be redolent of soluble aspirin – and it can also be red! 
   
• Buying an exotic-looking liqueur in France over the summer, only to find it was none other than that British Christmas stalwart, sloe gin. Equally nice served cold in the summer, I can helpfully tell you.
  
  
• Spending three footsore days working at the London wine trade's annual fair in May – but my reward was to be responsible for encouraging visitors to taste a great selection of interesting, individual and delicious wines from Southwest France.
  
  
  
• The taste of Graham's Malvedos 1958 single quinta port – still looking and tasting good at 50!
  
  
• Tasting Zind-Humbrecht's Rangen de Thann Clos-Saint-Urbain Gewurztraminer 2009 at the first dedicated biodynamic wine tasting in London in November. Olivier Humbrecht (Master of Wine and PhD) has managed to create a perfect marriage of grape variety to terroir making for an unforgettable wine experience.
  
  
  
  
  
• Seeing how Hunter Valley Semillon ages (well, it turns out) courtesy of a vertical tasting of Neil McGuigan's Bin 9000 Semillons back to 1997.
  
  
  
  
  
• Drinking nothing but Champagne for 3 days (OK and some water) during my first study tour of the region.

Life could be worse! Wishing you a suitably merry time over the next couple of weeks. See you all in 2012.

God rest you merry, Gentlemen...and ladies - it's Christmas Part 2

Last time I gave some recommended wines for all those occasions that involve wine over the festive period – and if you missed it, you can catch up here:  http://yourliquidassets.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-2011-part-1-in-which-our.html. Now, however, the focus is on the big day itself.

Breakfast

I wouldn't normally recommend wines to go with your cornflakes, but at Christmas the normal order is turned on its head. And I'm assuming that breakfast is more of a brunch; later, more leisurely and certainly more luxurious than normal. Straight fizz might seem too much of a shock to the system for most, but brave souls could ease themselves into the day with a glass of Prosecco – its clean, fresh fruit and touch of sweetness is ideal.

For many of us, though, Buck's Fizz has become a tradition. Please, DO NOT buy the pre-mixed bottles. Buy the best orange juice you can (or even squeeze your own) and combine (in whatever proportions you enjoy) with either Prosecco or Cava. The predominant taste will be the orange juice, so go for budget bubbles.

Pre-lunch

We all love Christmas dinner, but we wouldn't want to eat it every day. Let's face it, it's a bit of an endurance test for the body, so pre-lunch you need a wine to get the juices and the appetite going in order to fortify for the feast ahead.

Champagne is the pre-prandial aperitif par excellence and now is a good time to produce a really fancy bottle if you have one. Blanc de blancs (ie made from 100% Chardonnay) are a good choice, as they have plenty of crisp fruit and nervy, mouthwatering acidity.

Jacquart Blanc de Blancs 2005 - Special introductory offer £26.99 at Sainsbury's, £38 from Great Western Wines

Lovely light style, with fine acidity and long-lasting flavours of apple, flowers and white pepper.

If you serve smoked salmon at some point, then Champagne is of course a perfect companion. You could go for something with a bit more body here.

Berry Brothers Own Label Champagne - £25.95 per bottle, down to £23.35 a bottle if you buy 6, from bbr.com

Christmas might not be the day to plonk a bottle emblazoned Tesco or Waitrose on the table (though personally I wouldn't mind). Berry Brothers' own label, though, is far more the thing. Produced entirely from top Grand Cru vineyards in the village of Mailly, this is a blend of 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay, giving it more power and structure than a Blanc de Blancs. Aromas of pear give way to a palate of spice and crisp apple, with the length and structure to stand up to food. A great match for smoked salmon too.

Alternatives to fizz as aperitifs would be really top class Sauvignon Blanc, from its heartland in the Loire Valley.

Château de Tracy Pouilly Fumé 2006 - £17.50 from The Wine Society

No oak, just the unadorned grapes treated gently to give delicately perfumed fruit with persistent flavour.

Sancerre Le MD de Bourgeois 2010 - £22.49 from Les Caves de Pyrène

Much more full-on and assertively fruity, but with great mineral intensity, this will certainly give the tastebuds a good wash and brush up.

Lunch

Turkey, or whatever your chosen bird, is really not in the equation when it comes to choosing a wine. Think of all the different flavours that we pile onto a single plate – stuffing, gravy, sprouts, roast potatoes, sausage and bacon...I could go on. It really isn't possible to match them all, so you need to choose a wine that will not be overwhelmed, but will not try to fight with all those flavours either.

Think, also, about who is round the table. If you have a group of fine wine lovers, then by all means dig out your treasured bottles of fine, aged claret or white Burgundy. But for most of us, we are in multi-generational groups, some of whom might not touch wine for most of the year. So choose something that will please a crowd and won't frighten the horses.

Le Faîte 2007 - £14.99 from Adnams Cellar and Kitchen (branch in Richmond)

Arrufiac, Petit Courbu, Petit and Gros Manseng – you don't need to have heard of the grape varieties to enjoy this unique white wine: big bold fruit, big-boned but with refreshing acidity.

Domaine Roche Audran Cuvée César 2009 - £12.58 from winenot.co.uk

The southern Rhône is a great source of wines that are generous of fruit and body, with a food friendly whiff of herbs. This 100% Grenache wowed a group at a recent wine dinner and is certified (in a good way) biodynamic.

Brouilly Domaine Durand “Pisse Vieille” 2010 - £8.95 from The Wine Society

It may be shy about trumpeting it on the label, but this is a Beaujolais. Deliciously, juicily, red fruited stuff that will suit a multitude of food and palates. By the way, “vieille” means old and “pisse” means...well, what it sounds like. Don't let this put you off.

Rioja Reserva – such as Cune Reserva 2006/7 - £11.95 from Waitrose

The barrel and bottle ageing that Rioja Reservas undergo lead to mellow wines which are versatile with food, so they are always good to have to hand for Christmas.

Pudding

Yes, the marathon is not finished yet. If you opt for pudding, then you need something to go with – or indeed instead of.

Stanton & Killeen Rutherglen Muscat - £12.40 for a half bottle from slurp.co.uk

Australian liqueur muscat is just about the closest you can get to Christmas pudding in liquid form. Lusciously viscous with flavours of dates, raisins, caramel and spice, it can stand up to the richest, sweetest pudding.

Tawny ports also rub along nicely with the sweet spice of Christmas pudding, mince pies and the like. These are widely available, but try and get hold of a 10 year old (or even better, 20 year old), as these will have more mellow nuttiness. And you can keep going with it if anyone is still up for some stilton.

Good luck! See you on the other side.