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As I said last week, if Christmas lunch were a simple case of turkey, boiled potatoes and plain vegetables, with manufactured gravy, then the more reserved flavours of Old World white wines would be perfect. However, over the next few weeks women, and men, like me will be scouring recipe books and magazines, to find embellishments to this meal so that, by the time we sit down, serving a wine that goes with turkey will be rather pointless. For those of you serving goose, duck or even red meats, dry, white, freshly acidic wines will taste just plain nasty.
Our favourite wine of the evening was Saint Clare Estate Marlborough Sauvignon, which is £9.99 at the Co-op, reduced to £5.99 until 6th January. It was clearly, almost deafeningly, a New Zealand Sauvignon. It had an attractive cat and elder smell and was very perfumed in the mouth and fruitily fresh and clean. This is a great wine and the price reduction makes it very appealing indeed. It has the strength to stand up to anything you throw at it, but I wouldn’t put it with darker, richer meats because the acidity is bracing.
Mad Bay, Western Australian Unwooded Chardonnay 2007, which is £8.99 from Tesco, manages to be rich, without being oily, which is great for this kind of food. It smells freshly, pleasantly of lime and is just off dry, so will match the sweeter elements and your legendary gravy.
Fetzer Valley Oaks Sauvignon Blanc 2005, which is £6.49 from Waitrose, was a surprise for me. I rarely expect much from Sauvignon grown in hot climates, and this one certainly wasn’t typical and didn’t remind anyone of New Zealand. However, at two years old, it smelt ripely tropical and the taste was rich, pithy and full.
Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc 2006 is £9.49 from Majestic, or £7.99 on multibuy until 4th February. It was predominantly waxy on the nose, with a hint of elder. The taste was quite full and rich, with some pith on the finish.
Tintara, Horseshoe Row Chardonnay 2005, at £6.99 from Sainsbury’s was very oaky and savoury and we found it quite a struggle. I had a glass the next day, partly by itself and then with roast chicken. The chicken helped.
Houghton Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2006, which is £6.99 from Morrisons, smelt cheaply of peardrops and was light, flowery and elderflower-flavoured in the mouth. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Western Australian Sauvignon/Semillon smelt strongly of tinned asparagus, which is typical. The taste was similar and Lorraine was reminded of peapods. It was pretty ripe, without the acidity you’d expect, but might be rather good with Christmas lunch.
Our least favourite was Dios del Sol Chardonnay at £3.99 from Somerfield, but at that price it’s no wonder it was light, watery and dull. If you are only prepared to pay £3.99 for wine for your Christmas lunch, visit www.QuaffersOffers.co.uk and type Aldi into the Tasting Note Search. In fact, there are so many great offers on at this time of year, you should be surfing Quaffers Offers anyway.