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There’s no point tasting a light red directly after a strong, tannic, aromatic one, so we started with the light ones, moved through claret and into Spain to finish, but they were still tasted blind.
Because turkey is a white meat, I can see the point of drinking lighter reds with the meal. However, I dearly love the beautiful aromatics of red wines and so found our first four wines quite dreary. Asda’s Extra Special and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Cotes du Rhone Villages, which were both 2006 vintage, were perfectly reasonable wines at £4.98 and £5.99 respectively. However, we felt that Burgundy for Christmas day needs to be better than the Blason de Bourgogne Pinot Noir and the Asda Extra Special Oak Aged Burgundy. This is Christmas Day, for goodness sake and being mean with wine just doesn’t work in Burgundy.
At a handful of tastings each year, we find a wine that is really, really good only to take the covers off and find that it’s one of the cheapest. My jaw did drop, but it shouldn’t have really, because I do rate Marks & Spencer wines very highly but I’ve tasted many wines labelled up specially for Christmas and been pretty disappointed. Marks & Spencer Christmas Claret 2003 is £6.99 and has the added bonus of having a very beautiful label. My goodness it was good. It absolutely trounced the other two in its category with a very, very appealing savoury smell with sweet, heavy new oak. There was plenty of tannin, without it being rough, at all, and the taste was savoury and minty but with enough fruit to make it very enjoyable indeed.
Chateau La Croix, St Estephe 2002, at £12.99 from Majestic smelt attractively of furniture polish and farmyards, with a full, fruity taste. We found it very appealing, but it didn’t even approach the M&S wine in loveliness. Mouton Cadet Rouge 2005, at £6.99 from Sainsbury’s and Morrisons has been revamped and certainly improved but it didn’t smell of much and certainly seemed to be well into the second division against the other two.
We then moved on to Spain. I knew that Baron de Ley, 7 Vinas, Reserva Rioja 2001, which is £16.99 from Tesco, would stand out. The smell is quite bewitching – heady, sweet and tempting. The tannins are furry and the taste is sweetly oaky, with some strawberry, without seeming confected. If you love your guests and want to serve something they’ll notice, this is the wine for you.
Cosme Palacio 2004 Rioja, at a more reasonable £7.99 from Tesco, has a pretty, floral smell which is attractive but not particularly oaky. The taste is young, fresh and fruity, rather than the usual sweetly oaky taste of Rioja. We felt it would stand up well to the trimmings. Lagunilla, Gran Reserva Rioja 2000, which is £12.99 from Morrisons smelt of cabbage initially, which did lift to leave wood ash. It was light and smooth in the mouth and John found some chocolate, which made us think it would be quite delicious with a dark chocolate pudding. Vina Cana Rioja Crianza 2004 from Somerfield smelt of vanilla and cherry and tasted sweetly of violets.