Holiday Wine Pairing & Wine Storage

 

Some would say that a meal served without wine is called breakfast... So today we are here to help you master simple wine pairing techniques and choose a wine that goes best with your holiday meals. 

When it comes to wine pairing, you can do one of the following:

1. Drink and eat what you like: Choose a wine that you enjoy and would want to drink by itself, rather than hoping a food match will improve a wine made in a style you don’t like. That way, even if the pairing isn’t perfect, you will still enjoy what you’re drinking. 

2. Match or contrast the wine with the most dominant flavour in the dish: A great food and wine pairing creates a balance between the components of the dish and the characteristics of the wine. There are 6 tastes to consider when pairing food and wine: salt, acid, sweet, bitter, fat and spice.  Matching and contrasting these flavour profiles will help you make your own wine pairings! 

With the basics down, now we can move on to the most important meal of the year…Christmas dinner. 

As far as traditions go most of us have probably grown up with the customary Christmas menu of roast turkey with stuffing and all of the trimmings. Christmas dinner can also be a maple glazed ham, roast leg of lamb, prime rib of beef or roast goose.

Starting with appetizers? A good choice if the appetizers are performing their traditional role as pre-meal nibbles - particularly good with anything crisp, crunchy or deep-fried- is a Sparkling wine such as champagne, or Prosecco. 

For the main course, we’ve chosen 3 wines under $20 that you can use to pair with your main dish whether it be turkey, prime rib or ham. 

Serving Turkey?

No matter which region you look to, you can’t go wrong in pairing a white wine like a Chardonnary or Sauvignon Blanc with your turkey. Sauvignon Blanc is a light, crisp and acidic wine that pairs well with lighter foods – yet also still has a lot of flavour. 

Try Rugged Roots Sauvignon Blanc, made in Canada. 

Serving Prime Rib?

Prime rib is richer, and it's delicious served with a younger or more tannic wine, so a red wine like merlot is a great choice to serve. 

Or give Vintage Ink Rebel Red a try! 

Serving Ham?

Ham, with its sweet-and-salty richness, pairs best with wines that have a touch of sweetness, plenty of acidity and bold fruit. We suggest a Zinfandel wine, or a Rosé like one from Open. 

Who can forget dessert? Dessert wines should also be served in smaller glasses than table wine because of both the intensity of the flavors and the alcohol content. To some, a dessert wine is specifically a sweet wine that is served as an accompaniment to dessert. To others, it is any sweet wine that can be drunk alone or with food and may be dessert all on its own.

 

WINE STORAGE

If you're looking for somewhere to store your wine, here at Barber & Haskill, we sell many varieties and sizes of wine storage coolers. 

 

Why buy a wine storage cooler? Wine storage coolers provide a stable and regulated environment for your wine to control temperature and humidity. 

Heat is the enemy of wine, as temps higher than 70°F will age wine more quickly. The ideal temperature range for wine is between 45°F and 65°F, with the ideal temperature being 55°F. 

Wine should be stored with other wines – storing wine in your refrigerator may cause the wine to take on the odours and tastes of the food its stored with. 

To see our wine storage cooler selection, come in and see us at Barber & Haskill!