Festive wines: which wines for the festive season?

The end of the year is synonymous with meals prepared with traditional culinary products. The classics include oysters, salmon, foie gras, roast poultry and Yule logs.

The success of these festive meals would not be complete without the wines that accompany them. La Sommelière gives you a few tips to ensure that your end-of-year meal goes off without a hitch.

Champagne: a sure bet

If there's one time of year when people drink champagne, it's Christmas and New Year's Eve. Champagne offers several advantages: you can simply enjoy it as an aperitif to tantalize your taste buds without weighing them down. It can then be served with oysters, lobster, salmon or caviar.

You can vary the pleasures by starting with a blanc de blanc, then a blanc de noir and finishing with a rosé champagne.

The Crémant alternative

While champagne remains a classic, there are also delicious crémants. Like champagne, there are crémants of varying degrees of dryness.

A crémant extra brut or zéro is ideal for aperitifs and seafood.

A Crémant with some residual sugar will enhance your Yule log, especially if it's a fruit log, whether iced or not.

The white wine palette

White wines are a must for any meal. Example: a white Graves or a Riesling.

Dry white wines

Nervous and lively, dry whites are the perfect companions to start with, whether as an aperitif or with seafood. In this category, consider a Muscadet sur lie, a Sancerre or a Chablis.

White wines with character

Aromatic, they go perfectly with lobster, while the denser, richer whites are a fine match for poultry. Choose a Meursault or Hermitage white, for example. Foie gras, an essential dish, is best served with a demi-sec rather than a moelleux, so as not to tire your taste buds early in the evening. For example, you could opt for a Vouvray or a Montlouis.

Red wines and vins doux naturels

For those who prefer red wines with poultry, choose wines that are low in tannin, fresh and easy-drinking. The Jura region offers a fine range of wines, but also consider Burgundy and the Loire. Think Trousseau, Côte de Beaune or Chinon.

If your menu includes a game dish such as roast hind, you'll want to consider full-bodied, slightly tannic wines such as Crozes-Hermitage or Côte-Rôtie.

Finally, if you wish to finish with a chocolate dessert, natural sweet red wines such as Banuyls or Porto will counterbalance the bitterness of the chocolate.