The festive season is in full swing and these are the best Christmas drinks you need to see you through
Before we all go cold (or tepid) turkey in the new year, now is the time to indulge in a few festive drinks. Mulled wine and champagne might come to mind when you think of seasonal booze, but this year we wanted to look a little outside the box for a buzz. Whether you feel like going all-out with an outré festive tipple, keeping things classic with a modernised-but-familiar fave or want winning wines to see you through all that eating, here are our recommendations. (Christmas) Cheers!
Forty Hall Vineyard 2020 London Sparkling Brut
It’s not Christmas without some fizz but if you don’t want to go down the traditional champagne route, this English sparkling wine from Forty Hall Vineyard is a winner. Made from organic Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes harvested during a lockdown year, it’s got a great balance of sweetness and acidity, with notes of green apple, honey, apricot and brioche.
Shop Cuvée Mulled Wine
If you don’t to be stood over a vat of cheap plonk you’re trying to make drinkable by chucking a load of spices in it, get someone else to do the mulling for you. Shop Cuvée have done all the work, slowly infusing a young Rioja and Sicilian white wine blend with clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise, honey, frankincense, orange and lemon peel – all you have to do is heat it up.
Five Points Pale Mini-Keg
If the beers are gonna be flowing over the holidays, forget messing around with cans and bottles and get the kegs in. This 5L mini-keg from Five Points contains 8.8 pints of pale ale, so you can keep your party well watered without having to sacrifice too much storage space.
Bruno Paillard “Dosage Zero” Champagne
For a proper bottle of Champagne, we can’t recommend Bruno Paillard’s “D:Z” enough. The D:Z (meaning ‘dosage zero’) points to the cuvée’s zero added sugar, making this *the* choice for lovers of brut. Overall, it has a complex, but balanced flavour with a saline finish – and makes for a great way to kick off the Christmas Day celebrations.
Black Lines Shirley Temple
If you’re off the sauce this festive season, you still deserve to have exciting drink options and not just the same old fizzy pops. Enter the Black Lines Shirley Temple, a bottled version of the classic mocktail. Made with grenadine, ginger ale, raspberry soda, fresh lemon, blood orange and bitters, it’s fun, fruity and fresh, and all you have to do is serve over ice.
Black Chalk “Classic” 2021
This blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier comes from Black Chalk, one of the UK’s most exciting wine estates. Expect the English sparkling wine to be textured and full, with a fresh edge that Black Chalk is known for. It goes perfectly with aperitifs and canapés, so crack this out to impress the guests as they arrive.
Athletic Brewing Co. Run Wild IPA
If you’ve got a lot of people coming and going over the festive season, it’s worth having a ready supply of alcohol-free beers on hand. Athletic Brewing Co’s IPA has all the zesty notes and complex flavour you’d expect from a regular beer, just with none of the alcohol, so it’s perfect for drinkers and drivers alike.
Sandridge Barton Pinot Noir 2022
2022 was a hot and dry summer – perfect for the Pinot Noir grapes at Devon’s Sandridge Barton vineyard – and the result is this fruity red, bursting with wild strawberry, redcurrant, cherry and red berry flavours. An excellent one to break out with the Boxing Day spread.
LAYLO Bacchus
LAYLO is out here proving that boxed wine can be luxurious as well as sustainable. The wines, like this limited edition Bacchus, full of zippy citrus and elderflower notes, are selected with a Master of Wine so you can be sure of the quality. The boxes use 90% less carbon than glass bottles and the wine stays fresh for up to six weeks so there’s no wastage. They’re even beautifully packaged so if you can bear to give one away as a gift, you don’t even need to wrap it.
Graham Beck Ultra Brut
If you like your fizz dry, this bottle of Ultra Brut from South African winemaker Graham Beck is the one to reach for. Made from Chardonnay grapes, it’s bursting with lemon, apricot, kumquat, brioche and almond notes, and it’s got a lovely crisp finish. If you’re planning to have shellfish on your Christmas or NYE dinner table, you’ll want a bottle of this right alongside it.
Taittinger Brut Reserve NV Champagne
Whether you’re looking for some champagne to gift or some to pop over party season yourself, you can’t go wrong with this signature cuvée from Taittinger. Made with predominately Chardonnay grapes and with flavours of peach, brioche, pear and honeysuckle, it’s a very sophisticated bottle of fizz.
Oranj Festive Duo Hamper
Keep your wine rack well stocked with this festive hamper from Oranj. It’s got a bottle of fizz made with Sauvignon Blanc and a Spergola grapes from Emilia-Romagna based producer Il Farneto, and a juicy, textured orange from the Schodl Family in Austria. Both pair well with food and both are easy drinkers – perfect for your festive dinners.
Domaine Bousquet’s Ameri Organic Red Blend
A single vineyard blend from traditional winemaking family Bousquet, this is a powerful and highly rated red that’ll blow your guests away. The hints of sweet spice and bright acidity make it perfect for Christmas – and the high ABV (nearly 15%) means it could even replace your digestif.