Wineaux: Warming reds for cold nights and the new year
Shares
By now you’re surely set for your New Year’s Eve celebration, whatever that might look like, but if not, I hope you’ll grab a bottle or two of one of the sparkling wines I recommended in my last column.
For New Year’s Eve itself, we’re drinking a bottle of Nyetimber Brut from Sussex in southern England; it’s an area now rivaling Champagne for sparkling wine, thanks in part to global warming. Nyetimber’s 2004 Classic Cuvee beat world-famous Champagnes in a blind Paris tasting, and head winemaker Cherie Spriggs was named Sparkling Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge 2018 the first winemaker from outside Champagne to win this award.
Shares
Stocking up on bargain bubbles for a New Year’s Eve bash won’t be necessary this year, so I suggest accumulating a few bottles of brilliant bubbles and welcoming 2021 by celebrating New Year’s
week instead. Drink them in place of your usual dinner wine I can’t think of a more go-with-everything drink.
Roasted duck? Caviar? Winter vegetables au gratin? Mushroom lasagna? Sushi? Thai curry? Filet mignon? Leftover turkey sandwiches? Whatever your festive meal plans, sparkling wine comes to the rescue. And what could add more to the festivity than tiny bubbles breaking to the surface of your best wine glasses?