Matchmaking Wine & Food during the Holidays
This year both Hanukkah and Christmas are falling during the same week, and that promises for a weekend of eating and drinking festivities for families all over the US. While it’s true that every family puts their own spin on their holiday gathering, there are some traditions that cross over and blend between families, and even festivities. While the festivity focus is often on the food, what is in your wine glass is also an integral part of the celebration.
Even though the two holidays have very different traditions and dishes, through wine and food pairing we can find common ground. Let’s take a look at traditional Hanukkah and Christmas dishes and seek out similarities when finding wines which will pair with both feasts.
Matchmaking with food and wine
Getting ready to pair a holiday meal with food friendly, artisanal white wine, Famoso.
Let’s talk a moment about the technique of pairing wine and food. As we covered in our recent article about Thanksgiving food and wine pairings, there are interesting and complex reactions that our mouths have with food that can impact the way wine tastes and feels, and vice versa.
Food and wine pairing are like matchmaking, carefully evaluating the characteristics of each to determine if they will jive together.
It’s like putting 2 people together as a couple. There are often 2 contrasting viewpoints: either ‘opposites attract’ or ‘birds of a feather.’ The same goes with pairing wine with food:
either think of contrasting characteristics, like oil-rich foods of Hanukkah that pair with high acid wines which will temper the grease of the fat,
or think of similarities in both foods that will meld together, like desserts that will pair with sweet wines.
Also, when matching wine and food, you either start with the food and think wine or start with the wine and think food. For example, one might be cooking a delicious roast turkey and consider what wines would work with that dish, or one might have an amazing full-bodied red wine like a Brunello or Barolo and want to dream up a dish that will complement the special wine.
That being said, during the holidays we often have ‘set’ menus, built upon traditions, so we might want to select the former pairing option, whereby we analyze the flavor and texture components of a dish to select a wine that will not overwhelm, yet still enhance the dishes.
Here, we run into another complexity in the wine and food pairing world: what to do when you have multiple dishes? Well, you can select based on a priority: is there a particular dish (such as the roast beast of the Whos in Whoville) that is the centerpiece? If so, then you may want to angle your selection towards that dish. Or, you can look for similarities across holiday dishes to find a wine that will cover multiple dishes.
Considering the overall flavor profiles of all the traditional dishes we mention in this article, there are a few general things to keep in mind, in line with our previous article on pairing foods with wine, like a healthy dose of acidity is a great common denominator to look for in a wine. As well, it is important to consider the presence of tannins: if you are working with lighter meats and side dishes, stick with a wine low in tannins. But if you are going to heavier red and dark meats and richer side dishes, consider working in a full bodied red wine with more tannins.
Let’s take a look at the traditional dishes of Christmas and Hanukkah and apply these match making theories to pairing foods with wine.
Sparkling Wines: a Natural Choice for Hanukkah and all Holiday Celebrations
A sparkling wine like this Alta Langa will pair well with fried foods.
Celebrated for eight days, Hanukkah remembers when the Jewish people were forced to barricade themselves in hiding from the Romans. Locking themselves in the temple, they were left with just a smidge of oil for the lamps, not even enough for one day. But by a miracle, that oil lasted them for eight days and nights, giving them light and warmth. Because of this miracle, traditional dishes during the Hanukkah holiday are based on fried foods, or foods made with a lot of oil.
While we have discussed Hanukkah dishes and wine pairings in a previous article, when considering Hanukkah traditions and traditional dishes, one can focus on wines that pair well with fried foods. Savory foods like latkes can have a greasy texture, and a wine can help cut through that, in a ‘degreasing’ sort of fashion. This is applying the ‘opposites attract’ theory to wine and food ‘matchmaking’.
To achieve this effect, sparkling wines are optimal, as the naturally high acidity and effervescent bubbles work to cleanse the palate. Wines like a champagne method sparkling wine from Italy such as this Erbaluce, Alta Langa, and Durello, or a classic Prosecco Brut or Extra Dry can work wonderfully.
Being that December is sparkling wine season, you’ll make good use of your sparkling wines on hand, from Hannukah, through the myriad of toasting that will also be done during Christmas and New Years. With this in mind, this Holiday Bubbles gift set was created, for you and for friends and family to gift. Check out our recent article on new and fun sparkling alternative wines for even more ways to add a twist to your usual Prosecco and Champagne go-tos during holiday celebrations.
The Center of the Table: Entrées at Christmas and More
In past articles we have talked about different Christmas traditions in Italy (including Vero’s Italian suggested pairings), and now it is time to turn our plates and glasses to American Christmas traditions. We will start off with one that while many believe to be Italian, it actually isn’t. The Feast of Seven Fishes is an Italian-American tradition for the holidays. While the basis for the tradition may have roots in Italy, this grand style meal is unknown in Italy and was popularized in America. While the types and preparations of the fish varies widely from family to family, as a general rule, most sommeliers recommend pairing fish-based dishes with white wines. We heartily second that general opinion, with the addition of making it a white wine with ‘oomph’, or a nice body. Age worthy whites work well with less delicate fishes, and can move over to other Christmas dishes like certain cuts of ham or turkey.
A red wine with tannins, like this Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (also a natural wine) goes great with prime rib roasts or other juicy red meats.
We won’t go into Thanksgiving turkey, as we have covered that pairing in an aforementioned article, but a white wine blend like the Marchese Japo is a great example of this: while not an oaked wine, it did spend nine months aging on the lees, so it has a full-bodied complexity that allows it to not only be served at a slightly higher temperature as younger white wines, but helps with pairing with a dish like turkey, but also a variety of rich side dishes. Other age worthy whites like the complex turbiana grape Lugana Gardè, or the Friuli Venezia Giulia white blend Richenza are also great choices for a full-bodied white wine that can go with multiple dishes. Ham is a little similar to turkey in this regard, depending on your cut, and how you cook it (smoked, honey baked, etc.), you can use your white wine, or a red wine with some tannic structure.
Also a tradition at Christmas and the holidays, is a roast, whether roast beef, rib roast, pot roast, etc., here we need some tannins. In general, for these types of meats, the tannins in red wine help balance the juiciness of the meat and sauces. Natural wines like the eponymous monovarietal Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or the Tuscan blend Saturnia Rosso have great tannins that pair well with these red meats. As well, one can’t go wrong with the naturally tannic nebbiolo grape, such as in a Barolo wine, especially those from the crus of Serralunga d’Alba and Ginestra. You can try a Langhe Nebbiolo too, to see what a ‘baby barolo’ is like.
Don’t forget orange wine, also known as skin contact wines to have at your Hanukkah, Christmas and other holiday feasts. Take for example Saturnia Bianco (now fittingly called Saturnalia like the Ancient Roman holiday that was also celebrated in December) from La Maliosa in Tuscany is a natural wine that was determined by the Culinary Institute of America to be a ‘wine for difficult food pairings’ meaning that it will pair with (almost) anything! It is a white wine, with nice acidity, that also has tannings. And it is vegan and with no added sulphites.
Desserts, from Donuts to Christmas Cookies
Sweetness is one of those characteristics of food that you want to match with the wine - think ‘birds of a feather’ matchmaking.
When it comes to sweet, fried Hanukkah desserts, like the jelly filled sufganiyot or other donuts, you want to meet the sweetness, but keep a healthy dose of acidity in the wine in order to balance the overall effect. Sweet Albana white wine from Romagna, Italy, has a naturally high level of acidity as well as sweetness, making it a great pairing with donuts. Also try sweet sparkling wines like Moscato d’Asti or the sweet red sparkling Brachetto d’Acqui which would go great with a jelly donut.
When it comes to Christmas cookies. we suggest the following rule of thumb: match intensity. Is the cookie simple, with just butter, sugar, and vanilla, like a shortbread? Or is it heavily spiced like a gingerbread? However your family tweaks the recipe, tweak your wine selection. Consider your cookies on a sliding scale from ‘Light’ (like a sugar cookie) to ‘Rich’ like a gingerbread cookie, and match it with a similarly light or rich sweet wine. Some of the wines we suggested to pair with donuts, like Moscato d’Asti or Sweet Albana, are lighter. Then as the cookie becomes more rich and flavorful, move on to passito style wines like Desiderio or a Caluso Riserva Passito.
For other desserts adorning the Christmas table, like plum cake or a fruit cake, try a dessert passito wine, like the Caluso Riserva. Vigna Petrussa’s Desiderio dessert wine is great with pies, especially apple. When considering chocolate based desserts, such as fudge (or chocolate based cookies), the dark and luscious Perla Nera complements the thick flavors.
To dig into more about sweet and dessert wines, check out this article.
Fill Your Holiday Glasses with These Small Production Wines
We are all doing some celebration this holiday season, from Hanukkah, Christmas, to Kwanzaa and New Years. Make your celebration more special with an artisanal, natural wine, that is truly unique.
Whether you are looking for a memorable Hannukah or Christmas wine, Christmas wine gifts, and bubbles to ring in the new year, the VeroShop has something for you. Order wine online and get that great bottle or wine gift for Christmas delivered right to your door. Try any of the alternative wines mentioned above in this article, or try the sommelier compiled Holiday Bubbles set to add some sparkle to your holidays.
Have a Vero Happy Holiday Season!
Vero’s Wine Selections for Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s too
