Top pairings

Christmas pairings with port, sherry and madeira

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on December 11 2024 at 08:41

You may well have given a fair amount of thought by now to what you’ll be drinking with your turkey or goose and have set treasured bottles of Bordeaux or Burgundy aside for the main Christmas meal. But what about all the other occasions over the festive period which these days tends to stretch a good 10 days into the early New Year?

If your house is anything like mine you will have wildly overcatered and your fridge, storecupboard and cellar will be overflowing with ingredients and bottles that might be required for unexpected guests.

You will also, I guess, have many occasions when a snack rather than a meal is required or when you simply can’t face making a pudding on top of all the other cooking you’re doing.

This is when your battery of fortified wines comes into its own, turning a scratch meal into a treat, creating an unusual and tempting cheeseboard or, along with a selection of festive cakes, biscuits, dried fruits or chocolates, keeping the sweet-toothed happy at the end of a meal.

Here is a selection of ideas for seasonal food and fortified wine pairings, some classic, others a little more off-beat.

Fino and Manzanilla sherry

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