A Case of Wine for a Hassle-Free Holiday
Why stress out when 12 well-chosen wines can make December easier?
Posted: Dec 7, 2011 10:30am ET
This is the
time of year for strategic wine buying. With holiday parties and gift lists,
Christmas dinner and New Year's Eve, you can either be willy-nilly and buy as
you go or have a plan.
I'm as
willy-nilly as the next consumer when it comes to buying wine, but in December
I stock up. A well-chosen case of wine bought early in the month avoids hassles
during the chaotic holiday season.
Selecting
the case is the challenge, and half the fun. Here are some of the wines I'd put
in my case, but remember: This isn't a greatest hits of wine for an ideal
Christmas Day. (I'll be dipping into my cellar all month long, of course.)
It's a
selection of excellent bottles that will be handy to share with others, and
have relatively good availability around the country. You'll find a complete
list below, with links to our original reviews.
The case
includes reds, whites and sparkling wines. For the reds, I was looking for
elegance and versatility, wines that you can sip before dinner and also drink
with just about any food served at a holiday gathering.
Few wines
are better suited to those specific demands than Pinot Noir, and my three
candidates—Mondavi, Argyle and Merry Edwards—share two things in common.
They're serious Pinots and have a modest price tag, a combination that's increasingly
difficult to find.
While I'd
be happy to drink Pinot Noir all month, I have friends who prefer more robust
reds, even as something casual to drink before dinner. For them, I picked three
wines that are more full-bodied but still retain a supple friendliness: Markham
Merlot, Bogle Petite Sirah and Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon.
The whites
I selected solely for their ability to go with seafood. It's a big part of the
Christmas tradition for many families, and in Northern California, people wait
in line to buy Dungeness crab for the holidays. The three wines I chose—St.
Supéry Sauvignon Blanc, Dry Creek Chenin Blanc and Trimbach Gewürztraminer—are variations on a similar theme: crisp wines with distinctive flavors.
Finally,
there's sparkling wine. The three wines I selected cover a lot of bases. For
value there's Korbel Brut California 2009. This isn't the ubiquitous and often
mediocre non-vintage Korbel brut; look for a label that reads "made
from organically grown grapes." The Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs I include
because it's just so damn fun to drink—crisp and light yet boldly fruity.
And as much
as I enjoy California sparkling wines, I gotta have Champagne this time of
year. A lot of us prefer a certain house style. My wife is into Pommery and my
brother is a Veuve Clicquot man, but my go-to Champagne to please the whole
crowd is Taittinger Brut La Française NV.
So that's
12 bottles, with a suggested retail total of $276. You may find only a few of
these wines at your local retailer, but at least this is a place to start. And
remember, most retailers give a 10 percent discount by the case, and with that
my case works out to about $21 a bottle. Not a bad price to get you through the
holidays.
Tim Fish's
Recommended Holiday Mixed Case
Argyle
Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2009 (89 points / $25 / 19,200 cases made)
Bogle
Petite Sirah California 2008 (88 points / $11 / 200,000 cases made)
Chateau
Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley Indian Wells 2009 (90 points /
$18 / 70,000 cases made)
Dry Creek
Chenin Blanc Clarksburg Wilson Ranch Dry 2009 (86 points / $12 / 11,942 cases made)
Gloria
Ferrer Blanc de Noirs Carneros NV (89 points / $20 / 31,527 cases made)
Korbel Brut
California 2009 (88 points / $16 / 10,300 cases made)
Markham
Merlot Napa Valley 2007 (90 points / $21 / 31,500 cases made)
Merry
Edwards Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2009 (91 points / $42 / 3,988 cases made)
Robert
Mondavi Pinot Noir Napa Valley Carneros 2009 (88 points / $26 / 15,000 cases made)
St. Supéry
Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2010 (89 points / $20 / 42,080 cases made)
Taittinger
Brut Champagne La Française NV (90 points / $40 / 30,000 cases imported)
Trimbach
Gewürztraminer Alsace 2009 (90 points / $25 / 10,000 cases made)
A terrific line up of wines Tim. This balances out very well with wines of excellent value as well as some "splurge" wines for the holidays. The other nice part about these suggestions is that you can acutally find them at a local retailer. Any wine lover would do well do pick up all of these suggestions. I know I will.