Its the time once again to be jolly and all the "ho ho hos" in the street. Its also a good excuse to meet up with long lost friends over good wines and popping those champagnes you have been keeping in your cellars! I think I would like to dedicate this new post to describe the perfect wines to drink during this festive mood.
I think as of all nice occasions, the "bubblys" are always a favorite for guest, so it'll be great to stock up some sparkling wines to accomodate for the sudden need to hear the POP. You should be able to find some decent champagnes at reasonable prices between $45 to $60, but if you feel like spurging a little more, there's always the vintage Verve Cliquot and Moet & Chandons, available among everywhere in Singapore.

But if you are on a shoe string budget, there's still good alternatives around! You can try the Italian Proseccos or the South African Cap Classiques; equally good to drink, made in similar methods but at half the price, you can get either at supermarkets under $40.00. HOWEVER, do be slightly wary of sparkling wines which are too cheap, since it does cost more to produce sparkling wines and you never know what short cuts were done to make it so cheap. You might say a buck or so, but in the end, your guest are the ones who will suffer your stinginess!

However, if your taste is more for still white wines, there're some tips to follow :


Firstly, you have to understand, people come together to have wines as an excuse to talk and get together, not to have serious discussions about the wines they are drinking(Unless you're drinking with me, then the whole conversation would be on wines..BORING)

I would recommend the white wines to be nice and light, fruity but not the "too sweet and fruity" type that gives your guest a strong alocohol taste and of course a stronger white wine tends to get your guest drunk a heck lot faster than drinking reds!


I would strongly recommend a lovely white wine from Austria (NOT Australia), New Zealand or any other cool climate wines around, for Aussies wines, do try their marcedon range or Yarra Valley White, lovely stuff. They're generally lighter, taste wonderfully fresh and subtle and of course great tasting when it's chilled to 6-8 degrees. Of course, if you decide to start with a white, then of course i would recommend that you progress to a red since it's quite in our Asian palate to finish up with a bigger bodied red white




Ok, in my opinion, a big no-no when choosing a red wine is choosing based on price. While cheap whites tend to be more forgiving because of its lack of tannins, cheap reds will jump at you like a bad driver during rush hour. The tannins are sharper, the sulphur more pronounced, and the taste is just plain, good old fashioned BAD. Basically, anything sold in retail shops below $18.00 is just way too cheap to be considered reasonable quality...but basically thats MY opinion!


I think my favorite holiday wines are from Cote du Rhone, Beaujolais, South African Franschoek region and last but definitely not least the Austrian region of Neusiedlersee. I guess all have something in common, they're all nice, straight-forward, rounded and low alcohol wines with a very dash of authentic grape characters. So for me simply is to appreciate a lower alcoholic wine with lovely terroir and grapes characters with a bunch of friends after the meal.

What I would recommend at the end of all the mumbo jumbo is that don't get too stingy about wines buying during this festive season! get a lovely bottle of decent wine for a slightly higher price, and what i can say is that at the end of the day, it's definitely more worthwhile! Cheers and have a great X'mas!