By the second week of December, most wine racks look much the same: a few bottles bought for a dinner that never happened, a gift or two, and one or two you have been quietly saving. The trick to a good festive season is deciding early which of them get opened, which get wrapped, and which stay exactly where they are. It is a sorting job before it is a shopping job, and it takes twenty minutes with a notebook and a clear head.
Start with an honest audit
Forget the wine list for a moment and look at what you already own. Take each bottle out, check the fill level and wipe the neck. Any seepage under the capsule, a level noticeably below the shoulder, or a cork that has started to push upwards suggests heat damage or a leak. Drink those soon, cook with them, or keep them for a mulled wine — but do not build Christmas dinner around them.
Then split the rest into three piles: ready now, nearly there, and sleeping. A Chianti Classico from the past few years is ready now. A young Barolo or a serious claret is nearly there — pleasant in five years, better in ten. Anything that has spent a decade in a warm kitchen cupboard is a lottery ticket, so open it with modest expectations and a reliable backup nearby.
Storage matters more than most people think. A wine fridge, a cool north-facing cupboard or the bottom of a wardrobe all beat the shelf above the boiler. Steady temperature and darkness do more for a bottle than any clever racking system.
What to open this Christmas
Christmas is one of the few occasions that justifies opening the bottles you would normally hold back. If you own one wine that has been waiting for an excuse, this is the excuse. Match it to the food rather than the occasion.
For the aperitif and the toast
Champagne is the default, but the alternatives are often better value: English sparkling wine, crémant from Burgundy, Alsace or the Loire, cava, Franciacorta. A chilled fino or manzanilla with salted almonds and olives is the best fizz-free start there is, and a dry amontillado slips down beautifully with a bowl of soup.
At the table
Turkey is mild and slightly sweet, so it wants acidity rather than power: white Burgundy, Chablis, a good Albariño, or a Pinot Noir — red Burgundy, a lighter Beaujolais cru, or a cool-climate Pinot from elsewhere. Goose is richer and can take a Rhône white or a Syrah from the northern Rhône. Beef or venison will happily meet claret, Rioja Reserva or an aged Barolo. Nut roast and root vegetables work well with Riesling, Grüner Veltliner or a generous oaked Chardonnay.
With pudding, cheese and the long afternoon
Port with the Stilton, whether vintage, late-bottled or a nutty tawny. Sauternes, Barsac or Tokaji with Christmas pudding. Madeira with mince pies — particularly a Bual or Malmsey, which will also survive an open bottle for weeks, handy when you are pouring small glasses. A Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise is a gentler option if the pudding is already rich enough.
What to gift — and how to gift it
The best bottle to give is one the recipient would drink but would not buy for themselves. If they open a bottle on a Tuesday, give them something for a Tuesday. If they open two a year, give something with a little age on it, ready to drink, no waiting required.
- Crémant or English sparkling wine: festive, serious, and not the price of Champagne.
- A half bottle of Sauternes or Tokaji: genuinely useful, and almost nobody buys it for themselves.
- Madeira: keeps for weeks once opened, so a single bottle gives pleasure for a month.
- A mature Rioja Reserva or Chianti Classico: ready now, and a treat for someone who usually drinks young wine.
- Amontillado or oloroso sherry: ideal for anyone who cooks, and excellent with a starter.
Add a note saying when to drink it. A bottle without instructions is a small puzzle; a bottle with “keep this out of the light and open it in 2028” is a gift with a plan. If you are sending wine by courier, time it for a week when someone will be in. A hard frost can push a cork or split a bottle, so aim for a milder spell if you can.
What to hold back
Not everything improves with time, and pretending otherwise is how people end up drinking tired wine in 2031. Most everyday whites, rosés and lighter reds are at their best within a year or two. Anything sealed with a plastic stopper is not built for the long haul. If you bought it in a supermarket and it is not from a specialist range, treat two to three years as the sensible limit.
Worth setting aside, if you have the space:
- Structured reds from good vintages — Barolo, Barbaresco, serious claret, Rioja Gran Reserva, Vintage Port.
- Vintage or long-aged Champagne, and the better English sparkling wines.
- German Riesling, Loire Chenin Blanc and white Burgundy from decent sites.
- Sweet wines: Sauternes, Tokaji Aszú, and Madeira, which is close to indestructible.
Keep them dark, cool and steady. Somewhere around 10–14°C is the classic range, but consistency matters more than the exact number. Bottles intended for years should lie on their side so the cork stays damp.
A working December checklist
- First week: audit the rack, flag anything suspect, and write down what is ready to drink.
- Second week: order the special bottles — fizz, sherry, port, something sweet — plus two everyday wines for unexpected visitors.
- Check your glassware. Count what you have, and remember that a plain white wine glass shows sparkling wine better than a narrow flute.
- A week out: chill whites the night before, then take them out twenty minutes before pouring. Reds from a cold room may need the same treatment in reverse.
- Christmas Eve: decide about decanting. Young reds benefit from an hour or two of air; older bottles can fade, so pour and drink rather than decanting at dawn.
- Christmas Day: serve in order of weight rather than price — fizz, then whites, then reds, then something sweet.
- Between Christmas and New Year: keep leftovers in a smaller bottle filled near the top, in the fridge. Fortified wines and Madeira will last for weeks; dry whites, two or three days at best.
One bottle kept back, and a sensible finish
Somewhere in the middle of the week you will want a bottle that is not for guests, not for a toast and not required to match anything. A quiet Burgundy, a glass of sherry with nuts, a Madeira after everyone has gone home. Put it aside now, before it gets given away.
If you are driving, pregnant, or simply having a quieter Christmas, plan the alternatives in advance; alcohol-free beer, cider, sparkling wine and aperitifs have improved enormously, and a good tonic with a decent non-alcoholic bitter does the job nicely. If you are spending serious money on mature wine or a case for the cellar, buy from a merchant who can tell you how the bottles have been stored — provenance matters more than the label.
Beyond that, the best bottle this Christmas is the one you actually open. A checklist only earns its keep if it ends with a corkscrew.
Photo: Nicolas Postiglioni / Pexels
