The holidays are great, but let’s face it: ‘Tis the season for stress-induced drinking. How best to take the edge off this holiday season? We went to wine experts Lauren Blake of Robust Wine Bar and her fiancé, Daniels Parseliti of Little Country Gentleman, to find out how they drink their way through the most spirited time of the year.
To balance Mom’s dried-out turkey LB: Terres Dorées by Jean-Paul Brun. I shouldn’t make a blanket statement like, “Anyone who poo-poos Beaujolais is excluding themselves from an endless and inexpensive supply of truly stunning wine,” but I just did. With big, juicy red fruit and notes of earth and spice, your turkey will thank you.
DP: Weingut-Vollenweider Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Kabinett. The palate is explosive, with copious stone fruit, green apple and torrents of mineral. At 8.5-percent alcohol, it drastically postpones the “Mom, I’ll never forgive you for X” arguments/breakdowns.
To get you through the company holiday party and still have a job on Monday LB: Look no further than Becker Estate Pinot Noir, which clocks in at 12.5-percent ABV. It doesn’t cry out for food, but it pairs well with just about anything – from caviar to cocktail franks.
To drown out Grandma’s voice as you light the menorah LB: Capcanes La Flor del Flor de Primavera. This is the only choice for either of us when it comes to kosher wines.
DP: A bottle of kosher slivovitz (plum brandy). I used to drink shots of it at the bar of a Czech restaurant in Astoria, Queens, while sitting next to pro hockey players with old school mullets (not hipster-fashion mullets). If the alcohol doesn’t drown out Grandma, the burning will.
To drink your way through Christmas DAY DP: Cerdon Renardat-Fâche Bugey offers just a touch of sweetness, just a kiss of tannin, just a bit of bubble. It goes with almost anything, has moderate alcohol and you never want to stop drinking it.
To go with that Christmas ham LB: A Christmas ham is the perfect medium to understand what riesling is truly capable of. The hint of residual sugar on the front of the palate, followed in cadence by laser-like acid are the ideal accessories for the fat and salt of a perfectly prepared piggy. I’d go with a Spätlese or an Auslese by JJ Prüm from 2005.
To make your in-laws actually like you LB: Nothing screams taste like showing up with a 15-year-old Barolo. By bringing a more mature wine, you’re giving your in-laws the option to pop the bottle now or lay it down for a while. The first wine Dan ever shared with me, while I was vacationing in St. Louis with no plans of moving, was a 1996 Francesco Rinaldi & Figli Barolo. Our wedding date is April 27. The Barolo worked.
To stuff Terrible Uncle Harry’s stocking LB: A Poloroid of Dan and I drinking Romanée-Conti La Tâche, flipping that mother-**cker the bird.
DP: A bottle of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau that’s been sitting on my radiator for the last five years. Like a mouthful of rusty nails soaked in white vinegar.
To make your makeshift New Year’s plans a little more festive LN: Château Bonnet Blanc from Entre-Deux-Mers. It’s cheap and chug-able. At a restaurant in Aspen where I worked, this was our go-to, no-glass-necessary wine.
DP: What a depressing holiday. But at least there’s Larmandier-Bernier Extra Brut Rosé de Saignée. This force of nature is like a fire hose blast of liquefied rocks in your face. Way, way better than jumping off that bridge into the rocky river below. Or a PBR in my left hand, a bottle of Springbank 10-year-old Scotch in my right.
This article appears in December 2012.