Breakfast is always a great place to start, and yes, it’s Christmas after all, so why not have a cheeky sparkling in the morning.
It’s a bit of a tradition in my house, where I make a toasted muesli with yoghurt and fresh berries from Hawkes Farm or Rocky Creek Strawberry Farm. This is followed by croissants with freshly shaved ham off the bone, brie cheese, and a balsamic beetroot relish that gives the filling a delicate little tang. I’ll pop the cork off a nice bottle of cuvee nina sparkling from Yabby Lake, or their cuvee nina rosé sparkling. There are several local wineries that also produce quality sparkling wines; Foxeys, Rahona Valley and Montalto are definitely worth checking out.
We like to do Christmas lunch in our family, and this is generally with my wife’s family. We all contribute to the food and wine. This is my favourite part, of course. I’ll often bring more than enough wine to make sure I have covered all food-matching options and weather conditions.
I’ll crack open a bottle of chardonnay first, as I have come to really appreciate many a Peninsula chardonnay, being fortunate enough to work at a couple of cellar doors and sampling quite a few on my travels. There are different styles of chardonnay made locally, whether they’re more of your traditional buttery styles or lees contact, yet still very restrained with lovely typical chardonnay fruit characteristics. Think stone, green fruits and citrus, rounded out with clever use of new and used French oak to add complexity. My go-to would be a chardonnay with a little bit of age from vintages 2018-20 if you can get them, from Paringa Estate, Kooyong (Port Phillip), or the McIntyre chardonnay from Moorooduc Estate. If you like seafood, fish, white meats and glazed ham on Christmas Day, then chardonnay will work well.
Then of course I’ll move on to my favourite wine: pinot noir. If the weather is kind, nice and sunny, then even better. I have quite a few pinots tucked away in my cellar with a few years in the bottle, so if we are having meats such as lamb, roast chook or even roast pork I like a pinot with a bit of earthiness about it, with forest-floor, mushroom-like characteristics from age. In my cellar at the moment I have some pinots from both Paringa and Moorooduc Estate’s Robinson vineyards 2018 and 2019 that I’ll be opening. Other producers’ pinots to try are Quealy wines, Stonier and Ten Minutes by Tractor, which are all available in my local section at Dan Murphy’s in Mornington.
I’ll also have some bottles on hand of Peninsula shiraz/syrah, and there are some amazing examples from producers such as Yabby Lake. Cool-climate shiraz, in my opinion, is a little more refined or leaner than warmer climates, with lovely fresh black fruits, white pepper and a silky finish. Roast meats, red wine jus or gravy with all the trimmings and loads of roast veg will be the ticket here.
As always, please come in and chat with me about my local wines. Hopefully I can help select a few for your Christmas Day. I am in store from Tuesday-Saturday.
Please note, some of the wines mentioned above are available at Dan Murphy’s; others you will have to source from the cellar door or online and will be subject to availability.
Until next time, enjoy your wine journey.
NIGEL STREET
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