We’ve teamed up with Virgin Wines to bring you great savings on a range of top-class bottles from around the world – with Saturday Kitchen expert Jane Parkinson as your guide.
In our first instalment, Jane shares her top tips for the ultimate Christmas wines – and assures us good wine needn’t cost top dollar.
You’re an award-winning wine expert, journalist and presenter on Saturday Kitchen Live. How old were you when you got into wine?
Technically speaking, and if my parents read this, at university. It’s complete serendipity as I lived in Burgundy for my third year when studying French and my tutor suggested I did my final dissertation on mustard or wine. It took two seconds to make my decision. So from knowing absolutely nothing, I was off to vineyards and interviewing wine producers, and that’s what drew me in.
s Christmas your booziest and busiest time of year?
September is the busiest because it’s when the retailers and everyone are gearing up for Christmas. But is it my booziest? Yes, I’d say it is. It’s the time when we see people the most so it gives me an excuse to order more wine!
How do you pace yourself over the Christmas period?
I don’t think I overindulge because I’m the cook in the house so there isn’t time to glug back loads of wine. But also I’m greedy in that I want to try a bit of every wine.
With the Christmas meal, I like to have a bit of sparkling wine, a fresh white, a richer white, a light red, a heavier red and a sweet wine, so I never go super-big because I want to pace myself, enjoy the wine and make sure I can enjoy things the next day. My days of going a bit too crazy are past me
What should we drink on Christmas Eve?
I love sparkling wine but I appreciate that champagne, especially at the moment, is out of people’s reach. But there are some brilliant cheaper ones out there. Crémant, which is French sparkling wine, just not from the region of Champagne, is one of my favourites.
For mince pies I’ve got an amazing sweet wine from Australia that’s like a muscat dessert wine. That’s what I’ll be pouring for Father Christmas!
