The Alternative Christmas Dinner, Tuesday 3rd December 2024

The Alternative Christmas Dinner, Tuesday 3rd December 2024

Product: 90068001552
The Alternative Christmas Dinner, Tuesday 3rd December 2024

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The Alternative Christmas Dinner, Tuesday 3rd December 2024
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Description

For our inaugural Alternative Christmas Dinner, we’re shelving the classic Clarets and Burgundies for those of you wishing to broaden your horizons and explore wines from slightly less famous regions. We’re not necessarily going to reinvent the wheel with the menu – there'll be plenty of nods to classical UK dishes but, for those of you fatigued by the weight of traditional wine choices, we hope to open new avenues of discovery and put a spin on all the age-old favourites. You may just discover a hidden gem and potentially a new candidate for your Christmas table.

For the occasion, our Executive Chef Stewart Turner will create an appropriately festive four-course menu that will both pair perfectly with these unique selections and provide you with some culinary inspiration for your own holiday fare.

Wines to be tasted:

Apéritif: 2017 Berry Bros. & Rudd Blanc de Blancs by Hambledon Vineyard, Hampshire, England

2019 Riesling, Clos Häuserer, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Alsace, France

2015 Tyrrell's HVD Single Vineyard Semillon, Hunter Valley, Australia

2022 Tensley, P2KV, Zaca Mesa Vineyard Viognier & Rousanne, Santa Barbara, California, USA

2017 Les Tosses, Terroir al Límit, Priorat, Spain

2009 Domaine de Trévallon Rouge, Alpilles, Provence, France

2016 Valpolicella Classico, Superiore, Giuseppe Quintarelli, Veneto, Italy

Dress code: smart casual

Event details

Delivery and quality guarantee

Dinners

Dinners

Join us for one of our fine dining evenings. A perfect way to find out more about a specific wine region or style, or to simply relax over a more leisurely affair absorbing the knowledge of your expert host over several courses of the finest food and wine.

Food will be prepared in-house by our fantastic team, with Head Chef Stewart Turner at the helm; while our range of wine specialists will guide you through the glass in your hand.

When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.