I’m dreaming of a white and red Christmas

No other holidays signal a return to enjoying festive traditional foods more than Christmas and New Year’s. This includes a fair amount of wine and spirits indulgence, as well.

Even more so than Thanksgiving, our range of consumption and sharing of holiday fair can hit epic proportions. Holiday food traditions and recipes usually involve a connection to our family heritage and bring together a wide range of global food and beverage favorites.

We are blessed to live in Northern California where we can find a multitude of fresh, seasonal products to build into our own traditional or historic holiday dishes that might have their origin in the “old country.”

And that can hold true for our regional wines because they, too, got their start as a result of early and recent winemaking pioneers realizing the wonderful grape growing opportunities in Northern California.

Whether it is a Viognier or Syrah served with southern France recipes or a Sangiovese or Barbera connecting with your Italian holiday food favorites, we do not have to go far to highlight local wines with a global connection.

As a child I remember Christmas Eve as a gathering of my mom’s family which included four of my great aunts. The great aunts had deep Italian roots and our meal on that evening consisted of meatless fare focusing on old country recipes. But their Italian holiday preparations left me longing for the American meal happening the next day. The awful smell of stewed dry salted cod filled the house and was worse when it arrived to the table in a thin tomato sauce. Also making its way to the table that night was a sauce free spaghetti dish tossed with raisins and a stinky cheese. I imagine my aunts sipping on small tumblers of Italian red wine while constructing their traditional menu.

It was decades later that I found myself in Italy tasting and enjoying Baccala, the same dried cod and tomato dish with a nice glass of red Italian wine. It brought me back to those Christmas Eves and gave me a new appreciation of what those recipes and that evening meant to my aunts.

I have attempted to recreate these family dishes with some success. I also discovered that in Italy the pasta dish is likely tossed with anchovies, a fish I have come to enjoy but would have been totally grossed out if it appeared in those early childhood Christmas preparations. I’ve prepared these two dishes with some success for my wife and two sons, and occasionally with some modifications; serve it with an Italian grape type such as a Barbera or Sangiovese from Lodi or Amador County.

California Holiday Favorites

Another Christmas Eve favorite in Northern California includes preparing fresh Dungeness crab. The crab season usually picks up speed in mid-December, just in time for the holidays. But over the last few years our local harvest of this popular crustacean has been limited or nonexistent. This year’s catch appears to be much more hopeful. Whether it is steamed and eaten chilled or roasted with garlic and herbs, a lightly chilled Calaveras County Viognier or Lodi Albarino gives the hearty dish a local touch.

A classic San Francisco dish that calls for Dungeness crab is Cioppino. There are various avenues to take when preparing this popular shellfish stew and that also holds true when selecting a wine to serve with it. It is thought to have a southern Italian heritage and thus calls for a red wine pairing. But it is also OK to think of a wider Mediterranean connection and it works with a number of full flavored white wines too.

Another California food favorite around Christmas and New Year’s are Mexican tamales and pozole.

Either one would be ideal on a cold night between the holidays.

Beyond Bubbling on New Year’s Eve

New Years has always been a night associated with champagne or sparkling wine, but it has also become the most popular eve for enjoying a mixed drink. With the mind boggling explosion of creative cocktails at bars around the country, it is your chance to be a mixologist and create your own signature concoction.

If you want bubbles to still be included in the mix, consider making historic classics such as the popular Italian Aperol Spritz which calls for Prosecco or a Champagne cocktail with one of the specialty bitters.

Save Room for a Glass of Sweets

And we cannot forget to include a sweet finish to our meals or enjoy on a particularly cold night. The holidays offer a good excuse to open a sweet wine that seems to have gotten buried in the back of your wine storage room. Whether it is a port or sweet late-harvest wine favorite, there is always a special dessert or cheese to go with it. My wife Wendy does some wonderful baking around the holidays and one of her newest favorites is persimmon cake. She adds a healthy dose of brandy per loaf and it really adds to the richness of the moist cake and helps the match with your favorite dessert wine. Desserts with nuts, chocolate or dark berry fruits tend to complement most ports or red dessert wines. And make sure to select a dessert wine that is sweeter than your dessert selection. Most ports or other fortified wines can last several weeks so you can stretch out your enjoyment over the holiday week without losing its character and flavor. And if you can’t finish your bottle on Christmas Eve, I am sure Santa will be happy to help you with it!