Wine with Leslie: Here's what to gift a wine lover for Christmas
Gifts for the wine lover sorted
What do wine lovers want for Christmas? A wine book is an obvious first suggestion and anything by Oz Clarke is a great place to start (eg Red & White). Everyone needs The World Atlas of Wine and the Oxford Companion to Wine, both edited by Jancis Robinson. I buy Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book every year and the 2022 edition is even better thanks to its new editor, the brilliant Margaret Rand. All available on Kennys.ie.
I’m currently reading The World of Natural Wine by Aaron Ayscough. Just published, it is equally brilliant and annoying, a bit like natural wine itself, but I do recommend it.
Riesling is the number one grape variety for wine-enthusiasts thanks to its long ageing capability and intriguing flavours — don’t let the price fool you this is normally over €20. Apple and lime aromas, citrus and stoney freshness on the palate, taut and dry with lingering mineral zing. This will be even better for Christmas 2024 or 2025!
The Fletchers range in Aldi is excellent from the plum and ripe cherries of their €5.99 20cl Ruby Reserve, to the elegant dried figs of their 40 Year Old Tawny (€40). But this 10 Year Old Tawny is a sweet spot, caramel and dried fruit aromas, lively, creamy and soft on the palate with lingering sultanas and toffee notes.
This seems to have been created for Aldi by the great Sauternes house of Château Suduiraut — one of my favourite producers. This is floral and honeyed with crème brûlée and lemon curd notes and gorgeous tingling intensity, plus bonus tangy, orange acidity cutting through. Try with apple tart, with cheese (especially Cashel Blue), or on its own.
From slate, gravel and fine loess soils this is made from a cross-section of vineyards around the village of Strass. White pepper aromas with a touch of brine, zingy and fresh with pleasing bright apple fruits, bristling acidity and a lithe mineral-tinged finish. A fine introduction to the joys of Grüner-Veltliner.
Cabernet Franc is a wine lover’s grape and particularly appreciated by seasoned wine enthusiasts. From the Finger Lakes’ oldest producer this has blackcurrant leaf aromas mingled with spicy red fruits — floral notes poke through to the nose from the lush fruit-driven palate, fruity, spiky, lively and delicious. Excellent Riesling & Pinot Noir also.
Mary Pawle has imported this organic wine for decades made by the Lopez-Ribeiro Family, now managed by their son Antonio. Organic and using biodynamic principals this is fruity and juicy with lively dark cherry fruits and soft berries, supple blueberries and more sweet dark berries on the mid-palate this is a delight. Portugal is never boring.
This is the fourth and final release of this brilliant Imperial Stout made by Porterhouse Brewing and aged in Dingle Distillery in ex-Bourbon and smoked Hickory Bourbon casks. Just 9000 bottles are available so don’t delay — there isn’t a beer fan in the world that wouldn’t love to receive a bottle of this — it matches Christmas Cake & Pudding perfectly.
Complex aromas of coffee, mocha and wood-smoke, beautifully creamy on the palate with malty espresso and milk chocolate notes, a prickle of fizz hits on the mid palate and the finish doubles down on the above flavours with bonus treacle toffee flavours.
