Wine: Some light wines for post-Christmas period

I am in denial. January can be such a depressing month that I find the best way to get through it is to pretend it isn’t happening and drink light crisp wines like it was summertime.

I discovered this last year when trying to lose some of my Christmas weight gain by upping my salad count and reducing rich heavy foods and drinking light wines to match. Virtually the only calorie element in wine is the alcohol, but finding a wine below 13% ABV these days isn’t easy.

The reasons for the higher alcohol nowadays are varied but are mostly due to better vineyard management and a slight rise in temperatures, allied to the fact that consumers like the richer styles and they stand out better in blind tastings so win more competitions.