A fruity rosé inspires Henry to issue some eyebrow-raising advice, and a new IPA has Alice feeling festive. 

BEAU DE FRANCE ROSÉ 2017

13%, France, $13.99 from Fine Wine Delivery Co

Here at The Spinoff, it’s hot take season – all month long, we’re shooting our hottest opinions, straight from the hip. But there’s one I didn’t have the foresight to put in the calendar: you can (and sometimes should) put ice in wine.

Look – I’m not saying you can (or should) put ice in all wine. If you’ve laid down some cash on something nice, and you want to taste all those nuances uninterrupted by extra water and extra coldness, please do not put ice in your wine. But if it’s a hot afternoon or a balmy evening, and you’re drinking something you want to enjoy cold, but don’t need to focus on every flavour particle, why not put a little ice in your glass to keep it cold?

Here’s the thing: in order to not end up with a watery glass of wine, you need to start with the wine as cold as possible and (this is where it gets counterintuitive) use more than one cube of ice. If the weather is hot enough, one cube will melt pretty quick, and your drink will get weak. If you have two or three cubes in there (or one or two big ones), the warming will be slower and the ice will last longer.

Also: you need a flavourful wine to start with. Throw some ice in a subtle glass of something and you’ll end up tasting almost nothing, but start with something fruity and lively, and it’ll withstand the slight weakening. Wanna try it out? Start with this Beau de France rosé, made from 100% syrah from the Pays d’Oc region in France. It’s bright, bold, and juicy. Perfect with a couple of cubes if the day is hot enough…

(End note: I also endorse drinking certain beers in certain contexts on ice. You can thank me later.)

Verdict: Drink ice cold.

Henry Oliver

HOPPY HOLIDAYS IPA

6.3%, 440ml, $8.99 from Fine Wine Delivery Co 

What beer to drink at Christmas is a conundrum I’m faced with every year. I want something a little more festive than my usual go-to hoppy numbers, but the spiced dark ales, gingerbread stouts and aged doppelbocks they favour in the northern hemisphere don’t seem quite right amid pōhutukawa and jandals.

I usually end up drinking copious amounts of bubbly instead, and then, when the good stuff runs out and my palate can’t take much more of whatever was on special for $10 at Countdown, I push past the green bottles and hope to find a halfway decent beer at the back of the fridge.

It’s a tried-and-true routine that works for me, but this year I’ll be mixing it up with Behemoth’s Hoppy Holidays IPA. I love me a hop pun, so it’s off to a good start. Ol’ mate Churly, Behemoth’s mascot of sorts, graces the can wearing a Santa hat and brandishing a sausage with tongs, set against a classic Kiwi beach Christmas scene. So far so good.

Behemoth absolutely churns out IPAs and they’re always bloody good. Every week it would seem there’s a new one, with nary a dud among them.

Thankfully, Hoppy Holidays does not diverge from this pattern. Packed with as many hops as the stocking of a very well-behaved (read: rich) child – namely Kiwi legends Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Riwaka, with some Galaxy from our cobbers across the ditch thrown in too – it’s an absolute treat as soon as you open the can. That aroma! Take a sip and it’s all passionfruit, orange and pineapple deliciousness. Bloody yum, I tell you.

Now, to be fair, there’s nothing much traditionally “Christmassy” about this beer, other than the label. But what even is Christmas? Let us shake of the shackles of the old world and embrace a new kind of Christmas, I say. A Christmas of hoppy New Zealand deliciousness.

Anyway, the beer is called Hoppy Holidays, not Hoppy Christmas, and this is definitely a beer for the summer hols. (Some numpty commenter on the Behemoth Facebook page attributed this fact to a hidden PC agenda. Probably reckons Jacinda wants to ban Christmas or something. I’d say the fact that Hoppy Holidays is plainly a better name for a beer than Hoppy Christmas is more likely the reason.)

So anyway, drink up. It’s 6.3%, which is not exactly low on the alcohol scale, but not exactly high either. And surely, when one is on holiday, one can alter one’s definition of sessionable to suit the occasion.

Verdict: Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho hoppy.

Alice Neville

This content was created in paid partnership with Fine Wine Delivery Company. Learn more about our partnerships here. 

From beach outings to barbecues to battling feelings of festive stress, December is jam-packed with moments made for popping the cork on something sparkling. 

The first glass of Champagne in our house on Christmas day is a bit of a ritual. The anticipation builds all day from the moment we finish our breakfast serving of trifle, ramping up considerably when the cheese comes out of the fridge to begin its slow journey to room temperature. The glasses are assembled and the cork is ceremoniously popped open to a grand audience of thirsty onlookers. We are a bunch of hopeless wine nerds in my family.

But Christmas is more than just December 25th, and sparkling wine is more than just Champagne. So the month of December, with its myriad Christmas parties and drinkies and the like, is ripe with occasion to drink all kinds of delicious fizzy wines.

Read on for our guide – and be sure to avoid the Christmas crowds and buy Champagne online without leaving your desk, as you valiantly pretend you’re still doing meaningful work in the second half of December.

For an impromptu Saturday afternoon at the beach (less than $15):

BORGO SAN LEO NV PROSECCO

Prosecco was the wine that defied the need to have a reason to drink fizzy wine. It’s Tuesday? Lovely, where are the flutes?

This offering, from Borgo San Leo, is a classic of the prosecco genre: light, a bit sweet, and extremely non-demanding. It has plenty of green apple and citrus flavours, with a touch of honey and vanilla, so it is perfectly yum when you just chuck it in a flute and go to town.

But it’s robust enough that you can add a splash of orange juice for a mimosa, or peach juice for a bellini. It’ll also work perfectly as the spritz to your Aperol.

For after you accidentally incorporated Franklin Road into your trip home at 9pm on a Friday and now you desperately need a drink (less than $20):

KRITER BLANC DE BLANCS BRUT

I really do think that no one does good cheap bubbles like the French. Fizzy New Zealand wines for under $20 can be extremely hit and miss, whereas any French wine under $20 will be a solid investment.

This wine is made from chardonnay, and is fresh, zingy, and will pair perfectly with that cheeseburger and fries you grabbed on the way home in an attempt to soothe your rage.

It’s got enough fleshy stonefruit and vanilla for you to forget all your troubles, but is light and fine enough that you can have a couple of glasses without feeling horrible the next day.

For when you’re going to a Christmas barbecue and you know everyone will have Lindauer and you want to smugly show them how fancy you are ($20-$30):

GRANDE CUVÉE 1531 DE AIMERY BRUT ROSÉ

This wine has a label that looks luxe enough for at least three people at your party to comment on it. It’s plenty rich and creamy, but that’s balanced with a heap of strawberry and raspberry on the palate. It’ll work perfectly with slightly richer seafood, like calamari or barbecued prawns, but it’ll stand up to a sausage in bread as well.

France’s wines are plagued by prestige – the more prestigious they become, the more collectors fawn over them and the more expensive they get. Which is why wines like the Aimery Brut Rosé, from the reasonably obscure Limoux region in the south, offer such great value.

For toasting to your beloved flatmates in front of your scraggly tree before you all jet off to your respective families for Christmas ($30-$40):

NAUTILUS ESTATE MARLBOROUGH CUVÉE NV BRUT

I always wonder why people insist on buying the cheapest Champagne, just because it’s Champagne, when they could be drinking one of New Zealand’s top methodes for a similar price.

The Nautilus Marlborough Cuvée is easily the equal of many of France’s finest – it’s a complex, rich wine that deserves an extremely hearty cheersing with the people you love most in the world.

It’s a pinot noir-dominant wine and has spent a long time (three years!) ageing on its lees. As a result, it’s a hefty boy with gingernut biscuits and hazelnut on the palate. You would do very well to shuck a couple of Mahurangi’s finest as an accompaniment, although that might be a bit much for flat family dinner.

For 12pm on Christmas Day when you’re knee deep in wrapping paper, there are five under five, and dinner is still just a twinkle in your mother’s eye ($40-50)

CHAMPAGNE GARDET BRUT TRADITION NV

It’s nice to find a Champagne under $50 that isn’t the stock-standard Moët that you’ve been drinking every year since you were four years old. Nothing wrong with Moët, it’s just that Gardet, from a lesser-known house, is an outstanding wine.

It’s a dry, fresh Champagne with green apple and lemonade on the palate, and a little bit of vanillary sweetness to round it out. It’s surprisingly complex for the money you’ve spent on it.

Gardet is a great lunchtime Champagne, and will wash down a Christmas Day sandwich with thick slices of ham, enough dijon mustard to make you see stars and some tiny cornichons.

For when several people have commented on how moist the turkey is but after four hours of careful basting your nerves are frazzled and you need something to see you through dinner ($50-60):

PLOYEZ-JACQUEMART EXTRA QUALITY BRUT NV

I’ve written in my notes for this one “Tastes like a vanilla ice cream!” which I think is the most compelling argument I could possibly make for any wine.

The Ployez-Jacquemart Champagne house is, like Gardet, small and quite unknown, which can be a massive win for thrifty Champagne drinkers. This wine is made from grapes sourced from Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards, and is aged on its lees for four years, giving a creamy texture and lovely richness to this wine.

Do not waste this wine on an empty stomach – this is one for the Christmas table in all its glory.

For when you’re a goddamn wine nerd with a full-time job and no dependents ($75+):

TAITTINGER PRÉLUDE GRAND CRU BRUT

The Prélude, made entirely of Grand Cru fruit, is a treat: a wine to open when the wine is the occasion, and everything is chosen to suit it, rather that the other way around.

This wine is a 50:50 blend of chardonnay and pinot noir. It is rich, creamy and decadent, but with enough structure and minerality that two glasses, three glasses, four glasses isn’t quite enough, and suddenly the bottle’s finished.

It’s a cliche maybe, but you gotta make sure you look out for number one on Christmas, as well as all your loved ones. The Prélude should be a Christmas gift to yourself – when you open it, you’ll be touched that you got yourself such a thoughtful gift this year.

Don’t share it with anyone.

This content was created in paid partnership with Fine Wine Delivery Company. Learn more about our partnerships here.