Enjoy Winter Wines with Majestic

With the cold weather set to last for at least another few months, you will need to carefully consider which wines you choose to accompany your winter meals between now and Easter.

Winter dishes are usually hearty and filling, designed to keep your body warm from the inside. Because of this you will need a rich and flavoursome red wine, capable of holding its own against strong flavours and textures. Though the days of eating barbequed food al fresco, washed down with chilled white wine may still be far away, you can enjoy delicious beef stews and casseroles accompanied by warming reds right now. Wine merchants Majestic Wine are experts in wine and food matching. They have selected their top winter red wine varieties, perfect for washing away the January blues. Cabernet Sauvignon has become known as the ‘king of the reds’ – the varietal produces some of the world’s finest and most expensive wines. Rich and fruity, the dark grape yields sultry, flavoursome wines replete with dark fruit tastes such as plums, blackberries, blackcurrants, and boysenberries. This type of wine is usually fermented in oak, creating lasting flavours of caramel, coffee and vanilla. It is most often served with steak, but any joint of beef will work equally well. Gourmets recommend that filet mignon be served with a Cabernet for the perfect marriage of food and wine. Majestic’s best selling Château Méaume 2006 Bordeaux Supérieur is one of an unrivalled selection of Cabernets. Blended with Merlot to create a rich, plumy claret coloured wine it is medium bodied and eminently drinkable. Despite its French roots, the château Méaume is produced by a British winemaker, Alan Johnson-Hill. Most commonly associated with the Northern Rhone region of France and the New World, a Shiraz is an equally good choice to accompany hearty winter meals. Full bodied and rich in aromas, Shiraz wines usually contain notes of smoke, coffee, cured meats and blueberries. Ideal paired with cuts of lamb and Shitake mushrooms seasoned with thyme, Shiraz wines from France are rich and peppery, while those grown in sun-drenched South Australia are jammy and heavy, often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Viognier for a softer style. The award-winning Côtes du Rhône 2006 E Guigal is from one of the Rhone Valley’s most successful producers and currently available for £8.49 from Majestic. Robust dark fruit flavours and savoury white pepper notes combine to sublime effect when paired with dark meats and flavoursome winter dishes. More traditionally thought of as a summer treat, Majestic stocks a wide variety of Zinfandel wines which work well with winter dishes such as meatballs and pasta. Experts advise serving a lighter Zinfandel wine that has a lower alcohol volume with savoury meals, while sweeter Zinfandels really come into their own when enjoyed with cheese boards and chocolate. The organic Bonterra Vineyards Zinfandel is a perfect example of a winter wine, decadent red-black in colour and is full of cherry aromas which give it a palatable, spicy finish. If you are serving a spicy Mexican, Cajun, Indian or Italian menu, particularly if any of your dishes contain tomato based sauces, a Malbec is guaranteed to complement the flavours perfectly. Most Malbec wines are medium to full bodied and contain ripe fruit flavours, usually plums and blackberries. Its tannins are earthy and wood like, leading to rustic and versatile wine, which is easy to serve and even easier to enjoy. Unsurprisingly given its Argentinean heritage, the Gougenheim Malbec 2009 Mendoza is a perfect foil for any grilled red meat dish. Made from grapes that have been ripened for an extensive period thanks to more than 300 days of sunshine, it is a dark mulberry colour, and is rich in fruity flavours- particularly plums and cherries. Notes of dark chocolate and violet add yet more facets, treating the taste buds while delighting the pocket – it is currently priced at £8.99 by Majestic. To find out more about wine and foot matches and to buy online, visit http://www.majestic.co.uk

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