Last Updated on December 3, 2024
Game Christmas Lunch Rehearsal and Friendsmas Feast
It’s the start of December and the pressure is rising. Are you already planning Christmas lunch and panicking? Despite booking various online deliveries my plans have already changed a couple of times, but as part of the build-up and an excuse to get in the festive spirit, the idea of Friendsmas seemed totally appropriate as a way to sanity-check my schedule and recipes. After all, whatever you are planning for Christmas Day it’s always good if the food part goes smoothly. And of course, checking the wines you could serve is also a great idea. Finally, unless you happen to be American and celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas does seem a long way off from the last BBQ of summer. Not surprisingly, Friendsmas is growing in popularity – a way to celebrate with friends rather than family perhaps in a more relaxed way, with or without presents.
Finding wines to serve over Christmas can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. There seem to be so many offers that it’s easy to get carried away. My recommendation is that whether you are pairing your wines with a Friendsmas meal or on Christmas day, start by thinking about what your guests prefer. It may sound obvious but, if you have friends who only drink white wine, make sure you stock up on those and conversely, if your guests are red wine drinkers make sure you have plenty of those. Set yourself a budget per bottle and try to keep to it. And, do experiment ahead of time – try what you plan to serve and make sure it’s to your taste (it’s a good excuse!).
We often start Christmas lunch with an aperitif of a glass of Champagne, but this year for Friendsmas we’ve been trying two premium Cap Classique wines (from South Africa). We loved both of them, fruit-led sparklers that were very easy to drink. Our first wine, Vergelegen MMV Blanc de Blanc 2018 had a lovely fine mousse with a hint of toast, citrus, spice and baked apples. Long, lingering with a refreshing aftertaste it was a great way to start lunch. It’s available from Partridges on Sloane Square or via Lekker Wines. The slightly pricier Graham Beck Cuvee Clive 2018 was a pinot noir/chardonnay blend with a vibrant mousse, notes of brioche, apple and berry to complement the citrus base. I bought the latter from Winoships after a tasting event because I was so impressed – and drinking it at home I didn’t feel in the least bit short-changed.
To start the Friendsmas meal, a platter of open sandwiches on rye bread, topped with a preserved lemon and dill creamed cashew ferment, smoked salmon and lumpfish caviar. I buy the nut ferment from Nettle Foods – they have various options which include some remarkable substitutes for cream cheese and the truly delicious light lemony mixture. While not a cheap option, it makes a delicious base for open sandwiches – and it’s easy enough to make a vegetarian version too with a little dill and rocket. Or, if you are feeling ambitious, then why not make a carrot lox for the vegetarians? A handful of quail eggs provides a simpler alternative made for a truly simple but stunning starter.
We tried two white wines with the starter and some guests went on to try again with cheese and dessert. Les Jamelles Viognier 2023 was a beautiful rich aromatic white with an almost syrupy consistency and with lots of fruit. It paired well with the starter, cutting through the richness of the smoked salmon, but even better with the apricot clafoutis we had for dessert. At between £8.50 and £9.50 a bottle from select branches of The Co-op, it’s well-priced and a good option for fruity desserts.
Edouard Delaunay’s 2022 Bourgogne Aligoté is a white wine from the Burgundy region of France that’s known for its crisp, fresh taste and vibrant fruit flavours. Made from the Aligoté grape, it was minerally with a bright acidity and aromas of citrus and green apple. My personal favourite, if you follow my own strategy of serving your best wines at the start of the meal, this one at around £23.40 is a good choice. It was the better pairing with the smoked salmon starter and also was excellent with the cheeseboard. You can buy it from Honest Grapes, a boutique online wine specialist where Tom, one of the founders is a Burgundy specialist who has a real knack of picking special wines to try.
I am a big fan of game and love to serve venison at Christmas. I’ve even cooked a Christmas dinner and pretended that our venison was actually beef in order to placate an elderly relative who was already disappointed at not being served turkey. So why not for Friendsmas too?
The saddle of venison for this meal came from my favourite meat supplier, Swaledale Butchers, who manage to deliver a range of meats from the frugal to the opulent – with consistent quality whatever the price. The saddle of venison is a cut of meat from the back of a deer that’s made up of the two loin fillets and the two tenderloin fillets. It’s a lean cut of meat that’s tender and flavourful and is often served as a roast. Mine came beautifully butchered and deboned, ready to pop into the oven and cook before resting for about 30 minutes. I followed the instructions on the Swaledale website for cooking and the end result was spot on and very easy to carve. The perfect Friendsmas meat, it was low-fuss and easy to serve, but quite decadent.
One of the benefits of ordering my meat from Swaledale is that I can also buy bones to make beef stock, which, in this case, is an essential ingredient for a red wine jus. It’s an easy if time-consuming recipe that just makes for the perfect finish for something like a saddle of venison.
Side dishes comprised Dauphinoise potatoes, baby new potatoes, spiced red cabbage, green beans and tenderstem broccoli. A feast fit for a king and not a Brussels sprout in sight (though that was more because they don’t really come into season until after the first frost!). Anyway, this was Friendsmas – so perhaps serving Brussels sprouts would be morally wrong
We tried three red wines. Edouard Delaunay Septembre, a Bourgogne pinot noir, a fresh fruity red that can be found for around £16 a bottle from Majestic. Crozes-Hermitage 2021 Les Moniers, M. Chapoutier, retailing at around £20 also from Majestic and others, was a wine which had my French guest stunned and delighted, while our second Syrah, Les Jamelles 2022, also from The Co-op, another big hit with our Friendsmas guests and excellent value for money at around £10 a bottle.
The Syrah wines turned out to pair better with the venison than the Pinot Noir, which seemed a little lighter and in my view would be an excellent red wine to serve with turkey.
After the venison, while the clafoutis cooked, we enjoyed a cheeseboard of aged Comté, Brie and Gorgonzola Dolce all from @heritagecheeseuk. I was more than happy to continue drinking the Crozes-Hermitage with all its ripe, red-fruit-packed notes with the Comté and the Edouard Delaunay Septembre while others continued with the white wines.
As mentioned earlier, the perfect pairing for the Apricot Clafoutis from the wines we were trying was Les Jamelles Viognier 2023, with the Graham Beck sparkling wine a good alternative and I was glad to have a little left. This well-priced white would be a good option to serve with Christmas Pudding in my view – it’s rich enough to stand up to the intense fruitiness and, while I personally like drinking port with my Christmas Pud, if you have guests who prefer white wine this is a good choice. The Clafoutis was made for us by one of my guests, Jeanne, who runs the excellent CookSister blog and I am now wondering if it might be possible to make an even more Christmassy version with a ‘fresh’ mincemeat. That is part of the joy of a Friendsmas – it gives you a chance to experiment with what you might want to serve on Christmas Day
Are you planning a Friendsmas this year? We had so much fun I’m thinking another one might be in order. It’s a great excuse to try all the food and wine you’ll be having on the big day, and to catch up with friends in the comfort of your own home.
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