19th November 2024 | Top Drops | 8 minute read
Thanks to our award-winning team of expert buyers, we’ve got the best Christmas Day wines you could possibly wish for. From luxury wines for your festive feasting to bubbly for popping around the Christmas tree, there’s a wine style to pair with each joyful moment, and we’ve chosen some of the finest options for you below.
Whether you like to start the day with opening presents or toasting to a very merry Christmas, a bottle of bubbly is the way to kick off the celebrations. Champagne may be the obvious choice for festive drinking in general but Prosecco could be considered a better option for your first drink on Christmas Day.
The bubbles in Prosecco tend to be lighter, frothier and steadier than the fine and speedy bubbles that whizz through Champagne, and this is due to Prosecco being produced in large tanks where the pressure is lower. The flavours are also fruitier, whereas traditional method French bubbly can be quite rich.
One of the most popular Proseccos we sell on our website, this classic Italian fizz is a refreshing drink to sip as you sort through the presents.
With crisp pear, vibrant orchard fruit and zesty lemon flavours on a bright, light and fresh palate, it’s an easy-drinking fizz to gently awaken your taste buds.
If you’re partial to a fruity Bellini or a Bucks Fizz as your first Christmas Day cheers, this Prosecco works well as a cocktail ingredient too.
If you’re looking to try something a little different this year, let us introduce you to British bubbly.
This beautiful Pinot Noir blend was the first sparkling wine to be made in the UK using the Charmat method – another name for the tank method, which is used to produce Prosecco. The result is a truly unique English sparkling wine that’s more elegant than others that are made using the traditional Champagne method. The fact that this is a sparkling rosé makes it feel extra special too.
Aromas of fresh red cherry and raspberry greet you on the nose, followed by hints of Victoria sponge cake and juicy fruit flavours on a soft, effervescent palate.
As we move on to the big feast, it’s time to for the white wine to shine. A good quality, luscious white is essential for pairing with delicate appetisers, smoked salmon starters and the roast dinner – especially if you’ve gone for turkey, chicken or a nut roast.
Chardonnay is our grape variety of choice when it comes to selecting a showstopping white that can complement all the rich food. Even better if it’s spent some time in oak barrels, giving it a creamy, buttery nuance and imparting warm cooking spice flavours into the wine.
White Burgundy is a very classy example of Chardonnay and will add plenty of wow factor to the dinner table.
Crafted from perfectly ripe Chardonnay that’s hand-harvested from 35-year-old vines growing in the famous limestone soils of Bourgogne, this delights the palate with bright fruit, excellent structure and a touch of richness.
Made with plenty of French finesse, it has enough weight on the palate and butteriness on the nose to pair with melt-in-your-mouth smoked salmon, creamy sauces and oily roast dinners.
For something unexpected, how about a Chardonnay from a country you wouldn’t usually associate it with? As a grape that’s grown all over the world, it can be exciting to go off the beaten track to seek out lesser known examples of it.
This Argentinian Chardonnay from the Mendoza region is made by one of our best winemakers, Familia Zuccardi. Crafted from small parcels of top-quality old vine fruit marked by its depth and concentration, this New World white wine balances freshness with supple oak.
It was made with Burgundy in mind, meaning it’s full of freshness and vibrancy rather than being sweet like many other South American Chardonnays, and the oak brings out qualities that make this wine fabulous with rich, creamy dishes.
For the main course, you’ll want a quality, lighter style of red wine that’ll work in harmony with your magnificent roast dinner. This traditional Christmas Day dish is centred around milder flavoured meats such as turkey and ham, with nutty notes and pops of fruit to complement it. It’s important to pick a wine that tastes divine yet doesn’t overpower all the glorious food.
An Old World Pinot Noir should take centre stage on the table (surrounded by our luxury Christmas crackers, of course!). Light in body and tannins with a bright palate of cherry and red berries mixed with mushroom and wet leaves, it’s a complex red that works very well with root vegetables, white meat and stuffing.
A classic French Pinot Noir is always going to be an absolute winner. What makes this sensational Sancerre even better is that it’s quite rare compared to a Pinot Noir from Burgundy.
Made from vines growing in the finest soils of the Loire Valley, where the climate is a little cooler than in Burgundy, enabling winemakers to create sophisticated wines.
Lovely and elegant yet bursting with racy red berry flavours, this is a food-friendly, fruit-forward red wine with a satisfying, fleshy finish that’ll allow the ingredients of your roast dinner to really shine through.
For those who love to explore lesser known regions and find wines with a good story to tell over dinner, how about a Pinot Noir from London’s first urban winery?
These Pinot Noir grapes were picked from the London Cru vineyards in West Sussex then taken to their city centre winery during the cool hours of the morning to retain freshness. They’re then fermented in concrete tanks and aged in a mix of concrete and oak barrels.
The result is a complex Pinot Noir with wild red berry fruits, a hint of violet and a crunchy mouthfeel underpinned by light, smoky tannins.
Once the main has been devoured, you might just have enough room left to indulge in a little cheese. Wine and cheese is a wonderful pairing that we enjoy all year round, so Christmas Day calls for something extra special.
Expensive cheese deserves a flavoursome, fortified wine. Port makes the perfect match due to its bold flavours, full body and fruity sweetness.
A 10-year-old Tawny Port from legendary Portuguese producer, Fonseca, this is a delectable drop that’s russet in colour with brilliant crimson highlights and dense, ripe, jammy fruit character.
Its wonderfully smooth, silky texture and subtle oak nuances are balanced by fresh herbal notes and a crunchy berry character. The plummy finish is long and delicious with added nutty complexity from years of barrel ageing.
Packed with plenty of flavour, this one can stand up to the most pungent of cheeses.
From one powerful Fonseca Port to another, this classic, densely coloured Reserve Port is a little fruitier and sweeter.
A customer favourite in our fortified wine range and winner of many industry awards, this one is full of sweet, rich plum and damson fruit flavours, with a sweet milk chocolatey kick to it.
This is particularly fantastic with a cheese board as it works with so many different types of cheese, from creamy Brie and Camembert right through to salty Manchego and stinky Stilton.
Christmas Day dessert marks the end of a decadent meal, so it’s only right to finish your feast in style with a drop of delicious dessert wine.
A sweet white wine made from Sémillon, such as Sauternes, is an elegant choice for Christmas pudding and other popular festive desserts. The golden-skinned Sémillon grapes are affected by botrytis while growing on the vines, leading to dessert-like flavours such as honey, dried apricot and sweet biscuits to develop naturally in the fruit.
A fine example of a sweet Sémillon-based wine, this stunning French blend is a festive favourite among Virgin Wines customers and staff alike.
Lose yourself in a luscious, syrupy palate of apricot sweetness and honeyed notes balanced by racy, crisp lemon acidity. This flash of zesty freshness is key in giving the mouthfeel a little lightness.
Savour this one super chilled in your smallest glassware, giving you the perfect measure for your slice of pudding.
For something a little heavier, get this fortified Muscat on your Christmas shopping list.
A symphony of raisin, dried fruits and spices linger on the palate, making it a fantastic flavour match for Christmas pudding. It’s equally delicious on its own for those who are too full to scoff a dessert, or you can even pour it over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Hints of treacle and grilled pineapple also come through, further adding to this sensational wine’s compelling complexity.
As you sink into the sofa after a day of good food and great company, a glass of bold, fruity red wine is your perfect companion. Full of dark fruit and warming tertiary flavours, this style of wine will suit the mood as you wind down.
We’ve got plenty of sublime reds available on our website from all around the world, so we’ve narrowed it down for you and chosen a couple of our favourites for this cosy Christmas Day moment.
This is an impressive, full-bodied red from the brilliant team at De Martino winery in Chile, made by blending the very best barrels in their cellar to create something rather special with each vintage.
Brimming with sumptuous notes of blackberry, cassis, cedar and silky dark chocolate, this big, bold red combines Cabernet with Carménère to create an enticing palate.
Intense fruit swaddled in toasty oak make this a winter warming treat to savour on the sofa.
The last in our list of best Christmas Day wines is one of our all-time bestsellers from The Black Pig collection.
Crafted from Shiraz that’s shaped by the ample Australian sunshine, it’s packed full of explosive fruity flavours that our customers love. In fact, their rave reviews give this wine a near-perfect five-star rating on our website.
Offering a lush palate of black fruits and warming, peppery spice, this juicy Shiraz is a delicious way to end a day well spent.
