The best wines to drink with roast beef at Christmas
Are you planning to get stuck into a roast beef Christmas dinner this year? Here's our buyers picks for the best wines to match with roast beef.
The cheat to getting roast beef wine pairings right comes down to fat, body and salt. Your roast beef is going to be succulent, well-seasoned and full of flavour, so that needs a beefy wine (if you excuse the pun).
Tannin in wine can complement fat, acidity works best with salt, and a rich piece of meat is going to need a full bodied wine. Usually that means a red wine...
Two reds you'll love with roast beef
Our pick of the bunch for Christmas dinner is the St Donat Magma Kekfrankos, made by winemaker Tamas Kovacs. This beautifully smooth and silky red wine is made using fruit hand-harvested on the Tihany peninsula of Lake Balaton in western Hungary. The grapes are crushed and then fermented in concrete vessels to allow for micro-oxygenation, making the wine even softer!
It may only be medium bodied but its intensely flavoured with lots of plums and dark berries. This is our top pick for your Christmas dinner, especially if you're going for roast beef.
If you like fuller bodied wines, like Malbec, then you should try this Pizzato 'Fausto' Tannat instead.
This wine is made on the Pizzato family's 45 hectares of vines are split across Vale dos Vinhedos and Dois Lajeados, the former some 500m above sea level. Tannat grown here enjoys plenty of sun and ripens fully, giving you a deeply coloured red wine with a smooth tannin and concentrated notes of blueberries, plums, coffee and spice with some vanilla to finish.
If you're a big reds fan, this Tannat is the one to go for with your Christmas dinner!
Can you pair a white wine with roast beef?
Yes, of course! It's a little trickier than red because the one thing you need is tannin. Tannin complements fat beautifully, which is why we typically opt for red wines with beef.
However, new styles like orange wines can work really well with red meats. These are white wines that are left on their skins, like reds are, to develop more texture and tannin.
Matic 'A Love Story In 3 Acts' Sipon, from Slovenia, is a natural orange wine full of intensely juicy stone fruits and orange peel. It also has plenty of tannin to complement a good joint of beef.
Alternatively, you can look for creamy full-bodied white wines. These work well with the rest of the roast (your spuds, yorkshire puds, carrots, etc) and will stand up to the main event as well.
You can bag an absolute bargain with our Pegoes Colheita Seleccionada Branco Portuguese white wine from winemaker Jaime Quendera. Made from indigenous Portuguese grapes Antão Vaz, Verdelho, Arinto and a dollop of Chardonnay. The resulting wine is full of peach melba, cream and spice. It's delightfully Christmassy and a steal at under a tenner.
I hope you enjoy exploring some of our perfect roast beef wine pairings and wish you a very Merry Christmas!
