Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Boxing Day?

[James Roscoe]

What are people thinking of opening this weekend? We are visiting my daughter in Charleston, SC. She is a wine rep. so we get some decent stuff. Our plan is to open some nice Bordeaux with short ribs on Christmas Eve with just the immediate family. On Christmas Day we are headed out to see my Uncle and his wife in the Monck's Corner area for turkey which means '09 village Bojo and some white Burg. Boxing Day, which our family calls the Day of Gluttony, is for whatever comes out of the box. Port will definitely be drunk. Let me hear from everyone else! Merry Christmas and all that!

We are having Christmas dinner tomorrow (Christmas Eve) because of extened family scheduling situations. So I will get up at o'dark thirty and get the goose on. Children are bringing fruit salad, potato bread, and nuts. We are providing along with the goose, potato stuffing in and by the side of the bird, braised red cabbage, green beans almondine, and a couple of bottles of Loire CF. Merry Christmas to all.

The plan is the Lapierre, Morgon, 2009.

I bought a couple of bottles of 09 La Biancara Sassaia to serve with the family Christmas dinner. Thought the folks would like something with more weight than my usual Muscadet selections. But am worried that the bottles will somehow be off, low-sulfur plagues and all. Hoping for the best and riding on Christmas luck!

Christmas eve will be 1997 Salon and 2005 Marcassin Marcassin Pinot Noir with a six course meal at Marche Moderne. Christmas day, we'll have to see... but surely more Champagne. We will do our Boxing Day celebrating a day late at Jason Hagen's street party to help in the socialization of John and Kimberly of Cabot wines as they come down from the mountains in Humboldt to mingle with the flatlanders for a few days.

Christmas eve will be 1997 Salon and 2005 Marcassin Marcassin Pinot Noir with a six course meal at Marche Moderne. Christmas day, we'll have to see... but surely more Champagne. We will do our Boxing Day celebrating a day late at Jason Hagen's street party to help in the socialization of John and Kimberly of Cabot wines as they come down from the mountains in Humboldt to mingle with the flatlanders for a few days.

Probably going through an assortment of home made wines (bubbly, PN, Lemberger, PG, Cayuga, etc) and, just to keep things honest, a few store-bought reds.

My stepson finally made it home from London last night, so we'll be together for Christmas. Tonight wine will be simple- just us and Betsy's parents and some simple seafood, I won't have much because after a late church service I'll be heading to city to distribute gifts.
Tomorrow we have about a dozen for dinner. Unless one British friend didn't make it out last night, it won't be a geeky crowd - other than Betsy and I, one person pretty interested in learning, a few happy to drink a few glasses, several who'll have a glass or two, and a couple who won't drink at all. We're having crown pork roast (15 lb'er), I'll probably do red Burgundy and Riesling as choices, with maybe a couple bonus bottles (probably at least one '88 in honor of Dave making it). If the geeky friend does make it, I'll upgrade the level of Champagne, throw in a GC Burg or serious Bdx.

Hi all,

tonight we will visit my sister in law. She makes venison and we will provide a 2005 Domaine du Presidente Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Grande Classique. My wife baked a crustade for desert and we will try whether a 1997 Bernkastel-Kueser Kardinalsberg, Riesling, Eiswein from Anton Zimmermann tastes any different than on release

Regards

Winfried

Just done with a Christmas Eve reunion with my Dad's side of the family. So far, consumed 2 bottles of Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese 2007. Waiting for midnight at our place with my brothers and my parents. Will probably do a Champagne (Baron Fuente Chardonnay or Piper Heidsieck Cuvee Rare) around 1 or 2 AM.

Christmas day itself, not sure if we'll have wine with lunch but will likely have some Vins de Vienne Cotes du Rhone and more Riesling for dinner.

We're having a party with the neighbors on Boxing Day and will probably supply some Torre Oria Cava.

Christmas Eve at my sister's house with mom. She's prepairing a prime rib so I'm hauling a mag of 1999 Robert Mondavi reserve cab with which to celebrate. Christmas will be low key at home with a sparkler to be chosen later. Merry Christmas to all.

Drew

I too am in SC (I live in Columbia) and have been visiting my wife's mother and family in Anderson. I came back home to beat the snow tonight and left my wife and girls in Anderson. Just finished a rare roast beef sandwich (left-overs from Christmas standing rib roast) with a 2002 Lynch-Moussas, Pauillac (12.5%), decanted about one hour. This is quality QPR @ $24. Deep dark and delicious, lots of dark stone fruit and earthy undertones. 91-92 pts on this Christmas night. Several favorites today at our big Christmas lunch was the introductory Gruet Brut, and it was nice with dessert and throughout the meal. Another hit was the Marco Negri '07 Moscato d'Asti, one of my favorite wines with a big afternoon meal. Several guests were impressed with the low (5.5%) ABV, and it's quite refreshing. I was surprised that it was holding up as well as it was, started not even bring it, but seemed to have even some time left, not that it would improve.
I love Charleston, my youngest is in her third year of dental school at MUSC there. Tell you daughter I said hello, I may very well have met her since I know a lot of the distributors in the state.
Happy New Year to all!!

[James Roscoe]

I just getting back to my computer. We had a onderful Christmas dinner with my Uncle and Aunt in Pineville, SC. Turkey, dressing, oyster pie, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, mushrooms, and a great dessert. Jadot 2009 Boujalais Villages and Jadot Poilly-Fuise with dinner and some cheap American sparkling wines with dessert (Korbel?). I never got the name of the sparkler as it wasn't memorable and was okay with a very nice jello dessert. After dinner cordials were much more traditional. I had some Benadictine and my daughter had some South African concoction that tasted like a gingerbread house soaked in scotch!

Christmas Eve found us in Charleston drinking classified groth Pulliacs. I bellieve the first was Ch. Clerc Million (2006) and the second was Ch. D'Armiliac (sic) (2005). Both were delicious with the short ribs my wife cooked all day. The rest of the dinner was Comte' potatoes, brocolli, salad, rolls, and ice cream. There was a delicious 2002 Tatinger champagne in there somewhere.

All in all, not a shabby couple of days. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well!

We spent Christmas in a rental beach house on Sail Bay, San Diego. Went for non-traditional Christmas meal to save preparation time and have more time for connecting with family. (My sister, brother-in-law, their three adult sons, one son's wife and 6 1/2 year old daughter and 4-year old son, and one son's girlfriend, plus me.) Christmas Eve was spaghetti with mushrooms or meatballs that a nephew prepared and a ratatouille that I prepared. Christmas night was pulled pork and beef barbecue in sandwich buns (from a barbecue place) and a German potato salad with hickory smoked bacon that I prepared. The nephew who lives in San Diego went out for chocolate and chocolate chip ice cream for our dessert. I didn't have a say in selecting the wines as a late flight from Charlotte to Phoenix on the 23rd (mechanical problem) caused me to miss connections in Phoenix and have to take a flight that arrived three hours later than scheduled. By that time my sister and nephew had already been to Trader Joe's for wines and groceries. We had a couple Zinfandels and a Moscato d'Asti. Christmas night we opened a bottle that was a gift to me from oldest nephew and his girlfriend: Root.1 Carmenere from Chile. It was a robust wine that paired well with the barbecue meat.

I passed up the trip to Legoland on the 24th but we enjoyed lunch at outdoor seating at Catamaran Resort Hotel on the 25th. It was in the low 60's--more hospitable than North Carolina which has had one of its coldest Decembers on record. The others were to leave today with a trip to Sea World Monday--I flew back on the 26th since I had to be at work Monday. Came home to eight inches of snow on my car in the airport parking lot and didn't get home until 12:30 in the morning. I had to wait an hour for my checked suitcase because three flights came into Fayetteville around the same time and only two baggage handlers braved the road conditions to come to work that night. I almost slipped about four times getting to my car in the parking lot. Still, it was tons better than the situation of travelers stuck at airports with all New York area flights canceled, Boston flights canceled, etc. I was glad I booked into and out of Fayetteville this time instead of Raleigh-Durham. I only had a short drive home. As I was waiting for my flight out of San Diego I heard an agent explaining to someone connecting in Philadelphia that the flight from San Diego to Philadelphia was scheduled to go. If they boarded and then got stuck in Philadelphia because of cancellations to their final destination they would be on their own because it would be due to weather and the airline wouldn't pay for their hotel in Philly. They could stay another day in San Diego and rebook for Dec. 27, fly to Philadelphia and take their chances and maybe have to rebook for final destination on the 27th or 28th. That would be a dilemma.

When asked why San Diego was called that my great-niece said "Because of all the beaches." Sandi ego--get it? We spent about 20 minutes searching for the missing third arrow from Benny's Green Lantern attack plane. It turned up near Uncle Dan's chair because he had been firing arrows at Uncle Dan. Benny was afraid that the two days remaining in San Diego wouldn't be enough time to find the missing arrow and didn't want to go back East without it. Having youngsters around made the Christmas time much more exciting and interesting. I'll open something special New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to make up for not having picked the wines at Christmas.

[James Roscoe]

JC there was more snow in Fayetteville than in DC!!! I could not believe all the cars in ditches along I-95 as we headed north on Monday afternoon!

Glad you made it safely, James.