Stock up for visits before the visitors arrive

Around our house it's always wine season, but there's nothing like the holiday season for occasions to share with family and friends the wonderful light that wine brings into our lives. So make this year the one in which wine becomes a central theme in your family and social life.

Wine is older than Christmas. In the centuries before Christ, pagan rituals tied themselves to the waxing and waning of the light. As autumn days grew shorter and nights longer, people in the Northern Hemisphere hoarded food and drink against the coming winter, but as the days stopped shrinking and started lengthening, people celebrated by feasting. They brought out the best meats and preserves, and of course the finest wines, to enjoy in great company before hunkering down to survive the rest of the winter. This is the origin of Christmas dinner. So before there was Christ, there was Christmas dinner.

Even after the Christians took over the mid-winter festivities, wine dominated the rituals. When Christians gather on Christmas eve to celebrate the birth of Christ, they take Communion with bread and, of course, wine.

Today of course we've dispensed with many of the rituals of winter, and most of the religion. But feasting and socializing with friends are still strongly with us. And now that we can't call it Christmas for fear of offending our non-religious friends, I would propose a simple and descriptive name for this time of year--The festive season. And nothing says festive to me like a glass of wine.

So as you're stocking your larder for the coming onslaught, don't forget the wine cellar. Now is the time to put some wine away for the surprise visit or the planned feast.

It is also the time to break out of the red wine rut that overtakes so many of us during the long, dark winter. So let's get you down to the wine store to prepare for festivities.

First head to the bubbly section. The festive season is a time for socializing,  and nothing makes spirits bright like bubbly. The effervescence carries alcohol to the bloodstream faster, so a glass of bubbly is the ultimate ice-breaker. And lower alcohol levels mean most of us can maintain bright spirits without making fools of ourselves. Keep a bottle in the fridge all through the festive season in case friends drop over unannounced. And it doesn't have to be the expensive French kind. Italian Prosecco, Spanish cava or good old Okanagan Brut are all affordable alternatives. It's great on its own but also fabulous with a plate of rich cheeses and patés you offer your guests.

Next make sure you stock up on white wines. We are all such red wine snobs now we often dispense with white during the cold months. But many people are now suffering what could best be described as allergic reactions to red wines. My darling bride lights up like a stoplight at the first sip of red. So stock some white for those guests, and of course for turkey dinner. By now you know my antipathy to oakey chardonnays but, hey, it's the festive season. Buy some for the oak-dorks among your friends. But make sure you also have some crisp, dry rieslings and pinot grigios for turkey dinner.

And don't forget the rosés. Get yourself over to the French or Spanish section and pick up a few bottles of dry rose. For my money there's nothing that celebrates the festive table like glasses of pink wine against a white tablecloth.

Now the reds. These days value is the new virtue so cross the equator and visit Chile, Argentina and South Africa. Cold weather calls for heavy wines so look for higher alcohol and darker colours. Argentinian Malbec is probably the value red on the shelf right now. Counter balance those choices with a few lighter wines--try Pinot Noirs from New Zealand and Syrahs from the Okanagan. These are great before dinner with hors d'ouvres.

Now you've got yourself a box of wine. Head back home and deploy them to the fridge and the cellar. Your ready for the hordes.

Is that the doorbell I hear? Gotta go!

Cheers!

Keith

Keith Watt is proprietor at Morning Bay Vineyard on Pender Island.