AIrving

Last updated 00:00, Thursday, 06 December 2007

Wine with Alan Irving

YOU don’t need to spend a fortune to have a merry Christmas, wine- wise. The trick is to mix and match, red and white, but at a price that suits the pocket.

Chablis and claret are a couple of aristocrats for the festive table – often commanding a high price for the authentic stuff. But there aren’t many places where you could have both for less than a fiver apiece.

One is Morrisons which this week took stock of one of the most popular clarets (St Emilion) and a chablis. The normal recommended selling price is £7.99 but it’s going for a song with £3 off over Christmas.

It’s a Petit Chablis, but don’t be put off. Some connoisseurs might turn their noses up, but all petit means is little and that the grapes are grow in the “nooks and crannies” of one of the world’s most prestigious wine regions.

Chablis is chardonnay but although its style has been copied world-wide only the wine from the village of Chablis and its premier and grand cru appellations are allowed to put the name on a label.

To defend their honour and legal rights, the Burgundians went to court to obtain a ban on what they called ‘false chablis’ from elsewhere.

Good chardonnay is produced in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, South America and California, even eastern Europe these days: it all depends on taste, whether you like it buttery, fruity, steely, oaked or unoaked.

Some of the New World chardonnays tend to be on the buttery side, but I prefer it flinty dry, with just a touch of those unmistakable topical fruit flavours, with a very dry and lingering finish which is what gives Chablis its exalted reputation.

But sometimes it fails to live up to its reputation, selling more on the name, which is a good reason for not spending too much and settling for the petit chablis which is meant to be drunk young and fresh.

When I was in Burgundy a couple of weeks ago for the annual Trois Glorieuses (three glorious days!) wine festival, I tried a few chablis and there was definitely nothing wrong with the petit.

So (at £4.99) the Morrisons special is a pocket-saving treat, versatile enough to go down a treat with the Christmas dinner turkey, and just as well with seafood, cheese or ham.

There’s plenty of affordable Chablis at the other supermarkets. One of the best is at the Co-op which offers its brilliant own label at a knockdown £5.99 but the best bet must be the premier cru I saw (in Egremont) for £7.99 – incredible for a wine of superior quality.

Perfect French partner for the chardonnay is the red from Bordeaux, which we nicknamed claret back in 1152 after a match made in wine heaven – Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marriage to Henry II!

Claret has been known as the British wine ever since, and St Emilion’s a great favourite because it’s merlot dominated – soft and plummy.

Morrisons boasts that its oak-aged Montagne St Emilion (La Rose Peyriere) offers a mouthful of smooth black berry fruits and can’t fail to impress – at the price we really can’t go wrong.

I’ll have more Christmas recommendations next week including, at half price, one of the best reds I’ve tasted all year.