Christmas dinner drinks

Start light and dry: on arrival, serve something sparkling such as champagne, crémant, cava or prosecco, or a short cocktail that does not get in the way of the meal. Then let the weight follow the dish: a fresh white wine with fish and shellfish, a fuller-bodied red wine with game and roasts, and with a vegetarian main course, look at the sauce rather than the protein. For dessert, one rule applies: what you serve should be at least as sweet as the dessert, otherwise it will taste sour, which is why moscato works well with fruit and whipped cream.

For a dinner with three wines, set out three glasses per guest plus a water glass, four in total. That may sound like a lot, but changing glasses during the meal disrupts the table more than it saves space. The order is fixed: the water glass goes above the knife on the left, next to it the glass for the wine served first, and the rest diagonally to the right and behind it in order of use. That way, everyone automatically picks up the right glass. If you do not have enough space, put out the dessert glass when dessert is served. Matching water glasses are available among the water glasses, and the smaller sizes among the white wine glasses.

From a 75 cl bottle, you get six 12.5 cl glasses of white wine or five more generous 15 cl glasses of red wine. For eight guests and a three-course dinner, that works out to about four bottles: one bottle of sparkling wine with the aperitif, one and a half bottles of white, one and a half bottles of red, plus half a bottle of dessert wine. It is better to buy one bottle too many than one too few; an unopened bottle will keep. Also put plenty of water on the table, because during a long dinner everyone drinks more of it than you think.

Serve sparkling wine at around 6 to 8 degrees, white wine at around 8 to 12, and red wine at around 16 to 18. The latter is colder than most living rooms in December, so “at room temperature” is no longer accurate: put red wine in the fridge for half an hour before the meal instead of leaving it by the radiator. Put white wine and bubbles in the fridge three hours in advance, or place them in a bucket with half ice and half water for twenty minutes. Ice alone works less well than ice water, because water touches the glass all over. A bottle that is too cold will warm up in the glass by itself; a bottle that is too warm cannot be chilled again at the table.

Don't put a bottle of soft drink on the table next to the wine, because it will still feel like an exception. Pour the alcohol-free alternative into the same glass, at the same time and in the same amount. An alcohol-free sparkling wine with the aperitif, diluted grape juice with a squeeze of lemon alongside fish, and chilled herbal tea with meat do what wine does too: balance acidity and bitterness against the food. Ready-made recipes can be found under mocktails and alcohol-free spritzes.

Coffee rounds off the dinner, and those who want can have something with it. A Carajillo and an Irish Coffee combine the coffee and the drink in one glass; a cognac or liqueur separately alongside keeps the two distinct. Pour a small amount, 2 to 3 cl is enough, and for a hot coffee cocktail use a handled heat-resistant glass from the coffee glasses collection. You can find a cognac glass in the cognac glasses collection.