VINIDA - Wines for the holiday season

December is the season when some of the year's most memorable meals are shared around the table. From festive lunches and Christmas dinners to New Year's celebrations, the wines we choose often play just as important a role as the food itself. Yet with so many traditions and so many bottles to choose from it's easy to reach for the same familiar favourites year after year. Perhaps that’s for a good reason, but maybe you feel like it could do with a refresher.

We will start by thinking about the roles different wines play, learn how wines interact with food and what characteristics you have to think about. We will examine how sweetness, acidity, tannin, texture and aromatic intensity influence food pairing, and why some wines shine alongside rich seasonal dishes while others are better enjoyed on their own. As always, the emphasis will be on understanding the why rather than just listing the what, giving you a toolkit of sorts that you can confidently apply to your own selections.

In this tasting, we will explore a typical Danish festive wine menu through a series of carefully selected pairs. Following the usual progression, we will begin with sparkling wines, move on to whites (for the fish!), continue with rich reds, and finish with a sweet fortified pair. Each pair will feature a classic choice alongside an alternative selected by Janice and Domen - wines that may seem less conventional looking at the label but that offer an equally compelling, and sometimes even better, match for the occasion.

What makes a sparkling wine ideal for welcoming guests? Does the Christmas roast always demand the obvious red? How to pick the one white wine? And could an unexpected fortified wine become your new favourite way to end an evening - or will you stick with Port? Through side-by-side comparisons, we will examine what makes these classic pairings work while exploring exciting alternatives that challenge tradition without abandoning it.

Whether you are planning a family reunion over Christmas dinner, hosting New Year's Eve, or simply looking for inspiration for a quiet festive season, this tasting will introduce you to both timeless classics and new discoveries. You may leave with a completely different shopping list for December. Perhaps even a new festive tradition of your own.

This tasting will be presented in English by Denmark’s two-time blind tasting champions Prof Janice Wang MW and Domen Prešern DipWSET (domen@talkingwine.dk).

This tasting is open for everyone, but as we sometimes will be very detailed, it does offer a better experience if you have some basic knowledge of wines. A good help is to study this “cheat-sheet” kortlink.dk/2pdep and kortlink.dk/2pdfs, to get a basic understanding of wines, their appearance, aromas, flavors and structure.

It is possible to order a quick snack meal to be served at 18:10.

The presentation will be in English

Find your way to IDA Aarhus

This event is organized by Poul Tang poul.tang@m.ida.dk – 51 71 52 40.