Red wine and the holidays.

It's the Holidays! A period of gifts, parties, homecomings and poinsettias. In a country known for celebrating the longest Christmas season, there's something more than the cold breeze and mall wide sales that I looked for in this part of the year, that is having a dinner with a bottle of red wine with family and/or friends.

My appreciation for these blissful moments started in one of the family gatherings (my father's birthday) when I discreetly opened a bottle of red wine from one of his presents. Thinking that I don't have the luxury of opening another bottle without being reprimanded, cause it was one of those from Tinderbox, I slowed down after my second glass and enjoyed every sip until the bottle was done.(We Filipinos are mild drinkers indeed.)

Maybe it was from the aroma or the woody taste of the wine, blended with the nostalgia shared by my relatives on the table at that time. Or maybe, it was the alcohol content that enhanced my deeper enjoyment to our passage of lifetime that from there on drinking red wine with my family and/or friends was brought in a sort of different level.

That experienced didn't made me a wine connoisseur though but it somehow widened my understanding about red wines along the way. Like it helped me to determined a good wine from a better one. I noticed that an expensive wine doesn't mean its always better - specially in our country wherein good red wines are a bit pricy. Also, I gained some personal thoughts on food and wine pairing as well.

Here's a sample of my food and wine pairing for this Christmas by the way:

1. For a lechon, I'll go for "Gold Label Pinot Noir" from Marks and Spencer.

2. Beef steak or brisket will be nice with "Bibulus" from Manny O Wines.
3. For hams, a Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon from Carlo Rossi will do just fine.
4. A Chianti (there's a good one from Tinderbox) will best match Spaghetti and Carbonara.

So in one of your gatherings this Christmas, it maybe of friends or family, bring in a bottle of red wine. Keep the atmosphere in nostalgia. Share stories in the past and stuff like how things come and go as the year ends. This simple pleasures keep us somehow "centered in life" as they said and prepare us for the next year to come.

Cheers!!