Ham it up with wine at meal on Christmas

While we always advocate trying new wines and breaking out of your rut, sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics when getting ready for a big meal. For that reason, we tried the three most commonly purchased wines to try with our Christmas ham dinner. (For those having turkey for their holiday meal, check out our Nov. 22 Thanksgiving column at www.journalgazette.net/uncorked or e-mail us at uncorked@jg.net.)

For this tasting, we invited over friends and colleagues Emma Downs and Jeff Melton, Ben and Erin Lanka, Kara Lee and Meg Wood and enjoyed a wonderful meal of ham and all the trimmings.

We started with San Giulio Malvasia di Castelnuovo Don Bosco ($9.99) as an aperitif (don’t worry about the long name, just call it “Malvasia”). This is always a crowd pleaser, especially if you have guests who prefer sweeter wines. Pop open a bottle and pass it around while dinner is getting ready as most people will find this too sweet to drink with the meal.

As we began our meal, we tried a wine that most people have tried at some point in their lives: Beringer 2007 California White Zinfandel (Meijer, $5.99). Like a lot of other wine drinkers, we started out on White Zinfandel, and even though we rarely drink it, Beringer does the best job with it. We always like to try a pink wine with ham because we think it should work, but it almost never does.

“I think it dulls the taste of the ham,” Ben said.

Dan disagreed, saying it made the ham taste better and the wine taste juicier.

Next we moved on to four chardonnays – America’s favorite wine. We started with Yellow Tail 2007 South Eastern Australia Chardonnay (Meijer, $6.99), which did well in our Chardonnay tasting earlier this year. If you like chardonnay, this is the one to try. It’s on the lighter side and goes well with food because of its acids.

It didn’t clash with the ham, but wasn’t anything special. Because it’s a good food wine, though, it went well with most of the sides, such as green bean casserole.

Next was Tabor Hill 2006 Lake Michigan Shore Chardonnay (Meijer, $7.49) from southwest Michigan. This is an even better deal than the Yellow Tail. It’s a little more crisp and is a style that non-chardonnay drinkers like Krista might enjoy. And it went really well with the ham, which made it the best of both worlds, in our book.

After that we had the Robert Mondavi Private Selection 2007 California Central Coast Chardonnay (Belmont, $11.99). This is one that got some mixed reviews when paired with the meal, but plenty of our tasters liked it on its own.

We thought it worked with the ham, though it was nothing special.

“I like this one,” Emma said. “It’s kind of flowery.”

“I would say this has the most flavor of the three Chardonnays so far,” Ben said.

Finally, we had Chateau Ste. Michelle 2006 Columbia Valley Chardonnay (Meijer, $10.49), which we’ve had success with in previous tastings. It’s the kind of wine that you think of when you hear American Chardonnay – huge fruit and butter flavors, though not artificially so. That’s what makes it go so well with the cheesy potatoes Kara is famous for making. This was another one that with ham was solid but not spectacular. If you just have to have a big, fat American Chardonnay and are serving ham, this one’s for you.

We then moved on to four Merlots, the best-selling red wine in the country. We started with Yellow Tail 2007 South Eastern Australia Merlot (Meijer, $6.99), which on its own is a basic, cheap Merlot – heavy on the vanilla flavors and almost waxy. It seemed thick and sweet on its own, but it was great with the ham.

Even Kara, who is not a red wine drinker, liked it with the ham.

Next we had Mouton Cadet 2006 Bordeaux (Meijer, $7.99) a blend of mostly Merlot with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. On its own, many of our tasters found it a bit harsh, but Dan loved it, calling it restrained and classy. This is a wine that could benefit from the assistance of a decanter before dinner to help it breathe. With dinner, however, our tasters found the wine improved.

“I like the way it tastes with cranberries,” Emma said. “That’s because it smooths it out.”

“It’s much tamer with food,” Jeff agreed.

We next tried another favorite, Rabbit Ridge Barrel Cuvee 2005 Central Coast Merlot (Belmont, $8.99). It’s rare to find such a deep and fruity merlot under $10. It had lots of smoky oak flavors, and, unlike many cheap Merlots, the flavors tasted real, not artificial.

And just like it was when we tried it five years ago, it was fantastic with ham, bringing out the smoky flavors in both.

Finally we tried Casillero del Diablo 06 Merlot ($6.98) from Chile. We’re big fans of Casillero del Diablo, particularly the Carmenere, but the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are really good, too, especially for the price. This one was earthy, deep and rich, with surprising pepper notes.

And with ham? A definite winner. Dan called it “heaven.”

“It’s actually not horrible,” said non-red wine drinker Kara.

Emma was slightly more generous: “I like it with the ham,” she said.

While we found many wines that worked well with the meal, the thing to remember is that only you can decide what wines taste best to you. And when it comes to a holiday meal, it’s not what wine is on the table, but the friends and family around that table.

Holiday Marathon

Want to have Christmas dinner with us? We’ll be part of the annual Holiday Marathon, hosted by wine beginner Steve Shine. The marathon of classic movies runs Christmas Day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on over-the-air digital 33.2, on FIOS 9 and on Comcast 252. You can see us talking about holiday wines during the 1 p.m. hour.