How nice: Hanukkah begins on Christmas Eve this year. Or Christmas Eve comes on the first evening of Hanukkah. However you want to say it.
And whether we dine on braised brisket or roast beef, on corn casserole or kugel, we want some really nice wine to mark the occasion.
This is the season to pull out the stops. Well, some of them, anyway. To venture into our deepest cellars, if we have them, or go to our favorite wine shop, if we have that, to find something exceptional.
But we don't have to overdo it. We also have kids' college tuitions, mortgages, vacation funds, retirement plans, etc. Can't get carried away.
So when the big dinner arrives, my philosophy matches that of one of the editors back at my old newspaper. We won a big journalism award, so he sprung for a bottle of expensive champagne for the photographs. Then he cut back to cheaper bubbly so we could toast each other.
Nothing wrong with that. Splurge on one extravagant wine for the first glass, red, white or rose. Then turn to more affordable wines for the rest of the meal.
A pricey French champagne followed by some less-expense but very nice Spanish bubbly. A fancy French chablis, then chardonnay from Chile.
A $50 reserve red wine, then some $15 merlots.
With dessert, a pricey port, then a sweet, fizzy and inexpensive white wine from France.
