Why beaujolais is my go-to red for this year’s…

Why beaujolais is my go-to red for this year’s Christmas dinner

A Beaujolais nouveau festival: nouveau is the best known, but you might be surprised at how other beaujolais varieties suit a Christmas meal. — Nouveau may be the best known beaujolais, but you might be surprised at how many other varieties suit a Christmas meal. Photograph: Owen Franken/Getty Images

The challenge with Christmas drinking, as with Christmas cooking, is mitigating the boredom of serving exactly the same thing year after year. In food terms, you can break out a bit with new stuffings and sides, but where wine’s concerned, I suggest you serve something different with the turkey every year.

Last year, for instance, I said you might like to focus on amarone for a change, and the year before that, southern French reds got my vote, specifically those from the Rhône and Languedoc. This year, however, I’m directing you to beaujolais. If you’ve only ever had beaujolais nouveau, you might think I’ve lost the plot: why on Earth drink something so lightweight on a special occasion? Well, for a start, beaujolais can be serious. True, it’s made from gamay rather than the more prestigious pinot noir of its neighbours to the north, but the climate is also warmer, which allows for fuller, richer, more concentrated reds that can handle the turkey and its multitudinous trimmings.

As with all other wine regions, you get what you pay for. Basic bojo (though we can’t affectionately call it that any more, can we?) isn’t that exciting, though it’s hard to complain at the £5 Tesco is charging for its own-label Beaujolais (12.5%), which is extraordinarily drinkable for the money, particularly if you pop it in the fridge for half an hour or so first.

Next level up is generic beaujolais villages, which you can usually get for less than a tenner (you won’t find decent burgundy for that price), and then there are the beaujolais “crus” – individual villages such as Brouilly, Moulin-à-Vent and Morgon – which I always feel owe more in style to the vintage and producer than to the terroir, although the French would obviously disagree. The Wine Society does a good selection in its Exhibition range, of which I particularly like the Moulin-à-Vent below.

You also come across gamay elsewhere – farther north in France and, increasingly, in South Africa, in particular. If you’re in or near London, Stow or Whitchurch, track down Jean-François Mérieau’s delicious Le Bois Jacou Touraine Gamay 2018 (£13.45, 12.5%) from Haynes Hanson & Clark – it’s surprisingly intense and deep in colour, much like a cru beaujolais.

But why is beaujolais such a good match for Christmas food? Well, think cranberry sauce. Its bright, vibrant fruit is just what you need with turkey (or chicken, duck or ham, for that matter), not to mention a turkey sandwich, which as we all know is the best thing about Christmas … Oh, and try it with brie, too. It’s really good.