It's A Wonderful Life!

You know the Christmas story of old.....It's A Wonderful Life....one of my all time favorites I make sure to watch each year. If you are a wine lover do you wonder if they had us wine lovers in mind? Ok, enough of being silly this morning! I do however remember them drinking egg nog in the movie, but I don't remember seeing any wine bottles or goblets...I will have to watch more closely this Christmas.
If your holiday dinners are like what mine used to be like when married and entertaining, you have shrimp & beef, maybe some sausage and pasta, stuff cabbages, great veggies and the list goes on & on with all the goodies for desert. If I were chosing wines for my holiday entertaining I would chose both a wonderful Chardonay and a great Australian red. (I am partial to Australian wines) I may also have a wonderful port or an ice wine on hand for desert.(these are great poured over a bowl of french vanilla ice cream! yum....yum....yum! But if your family is Italian like mine you would want to have a wonderful Italian pino grigio from northern Italy and maybe a red from Sicily. You may want to start your shopping list now for the trip to the wine store. Figure on at least half a bottle per guest and then you may as well do your New Years Eve shopping while there, so don't forget the bubbly! Grab a bottle or 2 extra to have on hand just in case you unexpectedly get invited out during the holidays. That way you already have your gift for the hostess. Remember it is always grand to show up at the door of someone's home with flowers, candy, wines, candles or some other type of gift for the person who extends a warm welcome for you into their home. My parents raised me to not go visiting without taking a gift of some sort and over time I have had close friends of mine tell me it is because of my doing so it has lead them to do the same when they go out and then those friends turn around and carry on the same when visiting. It is a wonderful feeling to hear this and know it is mostly because of the generous parents I had growing up who started me on this path in life. As the holidays approach I grow a bit sad because both Mom & Dad are gone now. Mom passed on December 6, 3 years ago,and Dad January 5, soon to be 5 years ago,In less than 2 years I lost my heritage....but I have all the memories and traditions left to carry on with. Holidays will never quite be the same but now it is time for me to add into the traditions I already have a few of my own. We tend to miss our loved ones a bit more on these occasions in life, but memories are forever. I do hope you have a few happy memories with your parents.
Sorry.....I get emotional quite often...now back to the holiday wine...
If you are really confused about which wine to choose for your festivities then try out the wine & food paring chart I have in the right hand column of this blog page. It has been a great help to me.
Tomorrow I am going to delve into the Australian wines....being my favorites...I figured I would start there first. So till then...keep warm, (if in the south....keep cool) be safe, and spread some love and joy into someone's life!
God Bless....
Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly!
In the end it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. Proverbs 23:31-33

This to me is just saying...."don't get drunk on it".....a bit of wine can be good but a lot?.....watch out!

"The most complete wine book ever. A must for anyone who loves wine, whether they are a pro or an amateur. Thorough, authoritative and entertaining"----Robert Mondavi, founder and chairman emeritus of th Robert Mondavi Family of Wines. THIS WAS A QUOTE ON THE BACK OF THE WINE BIBLE WE USE FOR OUR STUDY PURPOSES