Despite the intentions to be moderate, every year the Christmas holidays turn into veritable feasts, leaving our stomachs full and our refrigerators full of leftovers. This creates the perfect opportunity to whip up some tasty leftover recipes to celebrate Boxing Day and New Year's Day, ideal days to slow down, wake up without rushing and enjoy an informal brunch.
With the most beloved winter holidays just around the corner, here is a guide to the perfect wines for festive brunches!
What wine to serve at Boxing Day brunch?
Christmas in the UK is an explosion of strong flavours and soft textures that makes it difficult to stick to your resolution not to overindulge. However, when you wake up late the next day, still a little hungover from the celebrations, the leftovers demand attention, giving rise to tasty ideas for brunch.
Here are some ideas for leftover recipes, accompanied by excellent wines for Boxing Day brunch, which transform even an impromptu meal into a moment of pleasure.
Sandwiches and rolls: the best way to use up leftover meat
After the heavy Christmas meals, Boxing Day (named after an old custom of giving gifts to the needy or to one's employees on 26 December) offers the perfect excuse to take it easy. Wake up calmly, enjoy the slow pace of winter and find a simple way to use up leftovers, for example with a tasty brunch.
Typical ingredients include turkey, ham and sausages, often accompanied by salads and sauces that couldn't be finished the night before.
A clever idea for a Boxing Day brunch is to reuse the turkey to make a sandwich, enriched with salad, spinach, cheese, leftover gravy or a little cranberry sauce. You can eat it cold or toast it lightly to melt the cheese and offer a stringy, creamy bite.
If you have no idea what to drink with your Boxing Day brunch, an excellent option is a Chardonnay Koonunga Hill 2024, an Australian white wine with green hues and intense aromas of apple, pear and melon, enriched with distinctive notes of almond and lemongrass. On the palate, you can perceive the slight creaminess that characterises these wines (obtained thanks to the period of ageing in oak), as well as a freshness and persistence that go very well with turkey leftovers.
If, on the other hand, the star of the sandwich is roast ham, perhaps accompanied by a little onion chutney and rocket, the wine choice could be a fruity, light and low-tannin red, capable of supporting the savouriness of the pork, but also refreshing the palate. An excellent candidate is a Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2023, which captivates the senses with a typically fruity aroma, with hints of cherry, raspberry and a touch of spice and vanilla. On the palate, it offers a decisive but juicy and fresh taste, with delicate tannins and a long finish.
Finally, among the typical Christmas aperitifs, there are pig in blankets, mini sausages wrapped in bacon, to be heated up quickly on Boxing Day morning and accompanied by a generous glass of Château de Saint-Amour Saint-Amour AOC 2022. Made from Gamay grapes grown in the Beaujolais region of France, this wine enchants with its elegant garnet red colour, followed by an aromatic bouquet that blends blackberries, cherries and rose petals. The palate enjoys a harmonious and slightly acidic taste, with subtle tannins and good freshness.
Fridge full of leftovers? Make way for platters and single dishes!
Serving cold cuts, cured meats, cheeses and pickles from the night before on a platter is a great way to create a simple yet elegant brunch, to be enjoyed with a suitable wine. The choice of wine depends on the ingredients involved, but assuming creamy cheeses, ham, dried fruit and olives - accompanied by toast, crostini or crackers - you can't go wrong with a Prosecco, for example an “Arzanà” Prosecco Cartizze Superiore DOCG.
Delicate and refined, yet pleasantly lively, it is characterised by a delicate straw yellow colour and a bouquet of peach, apple, banana, white flowers and lemon zest. All this culminates in a sip that balances softness and acidity, creaminess and freshness, enlivened by a subtle and lively perlage reminiscent of bread crust notes.
Another impressive single dish - perfect for using up leftover bacon, potatoes, vegetables and cabbage - is bubble and squeak, a traditional casserole much loved in winter, which mixes these ingredients and bakes them in the oven, giving the palate a soft texture and an enveloping taste. A white wine will pair best with this comfort food, preferably a sharp and crisp wine that can cut through the richness of the dish.
Among the best wines for Boxing Day, the recommendation in this case is a “Dom” Mosel Riesling 2023, a German wine that lightens the full-bodied tones of the dish with a mineral nuance. It captivates the eye with its golden hue, while the nose offers fruity sensations of peach, apricot and citrus, enriched with an elegant floral touch. On the palate, it releases all its freshness and minerality, with a long-lasting fruity finish!
Fancy something sweet? The cakes and puddings from the day before will take care of that!
The abundance of Christmas lunches and dinners also includes a wide range of desserts offered by the Anglo-Saxon tradition, including spiced cakes, Yule logs, shortbread and puddings.
The spicy nature of gingerbread, shortbread and mince pies can be complemented perfectly by a "Dulcis in Fundo" Moscato di Trani DOC Dolce 2023. The ultimate after-dinner wine, this label leaves its mark in many ways, first with its golden hues, then with its persuasive notes of exotic fruit and flowers. On the palate, it surprises with an extraordinary balance between sweetness and freshness.
Which wine to choose for New Year's Day brunch?
31st December is a frantic rush to create sumptuous menus to celebrate the New Year. It is not only an opportunity to eat and indulge your love of cooking, but also to spend time with family and friends, hoping for a future of health, serenity and abundance. And if you don't feel like organising an equally elaborate lunch the next day, New Year's Day brunch is the perfect solution to celebrate with something tasty but undemanding!
Full English breakfast: classic comfort food for New Year's Day brunch
New Year's Eve often disrupts our normal biorhythms due to a lack of sleep and a desire to start the new year calmly. It is precisely in this context that brunch on 1 January becomes the ideal solution: no elaborate menus, but hearty and comforting dishes, perfect for recovering energy after the celebrations.
Among the most popular options in the United Kingdom is the full English breakfast, a great classic of British tradition and true comfort food for the “morning after”. Eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and black pudding can be prepared on the spot or, in part, recovered from the leftovers of the festivities, creating a rich and informal brunch, ideal for a late breakfast or an early lunch.
To accompany such intense flavours, you need a wine that can surprise: fresh, spicy and lively, suitable for a late morning meal and perfect if you want to go beyond classic brunch drinks such as Mimosa or a good sparkling wine. A well-chosen glass can lighten the richness of the dish and make the experience more balanced, without sacrificing pleasure.
The perfect choice among wines for festive brunches at home is this "Aristos" Grüner Veltliner Alto Adige DOC 2023. Just bring your nose close to the glass to get to know it in the most pleasant way: behind its refined yellow-green colour lies a wine with fruity, floral and herbaceous aromas and a taste that focuses on spicy and refreshing nuances.
Smoked salmon, the great festive classic
After the lavishly laid tables of New Year's Eve and the complex menus designed to impress guests, the following morning's brunch should focus on simplicity. This does not mean that you cannot serve refined and tasty recipes, such as crostini or bagels spread with a knob of butter and smoked salmon.
With these, you can open a wine with a fresh and aromatic identity, such as a Gewürztraminer. A delicate but characterful mountain wine, Gewürztraminer Alto Adige DOC 2024 blends an aromatic symphony of roses and dried flowers in the glass, with lingering spicy notes. The experience is completed by a rich, full-bodied and lively sip that leaves its mark!
New Year's desserts: simplicity is key
Gingerbread, spiced cakes and puddings are back in vogue for New Year's desserts, but fresh and soft preparations are also popular on this occasion, such as trifle, a layered dessert made with sponge cake, cream, custard and fruits such as raspberries, strawberries or blueberries.
One of the best wine pairings for a sweet New Year's Eve brunch is “Cicheta” Moscato d'Asti DOCG 2024, a Piedmontese gem that makes the most of the aromatic qualities of Moscato grapes to offer diners golden hues, intense aromas of yellow peach, honey, lime blossom, rose and sage, as well as a taste that perfectly balances sweetness and acidity.
Want to get ready for the upcoming Christmas holidays? Svinando will help you, thanks to a catalogue full of labels perfect for celebrating this magical moment!