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Showstopper bottles for Christmas 2025
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Showstopper bottles for Christmas 2025

By Aiden Schwarzer
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Showstopper bottles for Christmas 2025

You don’t have to wait for a special occasion to open a special bottle – the act of finally getting around to something you’ve been looking forward to really should be the event itself, but Christmas is a very useful excuse! Aiden Schwarzer unwraps some top fine wine picks for the festive season.

We recently published our latest Oddments List which details some incredible mature Burgundies, including an exciting, sizeable release from our own Reserve Cellar. I will certainly be taking advantage of these for my own drinking this season. 

Champagne

Posh bottles at Christmas feel right, don’t they? Even if, like me, you’re in charge of the cooking (and cleaning), a glass or so of Champagne with smoked salmon blinis brings a touch of class to peeling spuds and crossing sprouts! We usually have some Tanners Extra Réserve Brut on hand along with my wife’s favourite, Pol Roger Réserve, Brut, but she also loves Blanc de Blancs so I’ll be stocking up and probably stretching things to cover New Year's!

Pol Roger, Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, Vintage 2018

Pol Roger, Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, Vintage 2018

limited quantity has made it to the shelf. For a warm vintage, this is a graceful, elegant release, with a delicate overlay of citrus, white peach, and a lovely mineral quality. It feels perfect for pre-dinner, with canapés, lighter bites and of course, seafood.

But nobody would blame you for keeping one aside for a late-night fish ‘n’ chips in mid-January!

£180 per bottle

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Billecart-Salmon Brut Le Blanc de Blancs, Grand Cru NV

Billecart-Salmon Brut Le Blanc de Blancs, Grand Cru NV

This cracking non-vintage release is based on 2018 with about a third 2016, a pure Chardonnay from four grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs. I love the vinous character of this – it's got golden touches to citrus fruit, notes of citrus peel, a delicate richness and there is some bass too. With a sense of lift throughout, lots of chalky minerality and a wonderful floral quality, it oozes class.

£78 per bottle

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Nyetimber Rosé, English Sparkling Wine NV

Nyetimber Rosé, English Sparkling Wine NV

I feel like I harp on about this, but I’m always so impressed by the sheer depth of fruit. There is a fashion for pinks to be pale, delicate and… frankly a little anonymous at times. This is not that. If you want a fun rosé that offers some proper fruit character, you must try this. Superb work from Cherie and the team!! While it’s obviously a winner with smaller plates and seafood, the fruit and texture will allow it to partner richer dishes, it will go with your Turkey or Goose, or even rare beef, and if you save a bottle for later, Turkey Curry!

£42 per bottle

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Whites

For us, time flies on the big day. An early start with the kids opening their presents, then hard toil in the kitchen for a few hours, about 20mins at the trough dining table, more kitchen time, a brief walk, then an inevitably snoozy afternoon! So, I won’t pretend we have time for a different wine for every plate and snack! For me, a good white and a good red is all I need for Christmas dinner – with back up bottles in the wine rack, just in case. With the Burgundies we have available this year, it would be foolish not to lean on them, but I will have some Claret on standby for sure.

Here is a short list of wines that I’m currently weighing up:

Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, grand cru classé Pessac-Léognan 2022

Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, grand cru classé Pessac-Léognan 2022

Tanners had a glorious tasting with Adrien Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier, and it’s ingrained in my mind – the whole range is superb, but this really is a breathtaking wine that stands alone. It’s not cheap, but by the standards of grand cru White Burgundy, I think it offers value, and for a Sauvignon/Semillon blend, it will surprise and delight in equal measure. A more forward edition in the very warm 2022 vintage, this throws up a mix of pear, nectarine, apricot, pineapple, and ginger – more if you take your time, a wonderfully textured experience and no lack of vigour and mineral expression.

£110.00 per bottle

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Condrieu, Coteaux de Chery, André Perret 2023

Condrieu, Coteaux de Chery, André Perret 2023

If you’re to indulge in a little luxury at Christmas, then Viognier ought to be part of the conversation. André Perret is one of the great names in Northern Rhône winemaking and his Condrieus are a joy to behold. This ‘Chery’ leans into the expressive, floral qualities of Viognier offering up notes of white flowers, fruit blossom, orange and apricots, lemon, honey, toast and more besides. On the full side of medium bodied, this is silky and pure and shows a lovely elegance. The 2023 whites were incredible to taste during the primeurs, and this will offer wonderful drinking now and over the coming decade.

£64.00 per bottle

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Hermitage Blanc ‘Le Chevalier de Sterimberg’, Paul Jaboulet Aîné 2019

Hermitage Blanc ‘Le Chevalier de Sterimberg’, Paul Jaboulet Aîné 2019

There are some gems on the Oddments List with some very tempting pricing, and this is a great example - grand white Rhône with some bottle-age. I remember tasting this when it was originally released and it was a dream. Really quite elegant and silky, gorgeous fruit… a gentle giant as I recall. Again, texturally a good match for Turkey and the trimmings!

£49.50 per bottle

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Reds

Beaune 1er cru Bressandes, Henri Germain & Fils 2016

Beaune 1er cru Bressandes, Henri Germain & Fils 2016

I’ve always had a soft spot for the reds of Germain – a producer revered for their whites, and I bought a case of the 2012 vintage of this wine following a visit in 2013. Delicious fruit-driven Pinot, a little spice and earth and a lovely sense of breadth. It really got me onto Beaune and its myriad premier crus and lieu-dits. 2016 was the year of the black frost, tiny yields and great concentration.

£59.50 per bottle

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Chambolle-Musigny, Michel Gros 2010

Chambolle-Musigny, Michel Gros 2010

Lovely, elegant Chambolle. The Gros wines often need a little time to come together post-elevage, so this will be properly in the swing of things now. Cool daker fruits, plenty of mineral bite, lots of white flowers… that’s what I’m expecting.

£72.00 per bottle

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Château Léoville Barton, 2e cru Saint-Julien 2006

Château Léoville Barton, 2e cru Saint-Julien 2006

I cannot wait to draw the cork on this one. What a good age to be drinking it, although even at 20 years, it’s only really starting to relax. Structured and loaded with pure black fruits, it’ll need food and plenty of air… I expect this to be a bottle to enjoy over a couple of sittings.

£86.00 per bottle

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Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe 2005

Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe 2005

We’re fortunate to see mature Télégraphe regularly here and so we’ve all had a bit of experience of those powerful bottles shedding weight, becoming paler and more complex, and so redolent of tapenade. This can’t fail to impress and intrigue guests, especially those unfamiliar with how wines like this can behave with time on the cork.

£91.50 per bottle

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Haut-Bailly II, Pessac-Léognan 2022

Haut-Bailly II, Pessac-Léognan 2022

And from such maturity, a wine hot off the press. Sort of. The 2022 Clarets have recently arrived ‘on the shelf’ and this was one I lusted after during the primeurs. The second wine of superstar Château Haut-Bailly, an utterly charming and disarming wine that shows the value in taking a second wine to enjoy and devour while you wait on the grand vin to reach its peak. Whether or not I get to taste this over Christmas, I’ll be stowing a couple of bottles for a rainy day!

£43.50 per bottle

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Ports

My visits to the Porto and the Douro have helped me to better appreciate Port and last year I deliberately took something properly mature and special to experience over the holiday. It was a lovely bottle of Fonseca 1977 that was surprisingly pale and lithe, it was just a shame I didn’t have anyone to share it with. No matter, I will try again! We’ve so many attractive options but these jump out at me:

Taylor’s Vintage Port 1970

Taylor’s Vintage Port 1970

A great vintage, and the last vintage that was bottled in Portugal and the UK. In fact, these were bottled right here at Tanners HQ and have rested in a local cellar for all this time. A piece of history!

£150.00 per bottle

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Fonseca Vintage Port 1997

Fonseca Vintage Port 1997

A super vintage that is maturing nicely, offering up attractively fruity wines. I’m looking forward to comparing notes with the 1997.

£95.00 per bottle

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Taylor’s Platinum Jubilee, Very Very Old Tawny Port

Taylor’s Platinum Jubilee, Very Very Old Tawny Port

You could well consider this an investment in drinking over weeks, or maybe months. That’s one of the benefits of a wine as stable as old Tawny Port. Treat this as you might a grand bottle of Brandy or Malt Whisky and take a sip here and there. This ‘VVOP’ was created to celebrate HM Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, and the reserve wines here are up to 70 years old! Extraordinary concentration and intensity, layers and layers of complexity of roasted and salted nuts, dried fruits, wood spice, baking spices… the flavours go on and on, you don’t need to partner it with anything, just breathe it in!

£295 (from £370)

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