Introduction
Last week we spent a fair amount of time discussing wines for the appetizers and main courses there is one other really big area to cover; the desserts that are such a part of the holidays. There are Christmas Cakes, Gingerbread men, all manner of chocolates, strudels, cookies baking, pies cooling on the rack. And the biscochitos; we can’t forget those. How can we find the right dessert wines for all of those? Well sometimes a rich holiday-blend coffee or hot chocolate will fill the bill, too.
Dessert Wines for the Holidays
When considering dessert wines for the holidays there are fortified wines, and sweet wines with different alcohol levels and flavor profiles.
A fortified wine, with rare exceptions, is fortified with grape brandy to stop the fermentation process as the yeast cannot sustain the fermentation when the alcohol level exceeds 18-19%. This is usually done while there is residual sugars in the wine, 5% or higher. The wine now slumbering can be shipped long distances without a negative impact on the wine as long as it’s handled properly.
- Sherry wines typically are not sweet although there is a perceived sweetness because of the higher alcohol level. Cream Sherries and Pedro Ximénez (PX) wines are very sweet, however.
- Madeira wines are also heated for long periods, or maderized, to create its unique taste. In the past that was performed on a long sea voyage. Now the process is called Estufagem using controlled heat.
- Port wines are normally sweet as are port-like wines outside of Portugal. California port often uses Zinfandel grapes.
A sweet wine is one with some level of residual sugar, from off-dry (1 to 3%) to sweet to very sweet. There are different methods to achieve this, but the goal is to craft a sweet wine. Adding sugar to the completed wine is illegal in most countries.
- Late-harvest: Grapes are left on the vine until raisiny; some grapes respond better than others
- Straw mat wines, grapes put on mat or hung in attic to become raisiny, often to enrich wine, but not always to make it sweeter, such as the Italian Amarone.
- Botrytis-cinerea: A fungus that attacks the grape skin, withdrawing moisture, but since the grapes are harvested earlier than late-harvest can retain good acidity.
- Measure yeast so consumed before all sugar converted or shutdown fermentation.
- Choice of high sugar grapes like Muscat that balance alcohol and sweetness
- Champagne and sparkling wines add sugar in the dosage
- Adding sugar before or during fermentation, called Chaptalization, often frowned upon, but permitted in certain areas where grapes don’t reach full maturity.
- California, Argentina and S. Africa have rules against Chaptalization
- Cold-climate locations, Germany and parts of France do permit it
- The purpose is to raise the alcohol level, not add sweetness.
Christmas Movies
One of the enduring traditions of the holidays are movies set during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve season and all the complications those entail when families and friends get together. Because it is the holidays few movies are pure comedy and are almost always packed with drama.
There is always a glut of new Christmas movies every year, but most are fluff and don’t get a second viewing the following year. That is especially true when it comes to TV Christmas movies; many of which have that Hallmark cuteness and predictability about them. Hey, here’s a good parlor game, see who can be first to predict how things will turn out. Some of these you might even guess from the title.
However, to put you in the proper mood, may I suggest a really stiff egg nog or straight brandy if high cuteness makes you nauseous? I’m also passing on most Christmas horror movies, even though they’re a subset. I like to keep my horror and Christmas separate. And I’m not listing most of the Christmas cartoons or we’d be here all week. That said, I previewed over 400 movies so you won’t have to.
The following list is chronological and will continue into next week’s show.
Babes in Toyland (1934): with Laurel & Hardy
With the music of Victor Herbert, this version was also called The March of the Wooden Soldiers and is one of a dozen movies made using the Babes in Toyland title. Surprisingly there wasn’t an X-rated Babes in Joyland.
A Christmas Carol (1938): with Reginald Owens and Gene Lockhart
The first but certainly not the last retelling of this Charles Dickens classic tale. A role also played by George C. Scott, Guy Pearce, Patrick Stewart and Jim Carrey.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940): with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan
Another classic Ernst Lubitsch comedy set in Budapest, Hungary. James and Margaret work at the same shop but loath one another except as anonymous pen pals. We already know they’ll figure it out.
Holiday Inn (1942): with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire
At an inn which is open only on holidays, a crooner and a hoofer vie for the affections of a beautiful up-and-coming performer. Well, we all know which one is the crooner and singing White Christmas for the first time. And unless both of these guys were there for every holiday the inn would have closed long ago.
Christmas in Connecticut (1945): with Barbara Stanwyck & Dennis Morgan
A food writer who has lied about being the perfect housewife must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas. I spent many Christmases in Connecticut, but never like this.
The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945): with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman
At a big city Catholic school, Father O’Malley and Sister Benedict indulge in friendly rivalry, and succeed in extending the school through the gift of a building. While there have been many movies using this title, including one with Claudette Colbert in 1959, only this one had Bergman. This movie was the highest grossing movie of 1945.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946): James Stewart & Donna Reed
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed. Hardly anyone has not seen this Frank Capra classic. Stewart had just come back from the war and it transformed his role as George Bailey into one of the most endearing portraits of a loving but conflicted man. The actors never gave a clue that this was filmed in the summer with fake snow.
The Bishop’s Wife (1947): Cary Grant, Loretta Young & David Niven
A debonair angel comes to Earth to help an Episcopalian bishop and his wife in their quest to raise money for the new church.
A bit of trivia: Originally Cary Grant played the bishop and David Niven the angel. When original director William A. Seiter left the film, Henry Koster replaced him and viewed what had been shot so far. He realized that the two were in the wrong roles. It took some convincing because Grant wanted the title role of the Bishop. He eventually accepted the change and his role as the angel was one of the most widely praised of his career.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947): with Maureen O’Hara, Natalie Wood & Edmond Gwenn
After a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy’s, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he’s Santa. Director Seaton was a close friend of Gwenn, whom he called Teddy and visited him often during his final illness.
- One day Seaton, coming into the room and looking down at his game old friend, felt a sudden surge of compassion.
- “All this must be terribly difficult for you, Teddy,” he said sympathetically.
- Gwenn didn’t buy that sympathy. A smile touched his lips.
- “Not nearly as difficult as playing comedy,” he answered cheerfully.
- They were his words of exit. His head turned on the pillow. He was dead. Up to his last breath and in spite of great physical suffering, Gwenn had actually lived the gentle whimsicality on which his career was based. Dying is easy; it’s comedy that’s hard.
A Christmas Carol aka Scrooge (1951): with Alastair Sim & Jack Warner
My favorite version of this off-told tale of redemption with many also titled “Scrooge”, with Old Scrooge (1913) with Seymour Hicks being the first. Seymour also played that role in Scrooge (1935). Albert Finney played Scrooge in 1970 and Bill Murray in 1988 as Scrooged.
In one scene, Bob Cratchit is making a Gin punch for the family. Here’s a Victorian Gin Punch recipe.
- 3 lemons
- ¾cup sugar
- 1 750-ml bottle gin
- ½ cup orange liqueur
- 1liter seltzer, chilled.
Step 1
Peel off long strips of pith-free skin from the lemons. Place peels in a bowl, add sugar, muddle vigorously and allow to steep 2 to 3 hours. Juice lemons to obtain ¾ cup. Pour lemon juice over peels and stir to dissolve sugar. Transfer to a 3-quart pitcher half-filled with ice.
Step 2
Add gin, liqueur and seltzer. Stir and pour into punch cups or short-stemmed glasses, and serve.
White Christmas (1954): with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen
A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. A wonderful musical with great dancing, classic Hollywood sets. For our family, this one never gets old.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): Charles Schulz
One of the longest running and most loved Christmas cartoons. It’s not the holidays if Charlie Brown and the whole Peanuts gang weren’t invited.
It Happened One Christmas (1977): Marlo Thomas, Orson Welles
In the spirit of It’s A wonderful Life…A young woman has to give up her dream and remain in her small hometown as head of the family’s building and Loan building. Marlo was still that girl.
A Christmas Story (1983): with Melinda Dillon, Darrel McGavin and Peter Billingsley
OK, this is my favorite Xmas story. From a town so like my own and a family so similar and eerie in some of the details. This became our whole family’s favorite. I even bought a leg lamp, which my wife conspires to place on a trash heap, but it proudly shines every year. I’ll be showing this movie on December 23rd along with our Open House.
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift. The narrator is Jean Shepherd upon whose stories the movie was crafted.
The director, Bob Clark also did Black Christmas in 1974; a slasher-horror film years before Halloween came out. Obviously he wanted this one to be a white Christmas.
A Christmas Carol (1984) with George C Scott & Frank Finlay
A well-mounted TV movie with Scott getting all the snarls down, but not as lovable as other actors. I was waiting for a Patton moment when he dressed down Bob Cratchit, and got it.
Santa Claus- The Movie (1985) with Dudley Moore & John Lithgow
Beginning with better special effects the more recent movies have made Santa a superhero. Of course anyone that makes presents for the world’s children should be a superhero.
Lethal Weapon (1987); with Mel Gibson, Danny Glover
The first of four LW movies and the best. Set at Christmas time, but if you’re looking for a warm, cuddly movie, this isn’t it. The way Mel shops for a Christmas tree is not recommended, but bring a gun if you do.
Die Hard (1988): with Bruce Willis & Alan Richman
The movie also launched a series of Die Hard movies using the same precedent set in Lethal Weapon; set your movie up during the Christmas holidays, that always works. Richman as Hans Gruber is full-on nasty compared to his Professor Snape in Harry Potter.
Scrooged (1988): with Bill Murray, Karen Allen & Carol Kane
Just about the funniest remake of Scrooge ever made. It does have some hokey parts, but Carol Kane as the ghost of Christmas present is the funniest ghost you’ve ever seen. In full grumpy mood, Murray tries to shove Carol Kane away. “Oh Frank, I like it when you play rough.” This is one ghost you don’t mess with. At one point she even bonks him with a toaster, a 4-slice toaster, ouch!
After directing Lethal Weapon 1 (and all the sequels) Richard Donner went full-on Christmas with this one.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1998) with Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis
The Griswold’s in a Christmas movie, what could go wrong here? We’d expect disaster followed by disaster. If you want to learn how not to untie a tree in the house this is the movie for you. The principals are all great; they have their roles nailed down. Don’t have the volume up too high though; you’ll scare off the cat.
Home Alone (1990): with Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci
An eight-year-old troublemaker must protect his house from a pair of burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation. Well we aren’t sure about the accident part. The movie spinoff from this one must have been Saw with all the violence visited upon Pesci & Stern.
Next week we cover Christmas movies from 1991 to 2022.
December Music: Classical Christmas
Even before we had Christmas music we had baroque and classical music genres covering all things religious including the celebration of the season. Many Christmas songs and musical themes began as everything from Handle’s Messiah to harp, guitar and piano pieces and then made secular. Choral music in particular has contributed many of our most cherished musical themes.
The following list came from the Houston Symphony website
1. Corelli Christmas Concerto
Arcangelo Corelli was one of the finest violinists and composers in late 17th/early18th century Italy. The manuscript of this concerto bears the inscription “Fatto per la notte di Natale” (made for the night of Christmas), and ends with a pastoral finale that evokes the shepherds who came to see the newborn Jesus.
2. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
Bach composed this festive work for the Christmas of 1734. Each of its six parts would have been performed separately on feast days during the Christmas season. This work is a great next step for classical music lovers already familiar with the next piece on our list, Handel’s Messiah.
3. Handle’s Messiah
Handel’s Messiah has been one of the most popular pieces of classical music for hundreds of years, thanks in no small part to the famed Hallelujah Chorus. The tradition of performing it at Christmastime can be traced back to early nineteenth-century America, and today orchestras all over the world (including the Houston Symphony) present it every year as an annual holiday tradition. There are also Handle Messiah sing-along concerts in many places. I still have my Messiah songbook.
4. Mozart’s Sleigh Ride
Before Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, there was Mozart’s. This is the last of his Three German Dances K. 605, and was most likely composed for a ball at Vienna’s imperial court. Like many artists today, Mozart took a “just add sleigh bells” approach to creating a wintry atmosphere.
5. Liszt Christmas Tree Suite
Although he led a scandalous life as a young piano virtuoso, in his later years Franz Liszt joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and took several minor orders within the Catholic Church (including exorcist…). That must have been after he composed one of the Mephisto Waltzes. He wrote his “Christmas Tree” suite in 1881 for his granddaughter Daniela, who had the misfortune of being born on December 24; perhaps she was consoled by the thought that a piece by Liszt has got to be one of the better Christmas/birthday presents anyone has ever received. This gentle piece is based on a number of traditional carols, including “Good Christian Men Rejoice.”
6. Tchaikovsky’s December: Christmas
Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons is a set of piano pieces in which each piece represents one of the twelve months of the year. They were written to be published in a magazine; subscribers would receive a new piece by Tchaikovsky each month in their copy. For December, Tchaikovsky wrote one of his graceful waltzes, and subtitled it “Christmas.”
7. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is perhaps the most famous classical Christmas music ever. Every December one hears its best-known numbers everywhere, especially the Trepak, the Waltz of the Flowers, the March and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. But every measure of the score is an enchanting and masterful example of musical storytelling. Based on a short story by ETA Hoffman, the ballet begins as an affectionate parody of a bourgeois Christmas party but soon turns into a metaphor for an adolescent girl’s sexual awakening. The work has become a great money-maker for ballet companies each December, but the tradition of performing it every Christmas did not begin until the choreographer George Balanchine brought it to New York in the 1950s.
8. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve Suite
Rimsky-Korsakov adapted this suite from the music he wrote for his opera Christmas Eve, which was based on an eponymous short story by Gogol. On Christmas Eve, Vakula catches the devil and rides on his back in order to get the perfect present for his girl: a pair of the Tsaritsa’s slippers! The suite includes music from this wild ride and a grand polonaise to represent the court of Catherine the Great.
9. Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves
According to legend, the famous melody called Greensleeves was penned by King Henry VIII. It is often sung as the carol “What Child Is This?” In addition to this beautiful fantasia, Vaughan Williams also wrote a fantasia on other Christmas carols
10. Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols
Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols sets Middle English poems from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems. My version with the Gregg Smith Singers is one of my favorite pieces to play at Christmas.
The Wine Report: Wines worth Having
Torciano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2018, 14% ABV, €55 now €39
Selected grapes of Prugnolo Gentile. The Tuscan grape requires a long growing season and a sunny September. This vintage offered both. The bouquet opens to wild fruit aromas with distinct mineral tones that define and delineate the aromatic offering. The mouthfeel reveals good complexity and lots of bright freshness. His color is a strong ruby, brilliant color tending to garnet with age. Its bouquet is strong with light-violet fragrance, elegant with Sapid, mellow and soft-velvet flavor.
We enjoyed sharing three bottles of this wine at our last Xmas party for AWS last weekend. The price reduction makes it even more enticing.
Jaramillo Winery Xmas Tasting Party in Belen December 3
This was a fun event for the MRG Vine & Wine Society with many crafts available as well as an impressive list of wines. Robert and Barbara Jaramillo have upped their game on making good wines. It was many years ago when we were last at their home and vineyards for a pruning demonstration. Since then they’ve added a very large production facility and a long list of wines. They also have a very good tasting room in downtown Belen. All the grapes are from middle Rio Grande Valley.
Jaramillo 2018 Norton, 13.5% ABV
This is a big, bold red and black berries wine with fruitcake-like spices perfect for the holidays. Norton is considered the only indigenous American grape that produces great wines. This one really impressed me and displays Robert’s talent as a winemaker.
Jaramillo 2018 Barbera, 14% ABV
A medium-bodied wine with blackberry, tart cherry and spice notes. Even though we had small cups to taste the wines this one stood out, and I love Barbera.
Jaramillo 2014 Tempranillo, 13.5% ABV,
A medium-bodied full fruit wine with plum, cherry and strawberry and a lush mouthfeel.
2016 Cabernet Franc 12.5% ABV
A bit light on alcohol, but not noticeable as the fruit shines through. Soft tannin and flavors of black currant, plum and spice. And easy-drinking and delightful wine.
Crimson Cabernet NV, 14% ABV
This was a first for me; crimson Cabernet is a hybrid grape of Norton and Cabernet Sauvignon, not a blend as the name suggested to me. Medium-bodied with velvety tannins and flavors of dark berries, black currant and plum.
As with all our local wineries go to nmwine.com for hours open, contact info and directions.
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