Tips to Impress your Guests with Bubbly this Christmas & New Year

One of the best things about the festive season is the bubbly. Champagne and sparkling wine will be flowing come December 31st, easily one of the biggest selling times for sparkling wine, along with Christmas.

If you’re hosting your own party and want to make the evening extra sparkling, here’s some tips:

• Expense: You don’t need to spend a large amount of money on expensive bubbly if you’re expecting a lot of guests. Go for a NV grower Champagne, or even something less expensive like Crémant, Prosecco, Cava or other sparkling wine. If you want to splash out for a more intimate party, a vintage Champagne is likely to impress.

As it gets closer to 2016, there will be plenty of deals on Champagne and sparkling wine so keep an eye out. Check out these sparkling wines from as little as £6 and Champagnes from £12.99.

• Sweetness: Brut is the obvious choice when it comes to Champagne, it’s the most popular and goes well with a lot of food. If you’re expecting younger guests, you could try something sweeter like Demi-Sec.
• Chilling: Make sure they are chilled before serving. If you don’t have an ice bucket, chill the bottles for around 2 hours in the fridge.
• Glasses: Choose the glasses – A tulip glass or red/white wine glass is best for tasting, but for celebrations you might want something with more style. The flute is always an elegant, classic choice for sparkling wine. The coupe looks good, but it also allows the most bubbles to escape – might be best reserved for sparkling cocktails.

•  Serving: Impress your guests with your bottle opening and serving techniques. Sabring bottles might be a little too risky for most, but you can open your bubbly the best and safest way (corks flying around might not end well!).

Check out this infographic guide on how to open the bottle, and how to pour the wine for optimum bubbles.

• Canapés: It’s great to have some small bites to eat when guests arrive and there are many quick and easy canapés that match wonderfully with sparkling wine. Sparkling wine is very versatile with food pairing so you don’t have to be too strict with which bubbly goes with what. Here is a general idea on which flavours pair particularly well however.

•  Have fun! As long as the fizz is flowing, you can’t go wrong.