1995 Château Prieuré-Lichine Margaux 4th Growth - well suited to roast beef on Christmas day.

What better wine to go with our rib of organic beef for Christmas day? We weren't disappointed. The beef was nicely prepared, the French way, with garlic inserted into the flesh, an onion on top and a knob of butter and salt and pepper. I also opened a bottle of dry white to pour some over the beef three quarters of the way through the cooking.

After putting the beef in the oven I decided to decant the wine. Stupidly, I used a wine-waiter's corkscrew to open the bottle and the cork broke. There was no way I could extract the rest of the cork without some crumbs of cork getting into the wine. I now had to decant the wine using a tea strainer to filter out the bits of cork but inevitably some of the cork remained in the wine. Luckily, I avoided getting sediment into the wine as well.

After decanting the wine I tasted some of the wine remaining in the bottle. The sediment does you no harm. The wine tasted wonderful and there was no harm done but I should have used a screw pull model. I am not too bothered by a little bit of cork in my wine and my wife isn't either provided that the wine is good.

Our beef was cooked perfectly and we used some of the juices to make a sauce. The beef was medium on the outside but pink in the middle.

The 1995 Château Prieuré-Lichine was perfect as it was fully mature and ready for drinking. It was just starting to turn a burgundy colour and it had a nose of plums and black currants. It had medium to full body, with softening tannin and well balanced acidity and it was dry. It tasted similar to its smell but it had the typical flavour of  the spice and vanilla of a Bordeaux matured in oak. The wine was complex and concentrated but with the silky feel of a Margaux in the mouth. In my opinion this wine is worthy of more than a 4th growth classification. The wine was a truly wonderful accompaniment to the food. If you want to know what a top wine is really about then buy a bottle of this one. In the UK it will cost you £44 or so but in France you can find it a lot cheaper. You could pay ten times as much for a 1st growth Bordeaux but a first growth will not taste that much better even though it might keep longer.

I spent a little more on this wine than I am normally prepared for good Bordeaux (about £20) but it was well worth it. 1995 was a good vintage in Bordeaux.

I'ts the festive spirit

Another Christmas has passed and as the years go by they seem to be coming up faster and faster. For an 18 year old a year is a long time but as you get older and older a year makes up an increasingly small proportion of your life. All the more reason to enjoy every moment and to drink a decent bottle of wine  and eat good food whenever you get the opportunity. The days of drinking poor wine are over for me.

The festive season is full of dangers as far as food is concerned. Many restaurants see it as an opportunity to serve up terrible grub at excessive prices. The dreaded Christmas lunch with your work colleagues can often be a culinary disaster.

I experienced this when we went to a small local café which got out of its depth with the number of punters. For some reason they got our orders wrong and I ended up eating a turkey sandwich after waiting for over an hour and a half. The only saving grace was that the company was good and the wine was also palatable and reasonably priced. However, by the time my lunch arrived I had drunk a little too much so I had to wash down the the turkey with water. The turkey was well garnished and tasted good! I did not complain as the café was trying hard and was not trying to rip anyone off. They also had realised the mistake of getting out of their depth. It was good that I was able to see the funny side of the experience.

For Christmas eve my experience was completely different when we ate locally, in Orpington, which is not far from where we live. We go to Osteria da Fabrizio fairly regularly and we knew that the food would be good on Christmas eve with no corners cut and that the quality would be maintained and that the prices would not be shoved up. We were not disappointed.

After  the amuse-gueule accompanied by a glass of prosecco we ate:

Wild boar sausage, venison and beef carpaccio,

Taglioni pasta with marinated lobster,

A rack of lamb,

Chocolate fondant.

This was excellent dining.

All of these dishes were full of flavour and cooked perfectly. The rack of lamb was cooked to the correct strength and was seasoned perfectly and this is a good sign that the cooks know what they are doing. Well done the chef and his staff.

All this was washed down with a bottle of Valpolicella. The staff in the Osteria are from a variety of European countries and the are all friendly and polite and know how to treat the customers. No one ever calls us "guys". Being called "guy" in a restaurant is rude and borders on the insulting. In fact there is no reason to address anyone as "guy" unless he is actually named Guy. Why should I be treated as if I am about to be thrown on a bonfire? Would a waiter  or waitress like it if I I said, "come over here "guy"; I am ready to order?

When I go to a restaurant in France or Italy I am treated with respect because the waiters and waitresses know how to behave properly; it is a pity that the English cannot follow suit.

Any way, enough of this rant as we had a great meal at the Osteria. The boss is always friendly and plays great jazz records; even on Christmas eve so three cheers! We did not have to suffer "White Christmas" for the fiftieth time and anyway the outside temperature was 12 degrees celcius. We were set up nicely for a good culinary experience on Christmas Day. Osteria Fabrizio is highly recommended - if you are in the area.

http://www.dafabrizio.co.uk/