Time to break out that memorable bottle

WHAT to drink at Christmas? Well, it's time to pull out those precious bottles to share with family and friends. As the years pass those bottles diminish in number and the wines also get older and this is an important point to bear in mind. Nothing can be more desolating than to pull out a treasured old bottle only to find that it is past its prime.

But before that, there are the preliminaries to get through.

Sparkling wines first. Not all are champagnes and to confine ourselves to that is to ignore some pleasant sparkling wines which many ladies find more agreeable. A good Moscato d'Asti is my favourite - a gentle bubbly with an alcohol content of not more than 5.5 per cent and the atmospheric pressure of the contained gas is not more than 1.7 atmospheres, so the fizz is gentler. In contrast regular Champagne has alcohol content up to 12.5 to 13.5 per cent and atmospheric pressure up to 5.5 atmospheres, a huge difference.