Food & Beverage: Planning Ahead!

Meeting with wine programme instructors, Eason Wu, Nicolas Bonnot and Matthieu Longuère, Le Cordon Bleu experts are happy to propose their tips and tricks to prepare your wines and beverages. Enjoy!

If you are hosting this year’s Christmas dinner, New Year’s Eve party or else, a few advice to making this season’s celebrations a treat are:

Acknowledge tastes and preferences: Rather than trying to pair exactly the wine with the food, try to pair it with the people and the occasion. Instead, wait until your guests have arrived to ask them what they want to drink before opening the wines.

Variety of wines: Do not be too fussed about opening too many, this is Christmas, the wines can be drunk over several days or they can take some back with them. Have a variety of Sparkling, White, Rosé, Red, Sweet and Fortified. They can all keep inthe fridge or a cold garage once opened. Chances are that, if you offer a choice, everyone will find at least one wine that will work for them with the food.

Taste all the wines when you open them to serve them. If they feel too harsh, aggressive or too oaky, just decant them and check. The perception of dry tannins and acidity should become more harmonious complemented by all the different layers of flavour that the wines can offer. You can repeat the operation until the wine is ready to drink. This advice is valid for a lot of reds but also for most full-bodied white wines or mature and mineral white that can feel a bit overwhelming when first open. Especially when closed with a screwcap. I am not talking about sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio there.

Wine Master’s Tip

Please do not open the wine too long in advance as, if the wine oxidizes and taste flat and flabby, there are no way to refresh the taste.

Matthieu Longuère, Wine Development Manager, Le Cordon Bleu London

Since 1994, he has held senior sommelier positions in England’s leading hotels and restaurants. After being awarded Best Sommelier UK in 2000, Matthieu joined Michelin-star restaurant La Trompette as Head Sommelier where he won multiple accolades for its wine list. In 2005, Matthieu Longuère achieved the Master Sommelier Diploma, the highest achievable.

This particular year, coming together with family and friends is of most importance. If you are the host, my advice to prepare for the festivities are:

Food & Wine Pairing: plan your menu and imagine the wines of your cellar which could match with it. Then take into account the whole final dish, including any side dish or sauce.

Respect the texture of ingredients: smooth and velvety tanins on poultry ; richer and fuller bobied reds on meats (beef, lamb, venison, deer, scottish grouse) ; flinty, bone dry and aromatic white wines on seafood and seashells (oysters, kingcrab, praires…), endorse richer and more buttery styled whites on firmer texture (lobster, monkfish, kingprawns).

Do not hesitate to offer larger bottles (ex. magnums) for a bigger table. It will ensure you have plenty for your guests, while served at the right temperature at the right moment and avoid having to open another in the middle of the meal.

Decant your wine in the afternoon prior to the event. Wine will breathe and gain in complexity.

Service temperatures is one of the crucial points of wine service! Do not pour white wines too cold and red wines too warm. An interior household is usually between 21°C and 23°C (though varying from seasons/locations). In this context, serve the whites around 9°/10° as they will reach instantly 12°/13° in the glass. Same thing for reds, serve around 14/15° as they will quickly reach 17°/19°C.If you do so, the quality of the beverages will be sublime for an amazing drinking experience.

Wine Master’s Tip

A fun moment to share with your guests could be to surprise them and try the grape varietal they love, but from another country they would initially think! If they are familiar with Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc from Loire Valley (France), then entertain them respectively with New Zealand and South Africa. This can be done with red wines as well (French Syrah VS Australian Shiraz, French Pinot Noir VS Oregon Pinot Noir, French Malbec VS Argentinian Malbec …).

Nicolas Bonnot, Head Sommelier & Wine Programme Co-ordinator, Le Cordon Bleu Paris

After years in the restaurant industry, he joined les Caves Taillevent, one of the finest wine collections in the world, as Chef Sommelier and Manager. Before joining Le Cordon Bleu in 2020, he had spent 14 years working as an Image and Wine Quality Taster for METRO France.

Preparing wine for a special occasion such as Christmas, or New Year’s is not an easy job. There are however some simple things that can guarantee your success:

Try to gather the information about the preferences of your guest in advance to avoid choosing the wine they don’t like. In any case, always respect one’s predilections, after all we all have different tastes.

Prepare a variety of wine, white, red, sparkling, sweet etc. Don’t forget to include in the options available a non-alcoholic beverage so everyone is included.

Keep your bottles away from heat, such as ovens, heaters or fireplaces. Wine that has been warmed up is the last thing you want to have on your table.

Wine Master’s Tip

If you are having a big party, why not prepare some big bottles like Magnum (1.5L, or two bottles), Jeroboam (3L, or 4 bottles), Methuselah (6L, or 6 bottles)? It will add a wow factor.

Eason Wu, Wine & Beverage Management Programme Lecturer, Le Cordon Bleu Shanghai

After working in the wine industry at a high-end wine import company in Taipei, Taiwan, Eason went to Le Cordon Bleu Paris to perfect his wine knowledge. He then worked as a professional sommelier and wine consultant, before joining Le Cordon Bleu in China.