Here's what to ask in the wine shop to avoid making a bad impression with the wine at Christmas lunches

The choice of wines to accompany Christmas and New Year's Eve dinners deserves a little specific attention because of traditions, provided you are willing to respect them! I will therefore take the liberty of offering some advice in the hope that it may help you to put the right questions to the professional, your wine expert. Christmas and New Year's Eve dinners usually include a fish-based menu; the perfect success of the evening may therefore depend on the choice of wines, which obviously cannot live on the elegance and style of the mise en place alone;

But let's take a step back and start at the beginning. My first advice is always to play it safe with a Classic Method sparkling wine. On the brand you can get advice from your trusted wine shop (I don't want to seem biased here), while on the production areas I suggest, as always, to prefer Italy. In Franciacorta, Alta Langa, Trento DOC - but not only there - truly good sparkling wines are produced and, not infrequently, can be purchased at civilised prices. If, on the other hand, you prefer to tone yourself down with Champagne because it's so chic (don't ask for Italian, I beg you, because it doesn't exist), choose a blanc de blancs, i.e. a product with one hundred per cent Chardonnay grapes in it. This is almost always paired with fish dishes (possibly without tomato) and not only, as one might think, as an aperitif. Here, speaking of 'bubbles': if you have some budget problems, you can always get a Prosecco, but I recommend that it be Docg and, in my opinion, even better if from one of the Rive di Conegliano.

So let us now come to first courses, such as pasta with seafood or risottos: the advice is to look for passe-partout white wines, i.e. with a good freshness, a pleasant savouriness and acidity present but balanced on the palate. Among these, the Chardonnay grape variety, due to its characteristics, is certainly the prince and will do very well in a Chablis version (so that it is not said that I am leaving its French cousins on the bench, if not in the stands). As alternatives, choose, as I do, the producers of Collio who make truly excellent Chardonnay. It would also be good to give back the light they deserve to the Lugana (Lombardy-Veneto on Lake Garda) that are decidedly pleasant and rather 'gastronomic', since we are still talking about pairings and the pleasures of good food. Still on this subject, a very good alternative are the Etna whites; if instead you wish to surprise your guests, try a Albarino from Galicia! It might even trigger the 'Ola' if your guests are not too distracted.

Let's move on to the main courses. When pairing wine with important fish dishes, both the characteristics of the raw material and the type of cooking must be carefully considered. The choice here too can be more traditional or perhaps, for those who like to be daring, more innovative. So Poully Fumè di Loira or - differently but very interestingly - the Fiano di Avellino, or a good Verdicchio Superiore dei castelli di Jesi, to stay in the groove of the Italian tradition that is so dear to my heart. And again: Condrieu from the upper Rhone valley or Austrian Gruner Veltliner, if you wish to tread new frontiers of taste with a hint of audacity but a desire for something different from the usual.