Jeroboams’ Commercial Director Matt Tipping delves into the Christmas offer to help with your festive entertaining conundrums.

We’re eating turkey but none of us like white wine – what do we do?

If you choose your turkey trimmings so they include richer flavours, most red wines will pair really nicely, thereby avoiding the need to compromise too much.

Pinot Noir is the answer (not just to this question in my opinion!) Beautiful pure red fruit and stunning aromas, coupled with an elegant style means that it won’t overpower turkey. Burgundy is the home of Pinot Noir and wine such as Gevrey Chambertin from Domain Antonin Guyon are perfect for such a task. If you prefer New World fruit then Felton road from New Zealand are world leading from their home in Central Otago.

Mt grandad likes the quote, “Champagne tastes like rotten apples cut with a rusty razor blade,” from Sebastian Horsely. Any idea for a suitably impressive replacement? (Of the Champagne, not grandad.)

Not sure what answer you are looking for here, so will answer the question in two ways. Firstly, nothing really replaces Champagne because the taste is unique, which is why it is a legally protected name. However, if you want something fizzy, different to Champagne and high quality on its own merits, then artisan Prosecco from a small grower such as our own Angelo Bertolin, is stunning.

Equally, English Sparkling Wine is top notch. Of course you do often need to pay Champagne prices to get the good stuff, so choose it for its quality, not with a view to finding a cheaper option than Champagne. My second answer is that a much better quote to love is, “I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.” By Winston Churchill, of course.

Nana likes Champagne before lunch…a bit too much, any ideas for a disguised lower alcohol option?

Nothing to change here as the result will either be highly entertaining or snoring in the corner, so let her enjoy fizz! Of course if you really do want to mix things up then traditional German Riesling is the way forward, it will be off-dry and likely only 7-8% alcohol, much better than any wine that has had its alcohol removed through an industrial process in my opinion.

Cooking with booze…any ideas?

Yes hundreds of them! If it was one tip then it has to be dry Madeira in the gravy, it absolutely transforms it with lovely nutty aromas and hints and dry fruits. I also use veal stock in my gravy and the combination is a world beater.