Is it really already only two weeks until Christmas?! Time is a flying!

Just like last year (and which I also highlighted in a post last year, along with providing a free printable wine tasting placemat for you to create for a wine tasting party), Whole Foods has picked out some wines that you can find in their stores to highlight for the holidays.

Some of the Whole Foods Holiday Top 10 wines are quite a value, meaning you can easily buy quite a few bottles in order to make sure everyone’s thirst is sufficiently quenched during a holiday party. Others are great options as a gift when you are attending someone else’s holiday get together, or to pair with a family dinner night.

Let’s take a look at some example food and wine pairings with the 2014 list of Whole Foods Holiday Top 10 Wines! Which apparently are really 11, with 5 white wines and 6 red wines.

White Wines

• Gaston Chiquet Champagne – because we should all drink sparkling bubbly wine the whole holiday month
• Pizzolato Pinot Grigio – mineral tones makes this organically grown wine very refreshing
• Globerati Sauvignon Blanc – lemon and green apple brightness
• Louis Latour Duet Chardonnay-Viognier – round soft wine that has somehow a bit of earthiness
• Sea Pines Russian River Chardonnay – balanced to have a little bit of vanilla but not too much oak

So Whole Foods suggested a very easy way to pair any of those 5 white wines at your party or to take to someone else’s party (or to keep for yourselves for a very sexy holiday date night at home)… Oysters! You don’t even need to cook them- AND you don’t have to shuck them!

Did you know that when you buy your oysters from Whole Foods, you can have the Fishmongers there shuck them all for you? After they are shucked, make sure you keep your oysters cold, so go home and refrigerate them right away, and ideally you will eat them that day. Supposedly you can also choose to wait up to 7 days, or freeze them, but it’s best as soon as possible.

At the pairing event I attended at Whole Foods Pearl, they let me try a few different types of oysters with a few different simple preparations. You can see the pairings below – the number of the wine and the oyster is a pairing I tried.

It was fun to see, feel, and taste the difference in flavor between the various types of oysters you can purchase, as well as the different garnish preparations used to highlight them. They came in a variety of salty/briny level and textures and I could admire the differences in shells and textures. At this event I was able to try five oyster types of a Sun Hollow oyster (paired with Globerati Sauvignon Blanc), Malaspina oysters (paired with a Pizzolato Pinot Grigio), Fanny Bay oyster (paired with Louis Latour Duet Chardonnay-Viognier), Miyagi Oysters (paired with Sea Pines Russian River Chardonnay), and Penn Cove Select oysters (paired with Gaston Chiquet Champagne).

Here are my favorite ways to do a little preparation for the oyster when you serve them (the photos are from the event and not the actual recipe shared):

• Hot Sauce. The simplest no muss way. With a little bit of Marshall’s Haute Sauce like the Red Chili Lime, Serrano Ginger Lemongrass, or some of their limited edition sauces like their Gin Roasted Pepper. For your get together, maybe get a few different sauces and let your guests add the dash of whichever sauce they want to try themselves!
   
• Mignonette Sauce, which is essentially a vinegary sauce. Since you are already pairing this with wine, make it even a smoother pairing by using some of that wine in the mignonette itself by preparing 1/2 cup of a dry white wine with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar in a saucepan and reducing it to half. Now take off the heat and add 1 finely chopped shallot and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste, and maybe a tiny pinch of an herb
• Fresh Lemon and Horseradish sauce. I like the way these flavor and zing in a way that lets the natural flavors of Oyster shine by letting Oyster flavor be in the forefront. Get a fresh horseradish root, clean and then peel the outside, grate the root until you get 3 ounces (Be prepared to cry a little from the fumes just like an onion. Console yourself with wine.) to every teaspoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice and a little bit of water until it suits your taste. Instead of water, you can also use cocktail sauce for a horseradish lemon cocktail sauce topping.
  
• This is the one that is inspired from what I had at this Whole Foods event: a Jalapeno Ponzu sauce with a little 1/2 Teaspoon of caviar! For the sauce, this recipe is enough for two dozen oysters so you can use all the jalapeno. Mix together 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon water, 2 Tablespoons yuzu, or you can use fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of yuzu, 1 Teaspoon sugar, 1 small jalapeño, minced and 2 Tablespoons minced shallot. Then if you can, add the caviar using a mother of pearl spoon/wooden spoon (don’t use metal as it oxidizes the caviar). How fancy is that!
  

The Duet Chardonnay-Viognier and Vichyssoise

I also happened to purchase the Louis Latour Duet Chardonnay-Viognier and took it to a dinner party with a French theme. I paired this round, soft and earthy wine with a cold soup I made for the dinner called Vichyssoise. If you haven’t had Vichyssoise before, it’s a potato leek soup that is creamy yet light. This is a great option to bring to a party because you can prepare the recipe the night before- in fact you’ll want to because if you let the flavors sit together overnight it will taste better!

The vichyssoise also can be served warm or chilled, again making it ideal for transporting to share with others. By the way, it’s pronounced Vi-chy-swahze, where Vi-chy is sort of like fishy but use the V sound and sounds heck o impressive.

This recipe makes 8 servings, and it tasted great with the Duet wine because the earthyness of the wine went well with the potato leek and watercress flavors of the soup. This version of vichyssoise is lightened up considerably by using vegetable broth instead of chicken stock and also by using half and half instead of cream. It also has a bit more earthiness and bite by using watercress.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided (2 tablespoons will be used to cook the leek, 1 tablespoon to top the soup during serving)
• 4 leeks, well washed and coarsely chopped
• 2 pounds potatoes, coarsely chopped (I used Yukon Gold and did not peel them)
• 2 bunches watercress, divided (half will be used in the soup, the other half later when you serve)
• 2 1/4 quarts (9 cups) of vegetable broth
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• ground white pepper to taste
• 1 cup half and half or cream – I went with using half and half
• 1 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1/2 in preparing the soup and the rest you may add to taste later when serving.
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons finely snipped fresh chives

Directions:

1. Place a large soup pot over medium heat and add the 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the chopped leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5 minutes.
   
2. Now add your chopped potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes more. You don’t need everything to fully cook and nothing should be browned as you it will cook in the broth shortly. Add 1 bunch of the watercress and stir until the watercress is wilted, probably another 5 minutes.
   
3. Add the vegetable broth, salt, and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently, partially covered, until the vegetables are very tender, about 25 minutes.
4. Remove the soup from the heat and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes so that you can put it in the food processor. I put my pot in the kitchen sink partially immersed in cold water and some ice cubes to cool it down. In batches, process the soup in a food processor until smooth. After each batch, pour the processed soup into another larger pot. As you probably know, when processing the soup in your food processor or blender, make sure you are careful to press the lid on as you are blending and never fill your machine too high, getting a burn from processing hot liquids is an accident you don’t want to experience!
5. In the large pot with your processed soup, stir in the half-and-half and 1/2 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least 5 hours, best would be to let chill overnight).
6. Before serving, taste the soup for seasoning and adjust with salt, pepper, and lemon juice as necessary. After placing it in your soup vessels (such as chilled soup bowls), add a little swirl of remaining 1 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice remaining tablespoon of olive oil amongst all the bowls. Finally, add to each bowl a small bunch of the watercress, a pinch of the finely snipped fresh chives, and and grate a little pinch of the lemon zest on top.

Red Wines

I didn’t have a chance to try any of the red wines, but wanted to still share them in case you prefer reds to whites, along with the descriptions from Whole Foods. Although I didn’t get to taste them, I trust their choices based on tasting their holiday wine selections last year.

• Coppola Sonoma County Pinot Noir – Fruit forward ruby red with a tartness of dried cherry and strawberry and subtle floral jasmine notes
• Bodegas Belgrano Malbec – Aromas of warm spices and stewed blueberry flavors that mingle with woodsy hints of smoke
• Leyenda del Castillo Rioja – Mineral, earthy aromas are found in this deep garnet Spanish red
• Bubo Cabernet Sauvignon – Surprisingly fruity, pleasant and approachable with a touch of green pepper aroma
• H&G Priorat – Earthy, herbaceous aromas in this brick red wine lead to a refined minerality and complex dark fruit flavors
• Charles and Charles Merlot – Attractive baked biscuit aroma in this inky, hearty red

You might also consider adding a dessert wine to your holidays, such as a port. And think about pairing it with a little buffet of tiny dessert snacks (all that you conveniently purchase at Whole Foods) such as the Belgian Chocolates, Milk Chocolate Peppermint Pretzel Bar, or Chocolate Candy Cane Sandwich Creme Cookies!

For another easy way to get food to pair with your wine, whether it be red or white wines… I also heh heh like to browse the prepared foods section of Whole Foods and grab things from there, and if I have any doubt I will ask someone at Whole Foods to help me pick a dish to go with the wine. Then I go home and put them on a nice platter and take them to the party. What! I especially can’t resist when I see signs like this to advertise their holiday side dishes!

Are you doing any holiday dinner or party at home with wines, and if so are you pairing anything and what are you pairing? Have you ever served raw oysters before? Or had Vichyssoise?

Disclosure: I was invited to attend a complimentary event at Whole Foods Pearl that included tasting 5 of the Holiday Wines paired with oysters, but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own