Champagne is as inextricably linked to the holiday season as twinkling lights, cheery carols and hideous jumpers, but is too often treated as an afterthought—a bottle hastily plucked from a corner shop shelf en route to a party, or a warm, flat flute useful mainly for washing down the tenth (or 20th) canapé. This is a sad fate for a wine that takes at least a year and a half to make (and often much longer). To help you up your champagne game this season, here are four champagne “playlists” for different holiday party formats, whether you’re hosting at home, organising your office Christmas party or gathering with friends for a celebratory virgin goose at Yung Kee. In each, there’s at least one “anchor” champagne and two bonuses, plus two still wine alternatives in case you’re all bubbled out (or serve all five—it’s a party, after all).
