Waitrose, £14.99
Good Beaujolais can be so enjoyable on its own that even lifelong devotees don't always realise just how versatile the wines of the ten Crus are with food. These are the individual appellations clustered in the north of the region and made, like all Beaujolais, from Gamay but each with its own character and name – Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Brouilly, Régnié among them. The wines of Morgon, more or less at the centre of the ten, are some of the most powerful and, especially from the granite and schist Côte de Puy slope, long-lived.
Dominique Piron makes a Côte de Puy, which I also highly recommend (£16 for the 2017 at The Wine Society), but this is the Morgon named after his home property, La Chanaise. Its dark, velvety raspberry and black cherry fruit is suffused with spice and incense and characteristic sappy freshness. You could serve it with anything from the Christmas turkey (hot or cold), to salmon, tuna, charcuterie, lamb chops or kidneys, pigeon breasts, cheese-filled jacket potatoes, aubergine gratin, chick pea and chorizo stews, Comté cheese and much else. 13%.
Dominique Piron Morgon La Chanaise 2017, Beaujolais, France
£14.99, Waitrose