Fave Christmas tipple?

[bobleponge]

Cheap french lager, and lots of it. Dont know if any of you Froglets have tried Pineau des Charentes? Was introduced to it a couple of xmas' ago and now love it. Very sweet and very very morish.

[j r hilton]

A nice glass of wine with dinner and after a good glass of port. Lovely.

[sallym]

joanbob - def with you with the Baileys and Amarretto. Luuurvly.
jackiej - Just come in from the cold and having a Hot Choc and Brandy now.

[shirlthegirl43]

Here ya go Shirl Portugalia Wines

We have lots of Portugeezers round here ... working for Bernard Maffews ... and they've opened a lot of shops too. I could get you some and post it if you're desperado ..

MadMax here - used to work (well, turn up) in Pork 'n' Cheese land! Loverleeee place - Mont Estoril and Cascais. Anyway, I know old uncle Bernie M. I went to school with his son Jason. BM had a couple of fit daughters... We used to go shooting together at Horsford Shooting Range near Norwich.

And thanx so much for the link. A few bottles of Ginja coming my way methinx!!

[bubblewrap]

Cointreau!
Cointreau - Cointreau - Be Cointreauversial: cocktails, events, state of mind

[smallblueplanet]

...Pineau des Charentes? Was introduced to it a couple of xmas' ago and now love it. Very sweet and very very morish.

We've a very nice looking bottle sitting in the kitchen - VIEUX PINEAU DES CHARENTES BLANC bought back by special request by the MIL. We dug at Prisse la Charriere (a neolithic passage grave) near Beauvoir-sur-Niort one summer and were introduced to the delights of Pineau then.

Edit - the OH reminds me pineau is fabulous on charentais melon.

[Dipzy]

Amarula over ice for me. Got addicted to it in south africa a few years back.

[happybunny]

Genrally Irn Bru

[bobleponge]

SBP,
Served chilled (only way to drink it) over charentais melon is just gorgeous. However I can and do drink it just chilled and poured over itself. There is a red one but I dont like it anywhere near as much as the blanc.
Seems to get me drunk from the waist down though. I can sit and drink it, but then appear to be unable to stand up.
I would drink it before the MIL got her hands on it and say it got smashed in transit.

[smallblueplanet]

Lol! Its not for the MIL but a present from her - some are quite nice you know! (Well sometimes! )

Not tried the red, don't fancy it. But I've always been a sucker for chilled 'sweet dessert-style' wines. Even when digging the French like to do food 'properly' and us diggers used to drink the pineau as an aperitif before dinner! We used to have the pineau on melons as part of our 2-hour lunches!!!

Here's where we were digging.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/res...project&id=369

Unfortunately we were there before they found the chamber or anything (besides the mound!) of real interest at all!

[bobleponge]

Feeling very homesick now.
If you like the dessert wines, did you manage to try a Gaillac? They do a sweet dessert wine, obviously chilled, and its really sweet and just toooo gorgeous.
The French really "do" food. No matter what, outside of the big cities, they dont really stuff a sandwich and keep working. I've done a fair bit of work since I've moved here, and I have definately noticed that work can get a bit sloppy in the afternoons!!
Dig looks cool. Fascinating stuff. There is a place near me called "La Roche aux Fees" which is a very small Stonehenge type place. Really interesting. They sell sweet wine there too as it goes.

[smallblueplanet]

Not tried a Gaillac, will try and find one. Although we did have a weeks holiday in place near Lisle sur Tarn a couple of years back. Love that area, well all of Midi-Pyrenees and some of the Languedoc and lots of Brittany, oh and....

We've been to La Roche aux Fees, when we 'did' Brittany's prehistory - highlight was a trip to Gavrinis, stunning! The OH is a prehistorian (with the NT), so we've seen lots of bumps and bits of rocks in the Brittany area (well and lots of other places too - we do busmans holidays!). Love it!

[bobleponge]

When I get home (in 15 days, not that I'm counting) I will put the name of my fave Gaillac onto this thread, if you cant find one let me know and I will send you an empty bottle to sniff. Hic.
I've been to Garvrinis, and yes, stunning it certainly is. La Roche aux Fees is only about 10 mins or so away from me. The town of Martigne Ferchaud have a massive celebration of it every year, the "etincelle." Its a huge celebration of the local history, all told as a story on the lake, fireworks et al. Great.

[smallblueplanet]

When I get home (in 15 days, not that I'm counting) I will put the name of my fave Gaillac onto this thread, if you cant find one let me know and I will send you an empty bottle to sniff. Hic.

That's kind...but just send the cork for me to sniff, it'll be cheaper!

Another bit I like about Brittany is all the church calvaries and gargoyles, we 'did' them one year too.