In vino veritas: Citymag’s sommelier suggests the best wine & food pairings for the holidays

By Christos Papadopoulos

The sommelier of the Citymag team (and co-owner of Classico Bistro at 15 Themistoklis Sofouli, Thessaloniki), Christos Papadopoulos.

At the beginning of the new year, I will be completing five years in the Citymag team . Since the beginning, the wine column has been there in every issue, to present you with wines that we like and want you to get to know. All these years, the selection of wines is made with personal criteria – impartially, without serving anyone , trusting our own judgment and our own taste.

For the first time, I will mention my personal professional activity: I am a sommelier (in Greek “winekeeper”), owner of Classico bistro at 15 Themistoklis Sofouli, in Thessaloniki. A bistro wine restaurant that loves and honors wine, it has more than five hundred wine labels from all over the world , while its cuisine is based on the creativity of very talented chefs and cooks , who are inspired by traditional Greek cuisine , but also by French and Italian gastronomy .

Why am I telling you all this? Because every year at this time of year, instead of the classic column with the four wines that we recommend in Citymag, we usually present you with the wines that we will choose for the Christmas holidays to accompany the holiday meals . This year, all these choices will be adapted to the cuisine of Classico. So, let’s see, together with the chef of Classico, Konstantinos Tsavadaridis , which wines we will choose and with which dishes from the menu we will accompany them. We, at Classico, will be here to welcome you all the days of the holidays – New Year’s Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. We are here to recommend the wines for the brightest, most beautiful period of the year, to take off your gastronomic pleasures.

The rosés

… a rosé from France’s famed Provence is Caves d’Esclans ‘ Whispering Angel . Its crisp acidity, rich body, and complex bouquet of aromas (in which you find rose, spices, and red fruits) will charm you.

After tasting and discussion, the chef prepares for us to enjoy with the aforementioned wines crispy shrimp saganaki with tomato sauce and goat cheese and manti stuffed with rooster cooked in the style of traditional Corfiot pastitsada with tomato and spetserika , while as a main course he suggests linguine with shrimp tartare, crayfish broth and egg roe and chicken with trahana, tomato and mizithra.