1st Day of Christmas: Wine From Award Winning Ponty Winery

Ponty Winery | Dec 12, 2020 2:11 pm | Add a comment | 51 reads

For today's giveaway, Ponty Winery is offering something truly unique: Bottles of their Vent des Cimes 2016 for each prize winner, which otherwise sells for RMB 555 a piece. Two commenters on this post on the Beijinger's WeChat will win a pair of these enviable bottles, each!

Limited to 2,400 bottles per year, this wine is made using the “noble rot” process. The grapes are handpicked, not by the bunch, but by the berry, waiting for the optimal time for each and every one of them, which sometimes requires to go through each row three times. The winemakers are Helene Ponty’s father Michel and his friend Daniel, formerly of famous winery Château d’Yquem. The perfect match for your Christmas foie gras!


Ponty has a truly unique model in China: They operate their own WeChat store, where you can browse and purchase Ponty's other fine offerings directly from them, directly from the winery! So don’t wait, scan the special QR code below to automatically become a member, giving you 50 percent off retail price on all orders as well as free delivery!

 

Ponty is also available in all Cheers wine stores.

Ponty is the product of one family’s attachment to their village in Bordeaux and passion for sharing wines with their friends. Helene Ponty, fifth-generation owner, grew up among the vineyards of her family's wine estate. Today she is not only giving away some of her wines, but also sharing with you her perfect Christmas wines and foods.

 
Pre-dinner drink and canapés:

At Christmas, my family really enjoys an extended "apéritif"(i.e. the pre-dinner drinks and snacks)

Food: An assortment of canapés: toasts with "creme fraiche" and smoked salmon, little sea shrimps, gougères (cheesy puffs), toasts with fish roe

Wine: Christmas always calls for Champagne. It is a tradition, Champagne feels festive, and it is perfect to open your appetite.

Appetizer: 

 
Food: Foie gras mi-cuit with country bread. My mom cooks her own foie gras very well, so I will give her that task, and I'll get the country bread from my favorite bread maker in Libourne.

Wine: Vent des Cimes 2016, Vignobles Ponty. Just like very few Champagne meet my criteria, very few sweet white wines can grace my table. I often said that the reason we started producing Vent des Cimes is because I could not find a sweet noble rot wine I consistently liked. They were always too sweet or sirupy, but Vent des Cimes hits the perfect balance of sweetness and freshness, and is a match made in heaven with foie gras.

Main course:


 
Food: Scallops pan-fried in butter. 

Wine: I am a fan of seafood with Chardonnay, it is a pairing that always works for me, so for this dish, I will happily go with Lot 462 Barossa Bianco Chardonnay. The richness of the Chardonnay will match perfectly the butter sauce of the scallops, but the freshness of the wine will make you keep salivating for more.

Cheese:


Food: All my friends know I am a cheese addict, so my Christmas cheese platter will feature my current three favorite cheeses: 1. Brie de Melun (a brie with stronger flavor), 2. Saint Denis (similar to a Saint Nectaire but creamier), 3. Gorgonzola (yes, an italian cheese, but oh so delicious).

Wine: Parisian sommeliers love to say that cheese should be paired with white wine. Even if there is some truth to it, I find cheese and red wine not only pair very well, it is a very "comforting" pairing. Here I will choose a wine of ours that has consistentlmy wowed me all year: Château du Pavillon 2012. It has just enough age that you start to find forest, mushroom or leather aromas that go perfecty with the cheese, but is also vibrant and fruity enough to keep you going for a long dinner.

Dessert: 


 
Food: The traditional Christmas dinner is Buche de Noel, a cake shaped like a wood log. 

Wine: In my opinion, the ideal ending to a family dinner is an old vintage wine. For Christmas this year, I'll open a bottle of our Château Grand Renouil 1990. Thirty years old, an extraordinary vintage (close in quality to the 2015 we are currently selling), it will be the perfect opportunity for us to reminisce family stories and family members we are thinking of in this holiday time.

I wish you all a Christmas filled with love, friends and family.

 


 

Happy holidays,

Helene
 

So, what are you waiting for? Get your hands on a pair of these rare bottles just in time for the holidays.

To win, all you need do is go into the Beijinger's WeChat account (ID: thebeijinger), find this post and respond to this question in the comments: If you could share a fine bottle of wine with Santa Claus, what dish would you cook for him to pair?

 

Images courtesy of Ponty Winery, the Beijinger