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The 12 bottles you need for your drinks trolley this Christmas
These GHI winners will make your celebration a success
Tested by Callum BlackFood and Drink Testing Manager
Shopping for your festive feast, or ready to stock up for your New Year's Eve party? You've come to the right place!
The Good Housekeeping Institute's expert panel have sampled more than 476 wines, spirits and non-alcoholic alternatives at our state-of-the-art testing facility in west London, to ensure this year’s celebrations are ones to remember.
From supermarket fizz, to decadent dessert wine, we've rounded up our top-scoring products in each Christmas drinks category, so you can buy in confidence, with bottles starting from £8.
They're all you need to stock your festive drinks trolley and should please every guest, from those who like to toast with a buck's fizz as they open their stocking, to the after-dinner sherry drinker.
Best Christmas drinks 2024
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How we test
Our expert panel — made up of WSET-trained wine and spirits experts and consumers — sampled 476 products across the following categories; red wine, white wine, dessert wine, champagne, cava, English sparkling wine, prosecco, non-alcoholic sparkling wine, port, sherry, brandy and non-alcoholic spirits. These
They were looking for well-balanced examples, awarding top marks to those best representing the category. Read on for the best buys in every category – and for every occasion.
Score: 95/100
Our winning white is a truly unique wine. For starters, it’s made using the “appassimento” method, where some of the grapes are dried, resulting in a more concentrated flavour.
Normally reserved for rich reds such as amarone, here it results in an intense, bold tropical wine, with fresh citrus and a touch of creamy oak that would be a treat with roast turkey.
Score: 90/100
Bold and fruity with distinctive aromas of black cherry, blackcurrant and plum, testers felt this French red wine had an impressive depth of flavour. And with rich notes of black olive and tobacco on the finish, it would make a great accompaniment to roast beef.
Score: 93/100
Organic, Fairtrade and utterly delicious, our winning dessert wine comes from South Africa and is made with naturally sweet muscat grapes. The indulgent sweetness of ripe apricot and luscious honey is perfectly balanced with refreshing acidity, making this a truly memorable wine worthy of big feasts.
Score: 85/100
Aldi consistently delivers excellent wine at frankly incredible prices. This bottle was a clear favourite with our panel, and displays notes of refreshing lemon, decadent brioche and a touch of minerality. You may want to stock up, as we can see this disappearing all too quickly...
Score: 89/100
Our winning cava is as close as you’ll come to that just-landed-on-Spanish-soil feeling (minus the air miles). It’s incredibly aromatic, with tart gooseberries, lemon peel, and a hint of honeydew melon at the fore.
Lingering acidity makes it perfect for pairing with buttery manchego and manzanilla olives for your next picky tea.
Score: 90/100
There’s plenty of minerality from this Kentish sparkling rosé, making it a great match for seafood. On top of that, a touch of farmyard funk, biscuit and a refreshingly tart rhubarb and custard note add a stylish layer of complexity.
Score: 82/100
The prosecco DOC consortium has only allowed the production of rosé fizz as recently as 2020, and Tesco’s winning bottle is everything you’d want a blush to be. It opens with ripe summer fruits, a touch of peach and melon, and a hint of raspberry ripple ice cream.
A fantastic full-flavoured introduction to the rosy world of pink prosecco — we’ll be serving ours with strawberry trifle. Cheers!
Score: 80/100
Noughty but oh-so-nice, we can certainly see why this stunning sparkler took the top spot in our alcohol-free taste test. Bursting with long-lasting bubbles, this dry, savoury style is well-balanced, with citrus, apple and thirst-quenching acidity.
Score: 89/100
Whether you’re already familiar with ruby port, or a complete newbie, this approachable spirit should appeal, with its fresh, juicy red fruit and bracing acidity.
It would make an excellent aperitif – the brand suggests creating a spritz with sparkling wine, ice, a strawberry and a slice of orange – or team with a fruity dessert.
Score: 85/100
Our panel likened our winning cream sherry to a quality dark caramel. It has a smooth, rounded sweetness, complemented by spicy cinnamon and ginger. Pair with sticky toffee pudding or stilton.
Score: 86/100
This premium brandy is a rich and warming certified-organic cognac, bursting with vanilla, cinnamon, dried figs and uplifting orange zest.
On the palate, caramelised apple is complemented by dark chocolate and a little oak on the finish. Our panel couldn't get enough.
Score: 85/100
This alcohol-free dark spirit is made in Scotland and is a great Scotch alternative. Expect bags of root ginger and cinnamon, along with malty, earthy notes from Assam tea.
Delicious paired with tonic or splashed into a non-alcoholic ginger mojito, our testers were big fans of this sweet and spicy drink.
Stacey looks after all food and drink reviews — from coffee pods and veg boxes, to natural wine and tequila. Stacey is also founder of Crummbs, where she’s written nearly 2,000 restaurant and hotel reviews since 2013. Prior to this, Stacey wrote hundreds of in-depth buying guides for the Independent, i newspaper and BBC Good Food, as well as reviewing restaurants and interviewing celebrities in her column at Balance Magazine. Stacey has also appeared in BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary Blood, Sweat & Takeaways, where she investigated South East Asia's food production industry, appearing on both Newsnight and BBC World Service to share her findings. Regularly checking out the latest restaurants, bars and product launches, Stacey also loves experimenting with recipes at home, and is a WSET-certified wine and spirits expert, with over 10 years of experience in the business. You can follow Stacey on Instagram @crummbs_uk
Callum is our Food and Drink Testing Manager and has been part of the world of professional catering for 10 years, from cheffing to food manufacturing. While working in manufacturing he specialised in bespoke product and menu development for several start-ups and well-known brands such as Wrap It Up! and HOP Vietnamese. He holds the WSET Level 2 in wine, a Level 3 in spirits and has a particular interest in agave spirits.
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