Stop stressing about 31 December, keep things simple and go with a flow of prosecco, lambrusco or maybe even a Korean soju …
O
h, you thought it was all over? After all the carolling, gifting and tree-ing (not to mention the eating and drinking) of the actual Christmassy bit, it feels almost cruel to have to do it all again, and on – in my opinion – one of the most stressful nights of the year: New Year’s Eve.
If you’re not paying over the odds and going out, with long queues and stressed-out staff, you’re the stressed-out one yourself. “Is everyone good for drinks?” “When was the last time anyone saw [insert child’s name here]?” And then there’s the clean glass matrix, where no one can remember whose is whose and you’re caught in an endless cycle of washing-up. The antidote to all of the above is, for me, just to stay in with your immediates and a bottle of something nice. Five guests maximum. I don’t like going into the New Year already tense – what hope will I have for 2026 if I’m going into it with high blood pressure and flat wine in a warm glass?
Obviously, the done thing here is sparkling wine, and there are a few options out there. Champagne is the most obvious one. The sort you’ll find in the supermarket will have “NV” on the label, meaning it’s a blend of vintages, so the wine is classified “non-vintage”. Unless you’ve had a particularly liquid 2025, this is the sort of thing you’ll want if you’re planning on watering more than three people. If the champagne has a year on the label, meanwhile, it’s “vintage”: more expensive, yes, but also more expressive of a time and place for the producer.
