Drinks to take the strain out of entertaining
How do you feel about entertaining? I have a few friends who love it. For them, it’s an opportunity to tidy the house, light kitsch candles and remember to bleach their upper lip. Welcoming other people into their home gives them the warm fuzzies.
It gives me the white-hot fear, though. Entertaining often feels like an elaborate performance that I’m either too skint or tired to execute, especially at this time of year. I now understand why so many fall short in that segment on Come Dine With Me when they have to provide “entertainment”. Here, the word is used to denote a specific brand of forced fun that’s always one false move away from a potential hostage situation.
Bag-in-box wine is a particularly cost-effective cheat code for lazy hosting
There is no belly-dancing, magicians or fire-blowing to be had in my flat, not least because my idea of fun is simply to give my guests something delicious to drink. I focus on what I can stock in my fridge that pretty much everyone will like, often using a couple of favoured large formats that take all the fuss and stress out of entertaining.
Bag-in-box wine, for example, is a particularly cost-effective cheat code for lazy hosting, and is finally beginning to shrug off its associations with crap, acerbic wine and Aussie outdoor drinking games. Nowadays, there’s a fair bit of stuff of good quality that works out exceedingly well per equivalent bottle cost. They work best for simple, bistro styles of wine that taste good when served chilled from the fridge. Once the seal is broken, they can last for up to six weeks, meaning it’ll still be fresh when Jools Holland does his first glissando on New Year’s Eve. Whether it lasts that long is entirely up to you.
Another thing I can be absolutely sure of is the low-effort deliciousness of pre-batched cocktails. You know – the big bottles that take all the guesswork and effort out of preparing your guests something fabulous. My particular favourites are made by Black Lines, World of Zing and Lockdown Liquor & Co. Chuck your preferred concoction in the freezer half an hour before your guests arrive, then all you need is ice, a garnish (if you can be bothered) and a glass. If you have the time and energy to do any more, you’ve come out of the other end of 2024 a far more well-adjusted human than I have.
Four bottles to open for a crowd
Morrisons The Best Barbera d’Asti £8.75 14.5%. A clever buy from a family-run cooperative with a particular affection for barbera. And it shows. Aged in Slovenian and French oak for 12 months.
Clay Creek Vineyards California Pinot Noir 2022 £25 (two-litre bag-in-box) The Wine Society, 13.5%. The equivalent of three £8 bottles of American pinot. Serve chilled from the fridge.
Black Lines Espresso Martini £22 (500ml) Black Lines, 13%. Five servings means it’s (opens calculator app) £4.40 a pop. One for morning visits, before it’s acceptable to crack open a bottle.
London Black Porter £3.45 (470ml) Anspach & Hobday, 4.4%. Or what about a beer? A truly sessionable version of A&H’s flagship beer: roasted notes of dark chocolate and coffee.
