Drinks to take the strain out of entertaining
Share:
No need for festive stress: just stock up the fridge and cupboard with stuff you know people will like. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. 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.
![[Hannah Crosbie]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2024/12/18/Hannah_Crosbie.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
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.
Share:
More for You
Top Followed
Trending
You Might Also Like
