Food News – December 2012

As the rest of this magazine has no doubt made abundantly clear, December means Christmas. Here in Food News-land, that means its time for ostentatious events vaguely related to the sort of food and drink you would normally ignore.

Events like Champagne tastings, which probably wouldn’t warrant a mention if we weren’t all feeling so festive. As it is, we are firmly in the season to be jolly, and someone needs to undergo meticulous research to find out which sparkling wine to dish out to their friends and family in the face of mince pie-fuelled indifference. The French Institute plays host, with the full gamut of champagnes from millesimés to blancs de noirs to try and attempt to distinguish from each other. Institut Français d'Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent Edinburgh, Fri 14 Dec 6pm, £20.

If champagne isn’t Christmassy enough for you, what about a Whisky tasting-cum-afternoon tea? Forget that you have shopping to do, and that December is essentially a week-and-a-half shorter than every other month because you’ll be spending time locked in endless games of Monopoly or cleaning out a parent’s attic because “you’ve always been the tall one”, and indulge yourself with tiny little sandwiches and loads of whisky in a distillery on a Saturday afternoon. Auchentoshan Distillery, Dalmuir near Clydebank, Sat 8 Dec 2pm, £20.

Good as those two sound, neither can match the archetypal Christmas-themed Scottish food event that is the German Christmas market on Princes Street. There’s mulled wine, and enormous bratwurst, and about five different sweet shops. It’s not without its flaws: it’s ludicrously expensive, and always claustrophobically busy, and the ‘festive’ ‘cheer’ can be a bit much after a while. But then you’ll be saying that about your house in a few weeks’ time, and that place probably doesn’t have mulled wine on tap and a ferris wheel in the back garden. Princes St Gardens Edinburgh, til Mon 24 Dec.

And if you’re in need of a post-Christmas walkabout with a food twist, Blair Castle are putting on a Whisky trail in the castle grounds. Basically, they’re hiding bottles of Bruadar around the castle and it’s your job to track them down. It’ll be good scavenging practice for next month, when you realise you’ve spent all your cash on presents and oversized German sausages. Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, 28 - 31 Dec.