Four members of the MR PORTER team choose their favourite winter warmers.

Usually, when we ask the MR PORTER staff for an opinion for the sake of a feature, it is on the matter of clothing. Despite what you might think, however, we do have other interests. Interests such as drinking. And there is no better time of year to drink than Christmastime. So, without further ado, we present to you our favourite, er, drinks. These are not just any old drinks. These are not the drinks you quaff hurriedly at office parties. These are our favourite bottles of booze that we take home to savour with our families at this special (and alcohol-sodden) time of year. Read on. It’ll warm your cockles.

Kingston Black Apple Aperitif

This, from Mr Julian Temperley (father of Alice, the British fashion designer), is like Christmas in a bottle. It’s a mix of cider brandy with Kingston black apple juice and can be enjoyed, as it says on the bottle, as an aperitif, but it goes equally well with a spiced fruit dessert. Get two bottles – it’s so palatable, and deceptively alcoholic, that one is never enough once the old folks get going – and drink if from crystal brandy glasses from Soho Home or, if you’re being careful, Tom Dixon’s platinum-striped Tank shot glasses.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost And Rare: Port Ellen

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the annual Boxing Day jaunt to Kent to visit my great uncle and his side of the family. Dear old Uncle Clive’s a brandy man, but we’ve plied him with so much cognac over the years that he’s set for life, so this year we’ll be shoring up his Scotch supplies instead. And what better way to do it than with the latest release from Johnnie Walker’s Blue Label Ghost And Rare collection? This super-exclusive blend from master blender Mr Jim Beveridge – how’s that for a case of nominative determinism? – features some of the last remaining drops of whisky produced by the legendary Port Ellen distillery, which closed its doors in 1983, hence the “ghost distillery” denomination. A noble dram, then, and deserving of a suitably classy vessel. A couple of Linley’s Trafalgar whisky glasses should do the trick.

Mocavero Primitivo Salento 2017

Messrs Francesco and Marco Mocavero create some of the tastiest wine in Puglia. I’ve been a fan of the wines from their Mocavero Winery since I first tasted them, each an individual expression of the grapes and production techniques they use. The Primitivo Salento is everything I look for in a winter wine: dark chocolate, lots of ripe fruit, with layers of cinnamon, spice and cloves. Pour into crystal wine glasses from The Wolseley Collection and enjoy with your roast turkey on Christmas Day, or with those special cheeses you’ve put aside to finish the meal.

Available at Bedales Of Borough

Rémy Martin XO cognac

I live in south London, where you can barely move for breweries churning out small batches of craft beer, and the air hangs thick with the funk of roasted hops. It’s all very Dickensian, but come yuletide, I drag my partner from the paving stones of Gin Lane, where she often resides from the later morn, break my three-year-old son (for the purposes of this piece, let’s call him Tiny Jim) out of the workhouse and fetch my daughter (six months) from pick-pocketing school and head down to see their grandparents, taking a few of the local wares with us (paid for; my daughter still has much to learn). Of particular note is Canopy’s Brockwell IPA and the Gipsy Hill Brewery’s seasonal beers never disappoint. To keep the old man sweet, I pack a bottle of Rémy Martin XO cognac for him to swirl around a bulbous glass, so he can imagine he’s Emperor Napoleon while plotting his ultimately futile incursion into the Eurasian landmass in an epic bout of Risk.

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