COLD COMFORT

A DELICIOUS, BOLD, FULL-BODIED RED WINE IS A GREAT ANTIDOTE TO THE MIDWINTER CHILL, SAYS COUNTRY STYLE WINE WRITER NICK RYAN.

IT’S HUMAN NATURE TO try and pin responsibility for our miseries just about anywhere other than our own chests.

Neglectful parents. Fluoridated water.

The positioning of the stars at the moment we were born. Gluten.

Even the way our planet spins in outer space.

Then there are the genuine, uncontrollable circumstances that can affect us, such as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Otherwise known by the entirely appropriate acronym SAD, it’s a kind of depression that takes hold at the change of seasons – most commonly at the onset of winter.

The connection between darker days and darker moods is deeply ingrained in popular culture. When you see a character in a movie staring pensively out a window streaked with rain, you’re reasonably confident they are not about to break into a song about being awash with the pure joy and happiness of existence.

SAD sounds downright miserable, and fortunately I’ve never suffered it. I genuinely love the fallow months – the rugging up and bunkering down part of the year.

I love being able to layer my clothing to cover the layering I have applied to myself.

I love the way the fortunes of 22 blokes wearing Port Adelaide jumpers can make or break my weekends.

I love it when dinner is a meal you start preparing at breakfast.

And I love the way winter shapes my drinking.

While my red wine consumption is a beast that needs feeding all year round, through winter it becomes ravenous. There’s something about the physicality of great red wines that just works when the weather takes a chill. The sensual suppleness of pinot noir and grenache, the velvet-draped plushness of shiraz and nero d’avola, the firm tannin grip of finely chiselled cabernet sauvignon and nebbiolo.

These are wines that invite you to slow down and cuddle with them. They shine in the soft light of an open fire and have you wishing for wet weekends.

They are wines perfectly capable of meeting and matching the depth and complexity that comes from the slow cooking we all love to do during this part of the year.

They have the brawn for your braises; the robustness for your slow roasts.

And they lead you right to the point where they can do no more by preparing you for winter’s other great vinous treat.

The best follow-up to a great red on a cold night is a great fortified, and this country makes some of the world’s best. But that’s another column entirely.

Here are a few suggestions to keep the SAD at bay…