Picked up a Nemiroff Ukrainian Vodka - seems very nice!
A sample recipe but I haven’t looked in Difford, de Groff et al yet:
1½ oz (45 ml) Cognac (or gin for a different twist)
½ oz (15 ml) Amaretto (almond liqueur)
½ oz (15 ml) Cherry Liqueur (e.g., Cherry Heering or Luxardo Sangue Morlacco)
½ oz (15 ml) Fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Simple syrup (optional, to taste)
Garnish: Luxardo or maraschino cherry
Oh I do like a Pecharment. Hard to find in the uk.
I have already shared a couple of Sherries: TWS sourced palo cortado and amontillado, both en Rama. I hope that they last the season.
off to my brother’s for the day; I’ll take a Barsac (2017) and a Fronsac (2016). The former is perhaps a tad young. My brother has raided the supermarket shelves, and he keeps the port for Boxing Day. Once home I have my eyes on a barollo - if I can find it, if not a Rioja to go with the duck.
For the snowball, may i suggest ‘Black Cow’.. it’s made from whey so is nice and creamy.. Their seasonal spirit is rather nice with some fizz to start the day as well.
That, like Pécharmant, I hadn’t heard of before touring sone of France’s wine regions. Ob the delights of cycling around and discovering vineyards and new great wines! I hope and about with my wife,I hope and about with my wife, panniers on both bikes: I have managed to carry a dozen bottles on mine! However, pesky B consequences mean I am limited as to how much I can bring home each trip.
I’m in the four-ticket bracket …
And when in the shop, I can have tasters of almost anything! Do you get that too?
Have a bottle of Kit’s Coty Coeur de Cuvée 2016 lined up for Christmas day
That should be fabulous!
Xmas booze is very much embedded in the psyche of childhood memories. At least for those of us who grew up in the UK where a Xmas tipple for the kids in double digits was fairly normal in decades past.
When the sun was up, Xmas morning saw everyone around the tree with Buck’s Fizz
And Xmas Eve and Xmas day late at night with nothing but the glow of the Xmas tree lights and a fire in the fireplace, I could count on everyone to have a brandy glass with Bailey’s Irish Cream on the rocks.
If there were guest over, we waited for them to bugger off before opening the Bailey’s. A family only treat. No one had enough of anything to get sloshed but just the right amount of booze to keep a room of family docile and calm.
I can’t really drink anymore with my knackered liver but I might sneak a Bailey’s on Xmas Eve after the kids are asleep. It’s a requirement for getting in the festive spirit.
Followed by a Brown Derby - 60ml Woodford Reserve, 30ml freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice and 10ml maple syrup. Much more than the sum of its parts and delicious. Laughingly described as a ‘brunch cocktail’ 
Out selection for the day, with two vintages of Flaccianello, 1999 and 2006. The Quady may be missed if we are too full for dessert, and jump to the port later.
Alcohol has no impact on immortals. But, of preference for taste, a 10 year old claret (senejac), 15 year old Sauternes, and 20year old Armagnac.
The first Vodka Snowball awhile ago - about the nearest we get to a church!
Second en route, with a Luxardo Sangue Morlacco liqueur involved then a white Rioja for dinner (we’ll save the Champagne for later…after or before the Cherry Bakewell cocktails…)
My wife gave me something very special this Christmas, a Whisky from an award winning Canadian farm no less that has been making Whisky… claim to fame the barrels are stored outside an exposed to the elements.
First sip of a 2015 St Emillion Grand Cru.
I really wish I had bought more back then. 
Ah, there goes the scotch. There’s still a bit of port left, but that’s OK. The silly thing is almost over for another year.
Bottoms up.
Home made liquorice liqueur. A bottle of rum (not too expensive) whisky, brandy or vodka at a pinch, with a couple of sticks of hard, brittle, sugar-free liquorice extract. Maybe add a spoonful or two of sugar to taste. Leave for 6 months or so and drink. Superb! Cures most things.
Whisky takes me back to (late) childhood. Whisky flowed at family get togethers but only up to the flowers. A measure dictated by the pattern on the glasses used.
Tried my hand at a simple Cherry Bakewell martini last night based on your recipe and scouring the internet. In a shaker full of ice, 2 measures of gin, 1 measure of amaretto, 1 measure of grenadine (no cherry liquor available.) Squirt of lemon juice, shake vigorously, garnish with a cherry.
Not bad, but I would reduce the grenadine by half - a bit too sweet. May give it a go with vodka next time to see if it’s much different.
I always like a wee brandy in one of my dear late mums crystal brandy glasses. Sadly she passed away on Christmas Day 2020.
The recipe I posted was just one I pulled off the web - on the day I followed Difford (more or less, I tend to prefer slightly larger measures than he does, and added just a little lemon juice as he didn’t list it). But I’ll try vodka, just to see!
My wife preferred more Amaretto, btw. I’ll mix up another round once my liver recovers (two days’ all-day drinking + one evening’s Tequilas, G&Ts and ale means a rest today for me! My wife is more hardcore - she’s on the NZ Sauv tonight).
I looked at Difford as well - just for the ingredients and the proportions. Interesting that he’s got dry vermouth in as well. I could try that one w gin and see how it goes. As for the ratio, it seem like 2-1 for base spirit to amaretto/cherry whatever does the trick. And the splash of lemon juice definitely gives it balance.
I’m like you - a 10-day runup to Christmas has me drinking water all day today. Am going to try and do as many off-on days in 26 as I can. But that’s after we get this cherry bakewell martini thing sorted. Was a hit with the wives and some of the younger drinkers/sippers 
