Ah, the 2005 holiday season is here. Easily enraged Newport Group intern Ryan Atwood has finally become a man. A lovelorn giant ape – who apparently didn’t get the memo back on Skull Island that September 11 freaked out some New Yorkers – has destroyed Manhattan for our viewing pleasure. And the federal government has begun spying on its most suspicious citizens’ overseas communications. All good reasons for DCist to have a glass of wine.

But we don’t want to drink just anything for the holidays. We want to drink wines that will match as well with our blowout meals as they will with some tasty cheese and chocolate by the fireplace – or wines that we might swig solo while we wait with eyes closed and forehead crumpled for our newborn cousin Houstonist to stop his incessant crying. And that’s precisely why DCist’s intrepid Food and Drink squad visited Shirlington’s The Curious Grape to taste six versatile wines to carry you through until 2006. Let our guide be your guide.