docsconz

Thanks, Dean. Although I like them, I have pretty much given up soft drinks as a concession to health concerns.

OK, I'll bite. What is "Cheerwine"?

Venado, Welcome to eGullet!

Sam, Coturri is indeed a very interesting winery. I visited them in the back hills of Sonoma back in 1997. It is or at least was truly a garage operation. When their wines are on, they are fabulous. Unfortunately, they have developed a reputation for inconsistency. I'm glad you reminded me of them. I haven't had a Coturri zin, albarello or otherwise in a while. I'll have to revisit them.

Interesting selection of wines, Craig. What were the Pinot Nero's like? Will we be reading about them in future wines of the week? I'm especially curious about the Poderi Colla given your discussion of the 1999 Barolo.

This topic asked about what wines you would serve with T-day turkey. Now I ask, what did you serve or drink on Thanksgiving? We had pre-dinner cheese and crackers (a delightful fresh french chevres, a soft goat/sheep mixture from France, a brebis and a tomme) served with 1.5L bottle of Pahlmeyer 2000 chardonnay. This was Kistler-like burgundian style big chardonnay with a lot of vanilla. The oak itself was subtle. While the wine would not go particularly well with too many dishes, it was a great match for the cheeses, especially the chevres. Another wine served with this was a 1998 McKinley Pinot Noir from Oregon. I had never tasted this wine before. If I were tasting it blind I would have guessed that it was cabernet franc. The predominant character was grapefruit to me and "celery" to someone else. It was much more grassy and vegetal than I would have expected from a pinot noir, especially one from Oregon. It wasn't unpleasant - in fact I liked it, although it deviated from my expectations. I described most of the dinner here but not the wines we had. As with so many others who posted on the turkey wine thread, we were two-fisted drinkers with a couple of different young 2001 German Riesling kabinetts in the one glass and 1997 Ravenswood Dickerson zinfandel in the other. I thought the rieslings were actually the better match with the meal as a whole even though they were not particularly noteworthy growers. The Ravenswood sort of got swallowed up by the fat and sugars on the table. Perhaps it was too old for the pairing. The rieslings had a pleasant light fizz to them. The term for this escapes me at the moment, but the wines did stand up well and complement all the dishes on the table. With desserts we had a Quebec ice cider from Pinnacle that was quite tasty and redolent of caramelized and honeyed apples. It could have used a little more acidity to brace it, however. We also had 1996 Raymon-Lafon sauternes. This seemed to be infused with saffron, as that was the overwhelmingly dominant flavor component. These were drunk pre-dessert.

I ate a great Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's house. Although I didn't cook a thing (my wife did a few dishes) I did supply some of the wine. There were a number of outstanding dishes. I have never had a better turkey or stuffing. The corn pudding was outstanding and the cranberry relish and chutneys were superb. To me, however, the most outstanding dish was roasted parsnip "sticks" with orange zest. These were simply marvellous. Desserts were pretty decent too. My wife made superb pumpkin cheesecake and cranberry orange pie and there was a great apple pie as well. I'm happy to say there were no disasters.

Commander's was my most disappointing meal in NO the last time we were there, but that was almost 10 years ago. The restaurants that stood out then were Emeril's (prior to FN), Upperline with an all-garlic meal including dessert and Bayona.

If this happens I will personally boycott Sonoma products including wine. It is a small statement, but if others do the same... A lot of people who drink Sonoma wines or eat their other products are also people who eat foie gras.

I heard it was created by a guy named "Kokopelli"

John, As noted in my post above, this wine can be controversial. Although I have no doubt that the wine described in John's original tasting note was lovely, many of the older vintages have tasters saying very diverse things. Even I have a large range of descriptors for different bottles tasted. You might want to try a bottle before going long. Best, Jim Sounds like good advice, although the wine as described sounds intriguing and different from most of what I am used to. For the right price I am willing to indulge a little. $143/botle is not he right price. $80/bottle for the 1990 might be worth trying, but you are right, I wouldn't "go long" at that price without at least trying it.

The Rare Wine Co.has the 1990 for $80. My knowledge of 1990 is that it was a generally exceptional vintage. Anyone try this?

FinestWine.com is offering it for $143/bottle. This may be a different story as far as value. I don't know anything about this seller other than they obviously aren't cheap. John W. If you can get it at $40/bottle, I suggest loading up. I would be happy to purchase some with you if we could figure out logistics. PM me if you are interested. In the meantime I'll keep looking. It's not a good day to check with my usual sources.

If it is as good as described, it sounds like an excellent value. I may have to try to find some.

If that is the case, I'm glad I don't live too far from Montreal!

How expensive is it?

Oddly enough, large format bottles from California producers usually cost more than the equal number of 750 ml. bottles. They charge you for the glass. Larger format bottles are also generally more expensive because of their relative rarity and perceived value to collectors. The larger the bottle the more true this is for both your reasons and mine.

Scully practically destroyed Apple Computer to the best of my recollection. I'm not sure his judgement is the greatest. This reinforces that opinion.

Yet another outstanding article! How do you do it, Craig? 1999 is the birth year of my youngest son. I'm always on the lookout for good wines with strong aging potential to put away for him. The more familiar I am with WS, the more I run the other way. My experience is that their ratings are inconsistent, unreliable and appear to be based on non-quality factors. The sad thing is that because of their inconsistency sometimes they are right.

My understanding is the bottle size affects the maturation of the wine, i.e. the larger the bottle the slower the maturation. 375ml bottles therefore should mature a little faster and not have as great an aging potential. Larger format bottles, therefore have a theoreticallyn greater aging potential. On the other hand it is more expensive to bottle and package smaller bottles. My purchasing experience has generally been that 375ml bottles are usually slightly more than half the price of the 750's.

Petrini is very charming in person. I got to meet him and chat with him a little bit at the recent Slow Food Congress in Naples. I also met Alice Waters there, although I didn't get to talk with her at any length. I recommend that event to anyone interested in Slow Food.

Try this: http://www.thistledownes.com/index.html Sorry about that - the cut and paste didn't work the way I thought it would I believe I have corrected the problem. Thanks for the heads up.

Depends on the bird. If you are talking about thosed insipid all-breast frankenstien supermarket turkeys, I agree. I prefer the juicier and more flavorful farm raised turkeys like the ones that used to be commonplace. I am happily anticipating cutting into a nice red bourbon (turkey ).

I'm not familiar with that particular restaurant, but it sounds as if it is or at least was special. Welcome to eGullet!

This topic is too late for this Thanksgiving, but since I am thinking about it now, maybe useful for the future. I get my birds from Thistle Downs, an excellent environmentally friendly producer of quality poultry located in Schuylerville, N.Y.. I will be picking up two Red Bourbon turkeys from them tomorrow. They also raise Cornish and Corndel Cross chickens, Rouen and Pekin ducks, Geese and Broad breasted white turkeys. Anyone else have any favorite sources?