wine for the bird

[jbonne]

having addressed this topic in (sort-of) print today ("The bottle and the bird") i'm curious how fellow eG'ers are planning their Thanksgiving wine buys.

honestly, i haven't started my own planning yet, though a blend of under-$20 OR pinot noirs, legacy pinots and some pinot gris i have lying around are the likely combo. a domestic sparkler to start, though i might rely on some French stuff to help with research for an upcoming column.

what're your strategies for Turkey Day? what's the most important factor -- food pairing, flavor, not blowing your wine dollars on extended family?

[KatieLoeb]

having addressed this topic in (sort-of) print today  ("The bottle and the bird") i'm curious how fellow eG'ers are planning their Thanksgiving wine buys.

honestly, i haven't started my own planning yet, though a blend of under-$20 OR pinot noirs, legacy pinots and some pinot gris i have lying around are the likely combo. a domestic sparkler to start, though i might rely on some French stuff to help with research for an upcoming column.

what're your strategies for Turkey Day?  what's the most important factor -- food pairing, flavor, not blowing your wine dollars on extended family?

←

Hi Jon:

I like many of the suggestions in your article and have a few more of my own.

To go with an off-dry white (BTW the recommended Lazy Creek Gewurztraminer is one of my favorite wines in the whole world!) I'd also suggest trying to locate a Scheurebe (Riesling/Sylvaner hybrid) from Germany or Austria. Great acidity like riesling but with a softer side that really compliments roast turkey and cranberry sauce. A nice Alsace Edelswicker could also fit this category and be well suited to pair with the usual Thanksgiving fixins. For a drier white I also like Soave with roast turkey.

The red suggestions in your article are also excellent. Beujolais is the perfect match for turkey, particularly a nice Cru Beajolais served very slightly chilled. The Zinfandel with turkey thing has been done to death, and I think it works only when the turkey is in a more peppery preparation. And even then the high alcohol content of many California zins runs the risk of setting your palate aflame if there's any hint of spiciness in any of the dishes. Pinot Noir usually has the elements like earthiness and a slight herbal undertone that compliment both the roast bird and many of the usual side dishes (stuffing with mushrooms or even Green Bean Casserole has Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup in it! ) that grace most tables. Grenache can be very tasty with turkey or a Dolcetto that's low tannin and medium bodied also goes very well with those sorts of dishes.

[derricks]

Hmm. I like the Beaujolais idea. I used to drink a lot more Beaujolais but over time I've moved away from it, and occasionally I get a reminder that I've dallied with other wines for too long.

But I've made a tradition the last three years (well, this plus two) of getting some bottles of estate-bottled rose champagne. I know I'm getting a Geoffroy this year, but I haven't figured out the other one. (we have a relatively small Thanksgiving)

[uncledavey]

Here's a total cop-out article I wrote for our company newsletter, but, since its on topic, here goes. Warning, it does contain a shameless plug, and, for the record, I enjoy German and Alsatian Rieslings, Central Coast California Pinots and Syrahs, and quality sparkling wines from almost anywhere for the holiday meals.

Let Choosing Holiday Wines Worry You Not

By David Ginochio

Russian River Wine Company, Healdsburg CA

The Winter Holidays are a time of joy, sharing good tidings and way too much food with loved ones. The task of choosing wines to accompany our celebratory feasts can be a daunting one for some, with the myriad of tastes and textures that often grace the table.

It doesn’t have to be a stressful situation. This is a time to rejoice with your favorite people, why not just open one of your favorite wines, or several? You can place them at the dinner table, and let guests decide which they prefer.

This has the potential for opening up brave new worlds of fantastic wine combinations, and, at the very least, it’ll be a heck of a lot of fun.

Call your friends in the wine business here at RRWC for more holiday suggestions, and to take advantage of our 10% case discount.

[mike volker]

I think that a dry side viognier and a valdiguie will complement the standard turkey dinner as well as anything, with some bubbles to start.

Best,

Mike

[wkl]

After reading the thread on Dinning with Sherrie, I'm wondering how Amontillado or Manzanilla would work with turkey.

My turkey wines generally are reisling, gewurz, vouvray, red burgunday.However, my local wine shop has a bordeaux that is somewhere between a rose and claret.It's called "clairette", not a "wow" wine but I think it will be wonderful with turkey.

[RobInAustin]

My personal favorite is Alsatian Riesling with Turkey, especially the Trimbach Cuvee Frederick Emile.

I personally find most Beaujolais too light, unless is a good Cru from a small producer with some body.

A GOOD domestic viognier (and trust me, there are not many) works, I highly recommend the Miner or Martine's (same vineyard supplier)

White Rhone blends are also a good match, Marsanne/Rousanne stufff....

Also, any good Rose Champagne...

Cheers,

Rob

[Brad Ballinger]

My fallbacks are riesling and pinot noir. But I have to go with relatively inexpensive stuff because no one else really cares or appreciates wine all that much in my family.

[geo t.]

The question presumes that turkey with all the trimmings will be served. Last year, Kim and I broke from tradition once again and indulged in a grill roasted leg of lamb with duxelle stuffing served on caramelized onions and garlic confit with root vegetable gratin, pan roasted asparagus and wine reduction black truffle sauce with wild Michigan morels.

For wine, we opted for a marvelous 1995 Sean Thackrey Orion Old Vines Rossi Vineyard and an equally delicious 1995 Chateau Pape Clement Pessac - Leognan.

Still don't have a clue what we're going to do this year, but it sure is fun finding alternatives to the same old stuffed bird. Turkey's not the only game in town, but we're not considering castrated Lions...

[bbqer]

My wife, daughter, and I are the only wine drinkers in the family. This year I bought several bottles of Willamette Valley Vineyards 2003 Pinot Gris which I hope will please everyone. My wife seems to prefer drinking very dry wines almost exclusively; I hope this Pinot Gris will convince her that there's good flavor, nice fruit, and complexity in an off-dry selection. I'm hoping it will go well with the traditional foods of a Thanksgiving dinner.

[bilrus]

How about this one to see if anyone can help?

My wife and I enjoy dessert wines and would like one to cap off our dinner. For dessert we are having a Pumpkin ice cream. Anyone have any suggestions of what type of dessert wine would go with those traditional Pumpkin pie spices?

[KatieLoeb]

How about this one to see if anyone can help? 

My wife and I enjoy dessert wines and would like one to cap off our dinner.  For dessert we are having a Pumpkin ice cream.  Anyone have any suggestions of what type of dessert wine would go with those traditional Pumpkin pie spices?

←

Mondavi Moscato d'Oro or Bonny Doon Vin de Glacier are both fairly readily available and would be delicious with pumpkin pie flavors.

A nice Hungarian Tokaji might be nice too.

[Rebel Rose]

Kim and I broke from tradition once again and indulged in a grill roasted leg of lamb with duxelle stuffing served on caramelized onions and garlic confit with root vegetable gratin, pan roasted asparagus and wine reduction black truffle sauce with wild Michigan morels.

Stop, already. I'm sure it states in the User Agreement somewhere that you are not permitted to torture us.

[bilrus]

How about this one to see if anyone can help? 

My wife and I enjoy dessert wines and would like one to cap off our dinner.  For dessert we are having a Pumpkin ice cream.  Anyone have any suggestions of what type of dessert wine would go with those traditional Pumpkin pie spices?

←

Mondavi Moscato d'Oro or Bonny Doon Vin de Glacier are both fairly readily available and would be delicious with pumpkin pie flavors.

A nice Hungarian Tokaji might be nice too.

←

Thanks for this post. I only have two bottles of dessert wines at home right now and the Mondavi happens to be one of them. You've given me the perfect excuse to pull it out of its slot.

[KatieLoeb]

Thanks for this post.  I only have two bottles of dessert wines at home right now and the Mondavi happens to be one of them.  You've given me the perfect excuse to pull it out of its slot.

←

Bill:

Glad I could help and such a happy coincidence that you already have a bottle on hand! It's tough to make recommendations not knowing if certain products are available in another city, so I try to stick to those things which I'm certain have national distribution before sending someone off on a wild goose chase for a product that is unavailable to them where they live.

Cheers and report back with tasting notes!!

[bushey]

We ordered our turkey from Table & Vine, and my husband asked for a list of things I want him to pick up when he goes tomorrow. Actually, he specifically asked for the name of the wine we drank the other night (Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha) and I've decided to add a few to the list for Thanksgiving: Leitz Dragonstone (on sale for $9.98), a Beaujolais (Brun Cuvée à L'Ancienne if they have it, or a Morgon or Brouilly otherwise) and a JM Raffault Chinon.

[bilrus]

Thanks for this post.  I only have two bottles of dessert wines at home right now and the Mondavi happens to be one of them.  You've given me the perfect excuse to pull it out of its slot.

←

Bill:

Glad I could help and such a happy coincidence that you already have a bottle on hand! It's tough to make recommendations not knowing if certain products are available in another city, so I try to stick to those things which I'm certain have national distribution before sending someone off on a wild goose chase for a product that is unavailable to them where they live.

Cheers and report back with tasting notes!!

←

We actually brought that one back with us from the winery tour in Napa. It was one of the samples in their tasting room. I'll be sure to let you know how it worked.

[Carolyn Tillie]

For years I was in the Pinot/Gewrtz category -- setting out both white and red glasses and opening both.

I hadn't given it much thought this year as those joining us are not huge imbibers and will drink whatever we give them. Maybe Shawn and I will open something special for ourselves to drink on the side, when no one is looking!

Aw, heck, the boss just walked in with our 2000 Lone Canyon Cabernet as a Thanksgiving wine gift.... This is a wine I would normally drink with a huge piece of grilled red meat and will probably opt to sit on it for a few years instead of opening now.

[KatieLoeb]

Aw, heck, the boss just walked in with our 2000 Lone Canyon Cabernet as a Thanksgiving wine gift.... This is a wine I would normally drink with a huge piece of grilled red meat and will probably opt to sit on it for a few years instead of opening now.

Now there's something to be thankful for!!

No one's giving me any Thanksgiving wine gifts. Actually since Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days of the year we're closed, the vacation day is an unexpected gift. I'll be thankful for that.

[wnissen]

Aw, heck, the boss just walked in with our 2000 Lone Canyon Cabernet as a Thanksgiving wine gift.... This is a wine I would normally drink with a huge piece of grilled red meat and will probably opt to sit on it for a few years instead of opening now.

←

Hey, something to be thankful for! How nice of him (her?).

I'm a Pinot/Riesling person as well, and I like to open decent stuff, mostly American if I can help it. Even if not everyone appreciates the wine, I'm still thankful to be able to serve it, so I just go ahead and pour with a smile! I also like to serve wines that I have two of, so everyone gets a glass if they want it. This year it's two bottles of 2003 Fleur de Carneros Pinot Noir, which my local shop recommended as a good value, structured Pinot, and two of 2001 Wegeler Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett. Should please loves of red and white, dry and sweet.

Walt

Edit: added variety.

Edited November 24, 2004 by wnissen (log)

[KatieLoeb]

This just in from the "things work in mysterious ways" department:

Just as I was bitching and moaning upthread about no one bringing me any Thanksgiving wine surprises, this evening as I was literally walking out the door of my office, one of my wine purveyors presented me with a 3 Liter bottle of Renwood Old Vines Zinfandel! Apparently it's my "prize" for selling quite a bit of Renwood Pinot Grigio by the glass (we go through 3-4 cases per week). Color me sheepish for having so little faith. Sometimes the karma runs over your dogma.

I'm going to save this for a "Girl's Weekend" I have planned for early January. Several of my very favorite women and dearest friends are all descending on Philadelphia for a weekend. There will be about five or six of us total. We will undoubtedly go out for a BYOB dinner one evening, so we'll just walk in and make a big splash with the double magnum of Zin! We'll be the BYOB table.

[Phil Ward]

Riesling and PN for us.

Since there are only four of us and we are all wine lovers:

Dr. Thanisch Berncasteler Docktor 98 Spatlese and Prieure Roch Nuits-St-Georges Clos de Corvees 1995 ( if that gets hit hard, Byron Nielson PN 1996)

Its great to have access to wonderful wines to share.

Have a good gobble gobble day.

Phil

Edited November 24, 2004 by Phil Ward (log)

[iamthestretch]

In the spirit of post-mortem, here's what we ended up drinking:

Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rose Champagne NV.

Weinbach Tokay-Pinot Gris Cuvee Catherine 2001 with butternut squash soup. Marvellous. I'm a convert to Alsace.

Eric Texier Hermitage 2000 with turkey confit. This was recommended as "about as Burgundian as Syrah can get" and went well with the concentration of flavors produced by the unusual turkey preparation.

Stellenzicht Weisser Riesling Noble Late Harvest 1998 and R.L. Buller Rutherglen Muscat NV with apple pie and bitter orange ice cream. I preferred the South African sticky, a bright gold, tangy, honeyed beauty.

Now if only we had as much wine left over as we do food...

[bouquetduvin]

With appetizers, we had Cave Spring Cellars Riesling Reserve, with the meal we had two wines from Long Island, Castello di Borghese Pinot Blanc (which has a nose of baked bread and works great with the stuffing) and their Pinot Noir. Moving on to desert, we had two desert wines from Canada, Cave Spring Riesling Ice Wine and for pumpkin pie we paired it with Konzelmann Vidal Ice Wine.

No leftovers of wine either, only turkey and sides.

[jbonne]

post-mortem indeed. (despite having launched this thread, eG inexplicably didn't tell me anyone was posting to it.)

our recap ...

For T'giving Day proper, we went to a friends' house and brought a Rulo 2003 Viognier to start with, plus a crappy, very bretty syrah i won't mention further.

we finally did our own take on Thanksgiving last night with a bunch of friends. (two bronze heritage turkeys, sage-apple-sausage stuffing, porcini-sourbread stuffing, roasted root vegetables, butternut squash soup drizzled with pumpkin seed oil, spinach salad, pumpkin tart and ginger cookies. plus crab hors d'oeuvres topped with tobiko to start us.)

the wines:

three sparklers to start with (research for a future column): Gloria Ferrer NV Sonoma brut, Gruet NV brut and Paul Cheneau NV blanc de blancs cava.

plus a Jezebel 2003 white, the house blend made by the winemakers at Rex Hill and Sineann.

friends brought the soup, and an Austrian riesling apparently picked up at the winery in Wachau: the Gritsch Mauritiushof 2003 Riesling Federspiel.

for the rest, we opened a magnum of Drouhin 2002 Arthur chardonnay and an Argyle 2003 Willamette Valley pinot, leaving a bunch of other pinots, plus some Au Bon Climat pinot gris/pinot noir unopened.

dessert came with the remnants of my bottle of Henriques y Henriques 10-year bual madeira, whatever other ports and cognac i had around, and a bottle of pineau des Charentes for the heck of it.

as we were winding down, some other friends showed up with a bottle of Wilridge 1998 merlot, so we opened that, plus a bottle of Foris 2000 Fly-Over Red, mostly because someone mentioned southern Oregon.

and i still have an entire turkey in my fridge ...