6 Thanksgiving Wines You Probably Won’t Be Able to Find But Would Go Great with Your Meal

Thanksgiving Wines to Grace Your Table From Around the World

Why all the fuss about Thanksgiving wines every year? Well, I think it all comes down to fear and perfection. People have wildly high expectations and this leads to fear that their choice of wine will not be perfect. 

Here is my annual Thanksgiving advice:  Relax!

Perfect is not all it’s cracked up to be. Choose wines you like and let the day unfold. Odds are, unless your family and guests are extremely wine centric, no one will be talking about the wine served. Just have plenty of it, whatever it is, and everything will be just fine.

Wine is Travel in a Bottle -- so this Thanksgiving I offer you six selections from a few of the places, near and far, I visited this year. 

1. Canals & Munné Brut Nature Grand Reserva Cava-- Spain
Aged for 48 months, this blend of Macabeu, Chardonnay, and Parellada is dry and elegant, well suited to appetizers such as crab cakes or blini with caviar or smoked salmon.

2. Törley Hungaria Extra Dry Rosé -- Hungary*
Turkey or Tofurkey? Törley is the answer. This wine is Thanksgiving in a bottle! Dry and balanced with a hit of tart cranberry and pomegranate flavor that floats across the palate in a parade of tiny bubbles. 

3. Pentâge Pinot Gris 2012-- Canada
A light, bright, delight -- I had this Pinot Gris for the first time at a restaurant outside of Vancouver and could not stop craving it. I finally had to go back to B.C in person to get some, and I’m glad I did. It’s luscious lychee, peachy flavors, and zesty acidity could pair well with anything from oysters to sweet potatoes.  

4. Liquidity Viognier 2013 -- Canada
This is one of the most delicious Viogniers I’ve ever had--completely captivating with a fabulous apricot and floral bouquet, followed by peaches and cream on the palate with citrus and green apple notes. This would pair nicely with a mushroom risotto.

5. Piquentum Terre Refosk 2011-- Croatia*
Dark and griping with a flourish of full flavor, this would be excellent with duck or sausage stuffing, also good to drink alone outside as you count your blessings and hope no fights break out before dessert.

6. Tinhorn Creek Cab Franc 2011 -- Canada*
This Cab Franc is one of my favorites-- bold, balanced and enough body for any dish your casserole crazy Aunt Emma brings, as well as a great accompaniment to turkey or squab and other birds you might have flying around the house.

Okay, so you probably won’t be able to source most of these in the states, except for the * starred selections, which I purchased through Blue Danube Wine at www.bluedanbuewine.com, and the Tinhorn Creek can be ordered in the US via http:/usshop.tinhorn.com

NOTE: I tasted all the above (except for the Törley) in their country of origin and encourage you to do the same. I also bought all the wines with my own wampum, and despite rumors to the contrary... I DO NOT work for Blue Danube Wine, I just really like and appreciate their offerings.

Thanksgiving Past and Future Perfect

Last night I was thinking about my most memorable Thanksgiving’s and realized all the best were non-traditional. I miss those very early Thanksgiving days when I was between the ages of three and six and oblivious to the family dynamics that holiday events can make so endearing or unbearable. But as the years go by it’s less about family and more about extended family, the one we create with our friends. Plus, aside from my sister, there are very few living blood relations left.

My first Thanksgiving away from home was in Gainesville Florida, while I was at the University of Florida. I stayed in town and invited all the other “Thanksgiving Orphans” who for reasons of work or other circumstances were not going home for Thanksgiving. It was a potluck affair naturally, and in addition to all the pot people brought, we had an amazing turkey some guy in my German cinema class prepared.

Another non-traditional Thanksgiving took place in a yurt in the wilds of Northern Florida with my sisters friends. Someone decided to replace the button mushrooms in the stuffing with psilocybin and everything transformed or deteriorated (depending on your state of mind) into a phantasmagorical evening of deranged conversations and a fire pit of epic proportions.

After the age of twelve, family specific Thanksgivings took on a whole new dynamic tinged with expectations and regrets and disappointment. So after years of traveling back home for the event, I decided all the holiday travel stress was not worth it and besides my mother always said:  “Thanksgiving/Christmas is when we are together not when the calendar dictates.” That eased the minor guilt I had and freed me up to do Thanksgiving my way. For years the T-Day ritual for me and my husband was to play golf in San Francisco and then go to Mel’s Diner for the $11.95 Thanksgiving meal special. Over the years, the price of the special kept ticking up but the scene remained the same. You can view the entire spectrum of mankind--all walks of life--at Mel’s on Thanksgiving Day. I highly recommend you experience it at least once in your life.

One year my husband and I traveled to Vallecitos, New Mexico--a tiny blink-and-you'll-miss-it town between Taos and Santa Fe, where some friends had opened a writer’s retreat. I still remember the pumpkin pie I ate there made with some mysterious ingredient that turned out to be Borden’s condensed milk. We played Pictionary way into the night as a light snow fell and watched the moon rise over the mountains in the cold heavy air.

The most disastrous Thanksgiving occurred when my husband decided he wanted to mend his relationship with his estranged mother and invited her to our ranch in a ill-advised attempt to recapture something that never was. I’ve written a 30,000 word account of her entire stay-- the details of which remain mind-boggling to this day, but the short version is we had barely gathered round the table when the “giblets hit the fan” if you take my meaning. My mother-in-law, well versed in the art of instigation and no stranger to bar room brawls, picked the wrong person to attack that day. Me. I still remember the shocked silence that settled over the table as I told her “…we better take it outside.” Our poor friends tried to busy themselves tiding up in the kitchen and taking walks around our property to avoid the tension. This story ends well though, albeit in a very Dickensian way.

On a whim and drawn by a great travel deal, we went to Hawaii post hurricane Iniki and it was very odd. The entire landscape was strafed, nary a leaf on a tree, and I was sick the entire time with some mysterious respiratory ailment that I have only just recently discovered is quite common and even has a name—VOG. Our Thanksgiving meal was a traditional luau composed of the three P’s –Pork, Pupu, and Poi. 

A few years ago we had a great Thanksgiving Day spent out on my sisters boat in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and it was fabulous. We grilled our catch right on the boat and later in the evening, back at her house, we made s’mores around a fire.

These days we tend to stick close to home and it’s hard to beat the bounty of food and wine and flavors one can find right here in Sonoma county. I miss my family of course, and would dearly love to see them all again, lively and in the pink of health gathered around my table. They are still there, in my mind and in my heart, but the traditional Thanksgiving of my past is just that—past.  Tomorrow our newlywed friends will be joining us for their first Thanksgiving as a married couple and the menu does not include turkey.


NOTE:
I know a few of you may be wondering where’s the WINE in all this? Isn’t this supposed to be a "wine blog"?  But I was thinking about that last night too and wondering why all the fuss about Thanksgiving wines? Well, I think it all comes down to fear and perfection. People have wildly high expectations and feel pressured to impress friends and relatives with a meal worthy of a Food & Wine photo spread. And this leads to fear their choice of wine will not be perfect. So here is my Thanksgiving wine advice: Relax!

Perfect is not all is cracked up to be. Choose wines you like and let the day unfold. Odds are, unless your family and guests are extremely wine centric, no one will be talking about the wine served. Just have plenty of it, whatever it is, and everything will be just fine. But if you feel cheated by this post and still want some Thanksgiving Day wine recommendations you can read this from last year it still applies. -- Cheers

Thanksgiving Wines— and Wines to Pair with Annoying Relatives!

I was looking through my blog stats today and noticed a huge amount of visitors reading the post I wrote about Thanksgiving wines in 2009! So I figured I better write another one and give folks something more recent to read with my selections for 2011. So here are what wines I’m drinking for Thanksgiving—and more importantly the three days after Thanksgiving. Plus a special bonus feature: Wines to Pair with Annoying Relatives—

Thanksgiving Day: What’s on the menu? Duck I think, I don’t know really. My husband is the cook. But it will all be good with these wines.

Rose: Shane 2010 Rose Ma Fille, Sonoma County 
Whites: Cartograph 2009 Gewürztraminer Floodgate Vineyard, Russian River Valley &
Quivira 2010 Viognier–Sauvignon Blanc 50/50 blend
Reds: La Follette 2009 Pinot Noir Manchester RidgeVineyard, Mendocino Ridge  – I love everything that comes out of the Manchester Ridge vineyard and this wine in particular is pure magic.
Baxter 2007 Pinot Noir Toulouse Vineyard, Anderson Valley –
Q: What’s going on in Philo? A: Some serious good wine.

Black Friday Wine—
Baxter 2006 Carignan Caballo Blanco Vineyard, Mendocino --I love this varietal and I’ll need the strong flavor profile of this Rhone variety to help me navigate the online sales.

Saturday 2nd Day of Leftovers Wine—
These wines will shine and make the leftovers taste divine.
White: Phillips Hill 2010 Gewürztraminer, Anderson Valley
Red: La Follette 2009 Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast – Every time I drive by this vineyard I think about this wine and it’s mineraly-minty-mocha-cherry-madness. Will pair great with the leftover duck if there is any leftover.

Sunday Everybody Please Go Home Now Post-Thanksgiving Wine—
Quivira 2009 Flight Dry Creek Vineyard, Sonoma-- the name Flight says it all—this fruity blend of 94% Zinfandel and 6% Viognier— is the right choice to serve after the holiday to those lingering too long . The name drops a subtle hint if  that doesn’t work simply say—“Go on, get going or you will miss your flight!”

The Thanksgiving line up. Start your engines!

Wines to Pair with Annoying Relatives—

Aunt A: Well she’s a lush and we all know it, but she's not super particular about what's in her glass. She drinks any old swill on sale at the market so just to mess with her I'll pour Phillips Hill 2010 Chardonnay Ridley Vineyard, Anderson Valley because it will make her really sit up and notice. She will love it, but then won't be able to buy it in her Podunk town, so it will be a passive aggressive win-win.

Cousin J: My pain-in-the-ass-know-it-all cousin:  I'll serve Bonny Doon Cunning a blend of 61% Carignane and 39% Mourvedre because he won't know the grapes and will smirk that it's a screw cap. Then the color will fade from his smirky-know-it-all face as he realizes how darn good it is and he'll be beside himself and fuming because he didn’t know anything about it.

Cousin MJ: MJ is such an utter twit. He is an investment banker... need I say more? No, but I will…MJ is a beady-eyed greed monster, obsessed with feathering his nest on the backs of others. He gives new meaning to the 1%.  For him I’ll pour La Follette 2009 Pinot Noir Van Der Camp Vineyard, Sonoma Mountain because it’s elegant and complex with a beautiful backbone. All the qualities he lacks. Wait, on second thought this wine is too good for that loser. I’ll save this for later.

If I had a favorite cousin I'd pull him or her aside and pour them a glass of Shane 2007 Syrah The Villain, Mendocino County – but I don’t—so I’ll just drink it myself.

Wine I’m Saving for Christmas: Baxter 2007 Pinot Noir Oppenlander Vineyard, Mendocino 

Cheers and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

NOTE TO READERS: I received the LaFollette and Quivira wines I discuss in this post as samples---BUT!!! I am already a Quivira Queue club member, and I purchase all their wines. I love La Follette and buy their wines regularly on my own as well. It was just a happy coincidence that I was sent samples. So don’t get all huffy about the fact I liked these wines because they were samples. I ALREADY BUY & LOVE THEM! Everything else I bought with my own money.

Obligatory Thanksgiving Wines Post

It appears to be all the rage to post about what wines to serve on Thanksgiving. So here's mine.

{NOTE: If you came to this post looking for Thanksgiving Wines to Pair with Annoying Relatives you’ll find it here.}

Everyone has been asking--What are you going to open for Thanksgiving? Well normally if all the family is gathering at my house the first thing I want to open is a vein, but barring that I like to cope with Prosecco from the Valdobbiadene region of Italy followed swiftly by a few pre-dinner Negronis. I select a variety of whites and reds to pair with dinner.

Whites: Viognier, preferably Bonny Doon, which I adore. I usually always have a Riesling on hand and lately I've been loving the Kim Crawford unoaked Chardonnay from New Zealand. I also like Costomolino Vermentino from Sardegna.

Reds: Mostly I go with all Italian wines since my family is Italian so I typically have Dolcetto and Nebbiolo but since most everyone is dead now, I think I will break with family tradition and I'm leaning towards the Mourvedre from Quivira and possibly the Shane Valenti Ranch Syrah.

Extra Wine in Food: It has become a tradition to make my Mother's famous "Tipsy Cranberry Mold" which is basically Jello with fruit and wine used in lieu of water. It sets up kinda weird and it's not all that good, but as kids we loved it for the way it made us feel all warm and numb, and that's important if you want to create a harmonious mood around the dinner table. Just for nostaliga sake, I've included the recipe written out in her own hand below.

Recipe calls for 6 Cups Red Wine!

Post Meal: It's Grappa shots all around. My favorite Grappa is Grappa Di Sarno from a boutique distillery in Umbria.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Related posts:  Thanksgiving Wines to Pair with Annoying Relatives