The Eating and Drinking Marathon That Is Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is a marathon, not a sprint! The only other day that can hold a candle to Thanksgiving for sheer endurance eating is Christmas. But on Christmas Day there are presents and other distractions to draw your attention away from the food. On Thanksgiving the primary purpose of the day is to feast on as much delicious food and wine as possible while you hang out with your loved ones.
In England, where I spent the first 20 years of my life, the Sunday Roast is a tradition that I love. We still try to sit down as a family to a traditional Sunday lunch of roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, and roast potatoes as often as possible. So, Thanksgiving is definitely an American holiday that really appeals to me. The ritual of cooking the meal, the hours of preparation and toil in the kitchen, isn’t a chore for me…it’s the perfect opportunity for some good old day drinking. Whatever the time of day, if you're working hard in a hot kitchen it’s totally justified to have a glass of something at hand. We typically start with a bottle of bubbly with smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for breakfast while also getting that stuffed bird in the oven. Then a gin and tonic or two works perfectly while preparing the vegetables. Next perhaps a couple glasses of rosé to wait out the perennially later-than-planned Turkey… and that’s all before anything has even been plated up!
The traditional Thanksgiving meal itself is such a broad canvas for wine pairings. I feel like I always need something fresh and brisk like an aromatic white. Then the go-to, Pinot Noir (obviously), and typically something a little more hearty for the folks who go for the darker meat or with a smoked turkey. I love Grenache or Zinfandel as richer alternatives to Pinot Noir that work well.
So, now I’ve given the breakdown of a typical Thanksgiving day in my home, here are some wines for every stage that I would be happy to have on my own family table (or kitchen counter).
Fizzy Bubs
RGNY North Fork Long Island Sparkling Wine (Zero Dosage) $25.95 This wine is one of the better sparkling wines from the U.S. that I’ve tasted this year, and who would have thought it’s from Long Island, NY, and it’s $26! Composed of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir, the base wines are aged in neutral oak before spending 2-3 years on the lees prior to being discouraged. Zero dosage is added, keeping this vibrant sparkler bone-dry and mouth-wateringly crisp. Wonderfully complex yeasty aromas and flavors deliver way more nuance than one might expect from a relatively inexpensive bottle of bubbles…I better get two!
Vara "Silverhead - Método Tradicional" Washington / Penedes Brut Sparkling Wine $19.95 Talk about over-delivering for the money! This is a wine to keep around during the holiday season if you’re entertaining a crowd. Vara is a fairly new project from Laurent Gruet after he parted ways with his famed Gruet brand based in New Mexico. Laurent brings together into his Vara project multigenerational experience from his family’s Champagne house and decades of making sparkling wines here in the U.S. The Silverhead Brut blends Chardonnay from Washington's Ancient Lakes AVA with Xarel-lo/Macabeo from the DO of Penedes in Spain. It spends 18-24 months en tirage and gets a low dosage of 8g/L. Super stylish packaging matches the pure, fresh, delightfully refreshing and vibrant wine inside the bottle. Golden orchard fruit, baked bread, fleur de sel, and river stone minerals. Exceptional value.
Domaine Carneros "Cuvée de la Pompadour" Brut Rosé $37.95 (Elsewhere $45) 95WE 94JS 93WS Founded by Champagne icon Taittinger in the 1980s, this French family recognized the incredible potential of making sparkling wines in Los Carneros. The cool climate with brisk winds off San Pablo Bay plus the clay-rich soils are perfect for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. With extensive vineyards across the rolling hills of the region, the wines are just as impressive as their grand château with views all the way to San Francisco. The Cuvée de la Pompadour is a wonderful non-vintage blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. Bursting with wild strawberry, peach, and brioche, this festive sparkler finishes dry with 9g/L dosage.
2010 En Tirage "Late Disgorged" Extra Brut Blanc de Blanc Carneros Sparkling Wine $39.95 This late-disgorged wine enjoyed an almost-unheard-of ten years aging on the lees. That’s the same (or more time) than many of Champagne’s most expensive and most sought-after wines that sell for hundreds of dollars per bottle. 100% Chardonnay sourced from one of Andy Beckstoffer's vineyards in Carneros. With its exceptionally long aging on the lees, this wine has an uncommon depth and complexity of toasty, yeasty, autolytic aromas and flavors. However, despite this being a 2010 vintage wine, it is perfectly fresh and vibrant with bright citrus tones, chalky minerals, flint, and white flowers. Such a remarkable wine and unrivaled at this price.
BXT "McCormack Ranch" Solano County Brut Blanc De Noirs $44.95 After a fantastic visit with winemaker/proprietor Tom Sherwood just a few weeks back I couldn’t be more excited to introduce what I think will be the first of many phenomenal sparkling wines we will carry from BXT (Bubbles x Tom). Though Tom has a full-time job making wine in Napa at Rocca Family Vineyards, his passion for making grower-Champagne-inspired wines in California is palpable. He’s exploring several different vineyard sites across Northern California and making tiny batches of entirely hand-made, hand-riddled wines. The McCormack Ranch Blanc De Noirs is 100% Pinot Noir from a vineyard right on the banks of the Sacramento River in deep sandy soils. The wine is fermented with native yeast in neutral oak, large Puncheons and Stockinger casks are favorites of Tom’s for the 6-9 months of elevage before secondary fermentation. The wine then sees 18+ months on the lees before being riddled by hand. Less than 100cs produced.
Gin and Tonic time!
I keep it very simple here. My current staple is Gray Whale Gin $39.99. I love the coastal aromas from this spirit that is infused with local juniper from Big Sur and other botanicals including Sonoma fir tree tips, Santa Cruz mint, hand-harvested Mendocino Kelp, and limes from Baja California. I like citrus-driven G&Ts so I also use the Fever Tree Lemon Tonic $5.99 and slice of lemon from my backyard tree (that is struggling to keep up with demand).
Alright, suitably refreshed, meal prepped and Turkey ticking along nicely, must be time for rosé!
2022 Bedrock Wine Company "Ode to Lulu" California Rosé $21.95 Always a staple around my house just about anytime of year, Bedrock’s Ode to Lulu rosé is one of the most consistently delicious pink wines year after year. Made mostly of old-vine Mourvèdre with the balance of Grenache and Syrah. While remaining firmly dry, this wine has a little more substance than your typical Provençal-style, light, bright, easy rosés. There is a little more seriousness to the crunchy red fruits, dried herbs, pomegranate, and Turkish delight flavors. The wine also has a little extra phenolic structure that means it's very versatile with food. A perfect bottle to have around on Thanksgiving.
2022 Paysan Central Coast Rhône Blend Rosé $17.95 Ian Brand’s Paysan wines represent some of the finest values anywhere in California. Ian is a phenomenally talented winemaker with a range of incredible vineyards at his disposal (many that were unknown, “diamond in the rough '' sites that he “discovered” in remote parts of Monterey and San Benito County). This crisp, dry rosé is beautiful. Wonderfully floral, bright fruits, spiced citrus peel, cranberry, raspberry hints, wet stone. Very easy to drink and beautifully balanced.
2022 Ragtag Wine Co. "Greengate Ranch" SLO Coast Rosé of Pinot Noir $9.95 (Previously $28) The incredible values keep on coming from Ragtag! I cased up on this ludicrously low priced Pinot Noir rose from Greengate Ranch in Edna Valley. Produced entirely from one hillside block of 777 clone Pinot Noir, put through a gentle press cycle, then a slow, cold fermentation in stainless steel produced a fine, aromatic wine with vibrant acidity and verve. Alpine strawberry, frozen fruits of the forest, tangerine peel, subtle mulling spice. So refreshing with zesty acidity and great length.
Hopefully some food has reached the table at this point…at least some appetizers! Next up…a nice aromatic white:
2022 Localism Wines "Mokelumne Glen Vineyard" Mokelumne River Kerner $29.95 One of the coolest tiny boutique wineries we’ve started working with this year has to be Localism Wines. Winemaker Ryan Knoth previously made the phenomenal wines at Sinegal Estate in Napa until earlier this year when he got the top job making the wines as the legendary Joseph Phelps. Kind of a big deal! Ryan and his wife Nicole have been making the Localism wines as their side passion project for a decade now. Ryan loves to experiment with esoteric varieties hence this delicious Kerner! A little-known white grape from Germany, commonly found in northern Italy’s Alto Adige region, it makes a delightfully flavorful, textural, aromatic white wine while retaining uncommonly high acidity and verve for a grape of this genre. Floral, exotic, juicy, with zippy, mouth watering acid—so delicious!
2022 Unti "Bianco del Campo" Creek Valley White Blend $24.95 After visiting Unti earlier this year I was super excited to get their wines back on our shelves. This beautiful family estate in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is championing Italian varieties (alongside equally delicious Rhone varieties and Zinfandel) and the results speak for themselves. The Biano de Campo has become an instant staff favorite here. A unique blend of 43% Vermentino, 30% Fiano, 16% Biancolella and 11% Falanghina, fermented and aged in concrete and stainless steel. Malo is blocked to keep the wine super fresh and racy. Though you wouldn’t typically find these grapes hanging out together in their native land, they sure play well together here! It’s fresh and fruity, playful but serious at the sametime. A wine you can quaff without care or contemplate for hours.
2022 K Vintners "Art Den Hoed Vineyard" Yakima Valley Viognier $19.95 95JD 92VN Viognier was the first wine I ever tasted from K Vintners back in 2009 and it’s still one of my favorite wines that they make. Viogner is a VERY tricky grape. Picking it at the right time is absolutely critical and the window is very small… too early and it's insipid; too late and it’s an overly alcoholic, oily mess. But… when you nail it… it’s one of the most incredible, aromatic, textured white wines on the planet. For these reasons, Condrieu has almost complete dominance specializing in producing top-notch Viognier. However, check out this perennial winner from Charles Smith for a wine that more than does justice to this fickle varietal and does so for a very reasonable price.
Alright, on to the main event, the turkey has landed and so has the Pinot!
2021 Stolo “Estate” SLO Coast Pinot Noir $29.95 (EW $54) 95WA I’m super stoked to have Stolo back in the store again and at a phenomenal price! For those of you not familiar with these wines, Stolo is a tiny estate in the coastal town of Cambria (close to Hearst Castle) just a few miles from the Pacific. This is truly cold-climate viticulture with constant ocean influence on the vines. The soils are clay/limestone, which is just perfect for Pinot Noir. In 2021 famed sommelier-turned-vigneron Raj Parr (Domaine de la Côte, Sandhi, Evening Land/Seven Springs) took over the winemaking here. This to me is THE perfect Thanksgiving Pinot Noir. It’s bright, crunchy, fresh, wonderfully pure, elegant, easy to drink but with plenty of complex spice and savory amaro-like tones, too. My wife and I adored the first bottle we drank of this and it most definitely won’t be the last!
2022 Arterberry Maresh Dundee Hills Pinot Noir $34.95 The 2021 vintage of this wine was one of the best selling Pinot Noirs of the year. First and foremost the Arterberry Maresh wines are flat-out delicious. Secondly they’ve been getting HUGE scores the last few years, and deservedly so! After being out of stock of this Dundee Hills bottling for a few months I’m delighted to say we got it back again just as we start thinking about Turkey Day. As a brand new release the 2022 has yet to be professionally reviewed… unless you count our professionals at K&L, and we say it’s darn delicious! As usual it has that magical mix of wild berry fruits, forest floor, damp earth, woodsy spices. Light and transparent in the glass but sensually textured on the palate with way more weight and concentration than the pale hue might suggest. Another surefire winner from Jim Maresh.
2018 Brittan "Cygnus" McMinnville Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $54.95 97WA If you haven’t tried them yet, don’t miss the phenomenal wines we have from Brittan Vineyards in the Willamette Valley. This estate is one of the most distinctive and complex vineyard sites in the region and the wines are truly special. The “Cygnus Block” Pinot emerges from one single hillside parcel planted entirely to the Swan heritage clone of Pinot Noir. The intensity of this clone and its brambly, red fruited expression works beautifully with the underlying volcanic basalt soils of the site to produce a wine that is at once dense, rich, and structured, but also stunningly perfumed and laced with complex minerality.
And for those needing a little more heft than Pinot Noir typically delivers… Grenache and Zinfandel are fantastic choices for Thanksgiving (or just in general)
2021 Clementine Carter Sta. Rita Hills Grenache $29.95 95VN 94WE I dare you to try this wine and not fall in love with it! The aromatic intensity, purity of fruit, and silky texture is a combo made in heaven. That little piece of heaven just happens to be the windswept hillsides and ocean-derived soils of the Sta. Rita Hills. This area is well known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but also produces exceptional cool-climate Rhône varietal wines. Winemaker Sonja Magdevski has a rare talent in the cellar to make wines that are so pure and precise but without manipulation. Her husband Greg Brewer knows a thing or two about winemaking, too! The fruit comes from Spear and Robert Rae Vineyards; both are farmed organically. The 2021 was fermented with 75% whole clusters and 30 days on skins. Matured in neutral oak. Rose petal, raspberry liqueur, baking spice, some darker, ripe cherry fruit, a garrigue-like savory note too. Super fine elegant tannins, remarkable freshness and lift. I love it.
2022 The Language of Yes "Cuvée Sinso" Central Coast Red Blend $29.95 I’m a huge fan of the Language of Yes wines made by iconic winemaker Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard. These wines, inspired by those hailing from the south of France, are based largely around Rancho Real Vineyard. The vines grow in pure sand in the very cool, ocean-influenced Solomon Hills sub-region of Santa Maria Valley. The 2022 Cuvée Sinso is a bright and juicy blend of 64% Cinsaut, 26% Syrah, 6% Grenache, 3% Tannat, and 1% Viognier. The Cinsault and Syrah were co-fermented in small open-top fermenters. Small additions of the other varieties bolster color, structure, and aromatics. The wine has soaring aromatics and flavors of spiced cherry, black raspberry coulis, loganberry, dried alpine herbs, crushed rock. Very silky and supple on the palate, drinks very well with a slight chill straight from the cellar. Quaffable to say the least!
2021 Carlisle "Piner-Olivet Ranches" Russian River Valley Zinfandel $37.95 94-96VN 94WS If you’re really hankering for a bigger red wine that still works with Thanksgiving fare, Zin is my recommendation. As a varietal it has great fruit and power, but is less tannic and generally made with less new oak than Cabernet etc. One of the finest Zin producers on the planet is Carlisle. Mike Officer’s wines are never lacking in concentration and richness, but they also possess wonderful freshness, energy, and balance. Piner-Olivet Ranches is named for the intersection of two roads in the Russian River Valley. This spot is the epicenter for several of the finest old-vine plantings of Zinfandel in the state. This bottling combines three “Grand Cru” old vine vineyards: Mancini, Papera, and Carlisle’s own estate. Planted in 1922, 1934, and 1927 respectively, these vineyards, while predominantly Zinfandel, also contain dozens of other mixed varietals that add to the complexity and completeness of the wines. Tons of ripe blackberry, boysenberry, cherry liqueur, baking spice, scorched earth, graphite. Lush, mouth coating, and satisfying, but vibrant and lifted at the same time.