SUGGESTIONS FOR THANKSGIVING

It’s a bit of a mad rush leading up to Turkey Day, and I have done nothing but shuttle boxes of wine from our warehouse to the store. These days I rarely do anything else. It’s a good problem to have for a retailer, selling product. Yet one thing I had hoped to do sooner, was throw my two-cents out there in suggesting wines for Thanksgiving.

We get the question twenty, thirty, forty times a day in the week leading up to T-Day, and it’s fascinating the responses you get when you bring up things like Pinot Noir, Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Rosé, etc. Often the customer asking the question is a Cab or Chard drinker, and these wines are as alien to them as common sense is to a politician. And for those folks, I say unto you, “Drink what you like.” There is no real requirement to drink something you are most likely not going to enjoy.

The suggestions my retail brethren and I make to customers all over are merely the best guess scenarios. Sure, these wines are going to compliment the foods one serves for a traditional Thanksgiving Day feast much better, but that doesn’t mean that a Cab or a Chard aren’t going to offer as much enjoyment during said feast.

I have always been most partial to rosés, simply because they are some of the best food wines overall. I am a particularly huge fan of the Montes Cherub 2008 and the Mulderbosch Rosé 2009 right now. Both have a bit more power than most pink wines, yet both still have the balance and acidity to pair with lighter and more diverse foods. My wife leans towards Rieslings, and the Donnhoff QbA Riesling 2007 is a fairly dry, very balanced Riesling that is ideal for T-Day. A wildcard for me would be the Librandi Ciro Rosso 2007, a red akin to Pinot Noir – light, soft, with lots of berry and cherry notes – that is 100% Gaglioppo. But there is a laundry list of great wines that would work – just go into your favorite wine shop and ask the staff. Hopefully, your favorite wine store is D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits. But if not, there are a lot of great wine stores out there with a trustworthy staff that knows what will make your T-Day sing.

Cheers!