Thanksgiving wines – what was on your table?
After so many suggestions in magazines, food and dining sections about which wines should be on your table, and probably a fair amount of going back and forth, which wines did you pour for Thanksgiving? What worked and what didn’t?
Some local friends and their extended family welcomed us to their celebration this year so it was an “away” Thanksgiving for us. We brought some wine, which included a Taittinger brut nonvintage champagne (find this wine), a magnum of Marcel Lapierre Morgon 2007 (find this wine), and a bottle of the (in)famous Palin syrah (find this wine). The Champagne was very good and well received. The Lapierre was lighter than I recall the ’06 being but still excellent and even my friend who really prefers “big reds” admitted that it was a really fine wine (someone else said it was the most beautiful wine bottle he’d ever seen!). The Palin syrah was horribly corked, not much different than the erstwhile veep candidate. Fortunately some more Champagne emerged from the other guests.
In case you’re curious what other people around the world tried, click here to see the 5,500 bottles consumed on 11/27/08 and entered (so far) into cellartracker. Domestic wines prevailed with Kistler, Kosta Browne, Peter Michael, Ridge, Seghesio, and Turley coming the first six places.
On November 29th, 2008 at 6:36 pm ,Jason Haas wrote:
Hey Tyler,
Fun link. I hadn’t looked for it this year yet, and was pleased to see that Tablas Creek was tied for 33rd on the list (with some pretty good company: Chateau Montelena, Brewer-Clifton, Estancia, Domaine Serene, and Siduri).
I always try to open the biggest bottle that we have with the thought that it’s usually a good excuse… and when else are you likely to have a bigger crowd at the table? I was disappointed that I couldn’t find a big bottle of a Cru Beaujolais anywhere nearby. That’s one consequence of living in the Central Coast.
At Tablas Creek, we took the approach of offering Thanksgiving wine suggestions from a bunch of the staff members here… asking everyone for a suggestion that was a Tablas Creek wine, and one that wasn’t. I was interested to see how well each person’s personality came through in their suggestions.
I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one.
All the best,
-Jason
On November 30th, 2008 at 9:07 am ,dhonig wrote:
Many bottles. Too many for The Wooden Guys. Click the picture for reviews.
On November 30th, 2008 at 2:04 pm ,Howard wrote:
Plus one for the Lapierre! Wish we had a magnum, it went fast and was delicious. 05 Desvignes Javernieres Morgon made an appearance, too, as did a surprisingly good Beaujolias-Villages from Chateau Thulon/Jean-Marc Burgaud. But overall, the best match for the food was Leitz Dragonstone Riesling. 07 Zilliken Spätlese would have been even better – next year, perhaps. We tried an older Riesling, too, 94 Steinmetz Brauenberger Juffer, but the youth of the Leitz was much more refreshing amongst all the sweet food on the table.
On November 30th, 2008 at 2:39 pm ,bill wrote:
Tyler, no local wines???
On November 30th, 2008 at 8:18 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
@Jason, thanks for the info and fun suggestions on your blog.
@dhonig. Whoa. Hope you had a big crowd.
@Howard – excellent! I tasted the 07 Dragonstone earlier and posted about it somewhere here; glad it worked for you. And thanks for mentioning that 94 Steinmetz since I think I pre-ordered some of that a few months ago and I haven’t heard anything about it coming in…
@Bill – Ha, no, but I did do that on Nov 20 and posted about it on Twitter.
On December 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm ,Chicago Wine wrote:
Just Grapes Wine Blog has tons of great holiday wine pairing ideas.
http://blog.justgrapes.net
On December 2nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm ,Jon W wrote:
We opened quite a hodgepodge with our friends and family this holiday.
Steele Shooting Star Blue Franc 2005
Dominio de Tares Baltos Mencia 2004
Terrai Garnacha 2006
Copain L’Automne Pinot Noir 2004
Londer Gewurztraminer 2005
The Gorge “Mosto” Semillon Frizzante NV
Two Brothers White (Riesling/Gewurz) 2007
On December 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm ,nick wrote:
We kept it simple since the crowd at my mother-in-laws is always substantial (this year it was at the lower end of the scale with 38 people – I think 55 was the max)…with that many people, we try to keep it down to a good supply of a few wines. Since I am the one in the wine business, it seems at least partially my responsibility to pick. This year we quaffed the Kenneth Volk Tempranillo 2004 from San Benito County and some Zaccagnini Montepulciano D’Abruzzo 2005. Our family seems to have resolved to drinking red lately…
On December 6th, 2008 at 10:44 pm ,Paulo Queiroz wrote:
You have one of the best wine blog all over the world.
Congratulations!
By the way… on my table…. Barnaresco Rabaja 2005 Bruno Rocca