Author: Christy

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #9: For Those Who Want a (Kind of) Zinfandel

Originally posted November 20, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: More like a note to myself – a reminder to buy more of this wine. More recently, we regularly sell the Foradori wines from the Marema, but I need to get this back on the shelf. It’s just so, so good. Geeky and crowd-pleasing? As a wine buyer, that’s my favorite sort of wine.

Foradori Teroldego Rotaliano 2007 (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)
Most lists of Thanksgiving wine suggestions will usually include a Zinfandel. It’s the whole “American holiday-American grape variety” thing. And while I’m not going to prevent anyone from buying a nice bottle of Ridge or Dashe Zinfandel, I’m not going to formally include this grape on my list.

But I will include a wine that can sort of fill that Zinfandel spot…a Teroldego.

”Sort of” is the key phase. Because really, Teroldego doesn’t have much in common with Zinfandel. It’s rarely seen outside the little Campo Rotaliano region at the base of the Italian Alps. It makes wines that are lighter than even the lightest Zinfandel, with less spice, more herbal notes, and more minerality. It’s not even related to Zinfandel – most people who track such things consider it a cousin of Syrah.

But it is red. And it does have a similar red-berry character. And…..well, like I said – it’s red!

So why am I trying to shove it into the Zinfandel hole?

It’s because I really like this wine. I’m always forgetting about it when it comes time to purchase wines for the store or recommend wines to the customers. Which has everything to do with me – and nothing to do with the wine – because it’s a very good wine. It does offer up enough fruit to keep all but the most die-hard fruit fanatics happy. But it’s elegant and vibrant and has an underlying complexity that makes it a very good match with many foods. Some Teroldegos can get a little earthy/funky, but Elisabetta Foradori manages a nice balance between the fruit and the earthier/herbally elements. We’ve had it open at the store and it’s one of those “oh yeah, I’ll take a bottle” wines.

I’m specifically recommending her Teroldego Rotaliano, but she also does a higher end version called Granato. Its flavors are a bit more concentrated and it sees more time in oak. I like that one much more when it’s had a little time to age – when the polish and sheen of its youth has time to mellow into something with a little more funk and earth. And of course, if you’re feeling really fancy, I happen to have a couple bottles from the 2002, 2001, and 200 vintage on hand. At least until I decide to drink them myself.

Price: $22.99 

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #8: For Those Who Really Want to Drink Beer

Originally posted November 19, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I still adore this wine. And happily, the price is still quite similar to what it used to be!

Donati Camillo Malvasia Dolce Frissante 2007 (Emilia Romagna, Italy): This is not the first time I’ve written about this wine. It’s irresistible and addictive. It’s also hard to sell without a lot of arm twisting. But at this point, I’ve forced enough bottles on unsuspecting friends, customers, and (my) mother(s) that I’m comfortable twisting those arms. Because everyone who has tried it likes it. Not just likes it, but loves it. Even becomes ridiculously addicted to it. So this crazy cross between a beer and cream soda has gained a permanent place on the shelf. As long as it’s in stock at the distributor, it’s in stock at Frankly Wines.

There is a dry version which I enjoyed recently. But with every sip I kept wanting that little bit of sweetness, of extra creaminess and overall deliciousness that this one – the Dolce – offers up. So this is the one. Just use the excuse that at least one of your guests would rather be drinking beer and serve this as your “sort of beer-like substitute.” And then just try not to like it.

Price: $20.99

A bottle of Donati sparkling wine next to two stemless glasses filled with it. The picture is sort of blurry thanks to the old iphone I was using and the sepia filters that were the rage of the day.

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #7: For Those Who Like a Little Tradition with their Turkey

Originally posted November 18, 2010.

I know it may not be the cool kid thing to like, but I am not exactly a cool kid. So I will say it loud and proud. I like a nice Beaujolais Nouveau around Thanksgiving time! The best of them, from small producers that aren’t turning out containers full of the stuff, are fresh and fruity and juicy. With a legally mandated release date of November 18th, they’re they freshest bottles on the shelf come Turkey Day.

And a good one is just the thing to wash down plates of Thanksgiving treats. You won’t linger over its complexity. You won’t go on about how profound it is. And it certainly won’t change your life. But it will taste good with everything from a perfectly brined turkey to a plate of stovetop stuffing. And really…do you want to serve a wine that might outshine that shaved carrot and marshmallow salad? No you don’t.

So act fast and pick up a bottle or two. Or a five. Or a case. But hurry. Last year, we sold every bottle before the turkey even hit the oven.

A picture of a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau with a tag on it that says: I am the last bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. It's next to French flag.

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #6: For Those Who Like to Eat Dessert First

Originally posted November 18, 2010.

You can have your cake and eat it too. Actually, that phrase never made much sense to me. If you have a cake, why on earth wouldn’t you eat it? And it doesn’t make sense in the context of Thanksgiving, because everyone knows you don’t eat cake on turkey day – you eat pie! But anyway…

If you’re one of those people who grin and bear the turkey just to get to the dessert spread, than here are some wines to consider.

Emilio Hidalgo Gobernador Oloroso Sec (Jerez, Spain): Darky, nutty, with caramel notes and a bit of a salty character – this is like an adult-only piece of caramel sprinkled with very good sea salt. It’s not really the best match for pumpkin pie, but it can stand on its own as a dessert in a bottle. Price: $24.99 

Eric Bordelet Sidre Doux NV 2008 (Normandy, France): This slightly sparkling, slightly sweet cider is an autumn delight. It’s made by a former Parisian sommelier who couldn’t resist the pull of the old, old apple trees on his family’s property in Normandy. Very romantic story, very yummy wine. It’s like apple pie in a bottle. Price: $13.99 

Santa Julia Tardio Late Harvest Torrontes 2008 500ml (Mendoza, Argentina): Even in a dry version, Torrontes has some of the floral notes that are a bit Muscat-like, but with a bit more spice. This version is very lightly sweet – it’s actually much more versatile than a typical dessert wine. But for the purposes of Thanksgiving, pop it open at the end of the meal for a not-overly-sweet treat. Price: $14.99 

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #5: For Those Who Just Want Something Good

Originally posted on November 16, 2010.

Binner Les Saveurs Assemblage de Cepages d’Alsace 2008(Alsace, France): If Thanksgiving is the quintessential fall meal, then this could be the quintessential autumn wine. It’s a blend of Pinot Gris, Muscat, Riesling, and I think, I little Gewürztraminer. It’s all the juice from each of these grapes that couldn’t fit into the big barrels. Theses left overs are blended together and the result is this very tasty wines. This wine is unfiltered – and noticeably so. But don’t let the cloudiness scare you. It’s supposed to be that way. And the blend of all these grapes makes for a slightly spicy, slightly floral , very fall-like wine. I love this wine – whenever I recommend it, I always think “I really need to drink more of this wine.” Which I will do – on Thanksgiving. And you should too.

Price: $16.99

A bottle of Binner shot with a really terrible 2010 sepia toned filter.

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #4: For Those Who Really Need a Lot to Drink

Originally published on November 14, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE PAST: Up at Copake Wine Works, we’re still big into box wine. The players may have changed, but good boxed wine still remains one of the best ways to stock up on something you know you like for every day drinking.

Full disclosure (because bloggers are very big on discloser): this post is essentially a re-run from last year.

Last year, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I realized that a lot of people don’t really like their relatives and are making their wine choices with that in mind. “Lots of wine and cheap, because I really don’t like who I’m dining with,” was not an uncommon request.

The perfect solution?

Box wine. Good box wine.

A three-liter box = 4 bottles in one container, complete with a handy tap. One for the table and one for the kitchen and you’re set to deal with even the peskiest relatives.  This year’s selection includes a Cotes du Rhone, a cru Beaujolais, a Chilean Cabernet, a Chardonnay and a Riesling. Equivilized bottle prices range from just over $6/bottle for the whites to $14 for the cur Beaujolais (which also comes in a very cute wooden box.)

Quality and quantity. Let’s all give thanks for box wine. Good box wine.

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #3: For Those Who Need A Lot to Drink

Originally published on November 14, 2010.

Maybe your family has a lot of thirsty mouths to fill. Or maybe you just like to come well prepared with quantity to spare. Or maybe you want to double duty: get a work out while pouring your wine. If any of these situations fit your bill, then consider picking up a magnum bottle or two for your holiday table. Two that we just happen to have on hand, one white, one red.

Catherine et Pierre Breton Bourgueil Trinch! 2009 Magnum (Bourgueil, Loire, France): A double bottle of red wine happiness. The Bretons are tip top producers in the Bourgueil sub-region of the Loire Valley. This region is where Cabernet Franc stands on its own, unblended with its usual partner, Cabernet Sauvignon. While the Bretons make some complex, age-worthy versions from single vineyards, their Trinch! It’s meant to be drunk young, fresh, and in quantity. And the name? Trinch! It’s the sound that glasses make when clinked together. Which should be done frequently.  Price: $42.99 (equivalent to $21.50/bottle)

La Pepiere Clos de Briords Muscadet 2009 Magnum (Loire, France): This wine is legendary among those who know good quality Muscadet. And it’s legendary among those who seek good quality wines at a very good price tag. And it can make you legendary among friends and family seeking something crisp, clean, delicious – and sneakily complex at the Thanksgiving table. Want to be a real hero? Buy a bottle now and take it to turkey day in a few years. Your patience will be rewarded. Price: $35.99 (equivalent to $17.99/bottle)

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #2: For Those Who are Manly Enough to Drink Riesling

Originally published on November 14th, 2010.

There are many many meals at which a Riesling would be the perfect wine. The typical Thanksgiving spread is one of those meals. Riesling is light enough so that you can drink a lot of it. It won’t overwhelm the many flavors on the table. It has the acidity to keep your palate prepped for the next bite of whatever is on your fork. If there is one “exactly right” wine you could serve, Riesling is probably it.

I can tell you this. I can turn cartwheels while I tell you this. I can swear on various graves and religious texts and firstborn children. And you probably won’t believe me. Because it’s “Riesling.” And you don’t like Riesling. Because it’s sweet. And you don’t like sweet things (except for diet coke, and VitaminWater, and pumpkin spice lattes, and a bunch of other sweet things.) And I can tell you that you’ve probably only had badly balanced Riesling where the sweetness sticks out and gets a bit cloying. I can tell you that a hint of perfectly balanced sweetness is exactly what makes the wine work so well with so many food.

I can tell you all this and you still won’t believe me. So I’ll just try a little tough love.

GET OVER IT!

Man up (or woman-up) (A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: or how about just “human up”) to a wine that will really do justice to your Thanksgiving meal. Just try it. We have a selection of Gunther Steinmetz wines – Gunther Goodness if you’re feeling cheeky. They’re arranged below from dry to somewhat sweet. But all are perfectly balanced. Just get one of each, drink them in the order below…and then just try to tell me you don’t like Riesling.

Gunther Steinmetz Rieslings (Mosel, Germany)

Trocken 2009 1 Liter
Price: $14.99

Brauneberger Juffer Kabinett Feinherb 2009
Price: $19.99

Mulheimer Sonnenlay Spatlese 2009
Price: $22.99

Thanksgiving Day Suggestion #1: For Those Who Really Trust Us

Originally published November 13, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Cue up the old lady crying into the wind. Other oldish-timers will look at the price below and start to scream as well. Lopez de Heredia Rosado was never meant to be a cult wine. At a long ago breakfast-tasting (yes, breakfast tasting,) Maria José López de Heredia told those of us there that this wine was something made just for the local people. It was something they liked to drink that was never really meant to be sold outside the town. If my numbers hold, I think the number of cases was something like 200. But it was sold out of town, and a handful of account fell in love with it, including mine. We would buy it five cases at a time. On deal pricing. Yes, long ago thre was a FIVE CASE PRICE on Lopez de Heredia Rosado. These days, you’re lucky if you can get FIVE BOTTLES!!!! Because if you do the math, even if every bottle of those 200 cases were sent to the USA (which they were not), it doesn’t take long before all those bottles are sold – with or without a five case deal. And this was a very long-aged wine…. so as I noted below, one year we were selling the 1997, the next year, the 1998. Then the 2000. And in 2010, this was probably around the time of that breakfast tasting with Maria José, when she quietly dropped the new that there would be no more rosado for many years, because they needed to let what they had age as the previous vintages had. (I think they “many” was seven, but I would need to check my notes.) So there was a very long period of no rosado to be had. When it eventually returned to the market, it had acquired the status of myth among a new crop of buyers It had also acquired a very new price – it now lists at most shops for over $100 per bottle. I don’t begrudge that price – this is truly a small production wine that requires a very long period of aging – and I think/hope that the winery is seeing as much of this price increase as the distributors and the retailers. There are many wines out there that cost as much or more and offer much less in terms of rarity and the time-value-of-money. But I do feel a bit of resigned nostalgia. Nostalgia for the ability to buy as much as I wanted whenever I wanted. And of course, for the price. But it was more than that – that general accessibility allowed the handful of buyers that fell in love with the wine to run with it for a bit, to make a market in it, to introduce it to would-be fans in our own communities. That was simply put, so very much fun. At the higher price – and given that each shop or account gets something like three bottles… you already have to be in the know if you ever want to drink it. And that’s a bit of a bummer.  And with that… the old lady crying into the wind is heading off to get her coffee.

I write this post every year. Well, to be completely frank (ha ha), I just cut and paste this post every year. Which I’ll do again, with a few notes about how this vintage differs from the last. So go ahead and read below…or be truly trusting and just click right through the Frankly Wines store. Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva 2000 (Rioja, Spain)

This post is a re-run. But I thought it was pretty perfect when I wrote it last year (and the year before that). And I still think it’s pretty perfect. The wine in question is the Lopez de Heredia Rosado. Two years ago the 1997 was in stock. Last year it was the 1998. And this year, it’s the 2000, which I find to have more of the mineral notes of the 1997 than the rounder, more tropical fruit of the 1998. But even at its fruitiest, this is not a fruity wine, which is unexpected for a rose. Unexpected enough that we stuck a warning label on the wine. But if you trust my pairing recommendations – and you’re up for a little adventure – a little Lopez Rosado could be just the thing to perk up your Thanksgiving spread.

Here’s the scoop:

Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.) The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.

But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger. So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for under $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé.

Price: $23.99

Thanksgiving Wines: Yo Gobble Gobble

Originally published on November 12, 2010.

Two weeks until Thanksgiving – which means it’s time for the annual Thanksgiving blog posts and articles. These come in several flavors:

  • Posts and articles about what to pair with turkey
  • Posts and articles about why these types of posts and articles are dumb and useless (like this one)
  • Posts and articles about why these types of posts and articles are still relevant (like this one)

Most of these posts will make some mention of the following:

  • Zinfandel (either for or against it)
  • Alcohol levels (choose lighter wines so you can drink more)
  • Price (generally, some variation of “Don’t spend much b/c nobody really cares and you might as well keep the fancy stuff for the people that do.” 

Now I do tend to agree that the posts that do nothing more than set out a laundry list of recommendations are indeed dumb and useless. But I also feel that a good piece on wine and Thanksgiving – one that helps you think about what to think about – is a good thing. Most people in a position to write these articles (and actually have them read) live and breathe wine. So yes, I can see how the prospect of writing an annual piece about what to pair with a meal that never changes can seem a little useless. But the general wine drinking public are not wine writers. And if the one year that someone decides to make a bit of an effort with the Thanksgiving wine….well, it would be really sad if that was the one year that ever publication decided to just forgo the obligatory articles.

So I do think these articles are relevant. But I’m not going to write one since there are plenty of good ones already out there. But I am going to provide daily (or nearly daily) recommendations, each with a little bit of “why.” And of course, all these wines are available for purchase at Frankly Wines. Because (full disclosure here) I own a wine store. But if you didn’t catch that, you haven’t really been paying attention.