Thanksgiving Wines: Lopez de Heredia Rosado 1997 (for the adverturous)

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Many vintages later, this wine is extraordinarily allocated. Like “here’s your six bottles” allocated. Which is less allocated than some wines, but for those of us that remember when we could buy as much of this wine as we wanted, whenever we wanted it, this hurts. Sure, it’s cool to see a new generation of going gaga for this wine, but still, it hurts, just a little.

Originally published on November 21, 2008.

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 less than $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé (which is from 1997!)