Thanksgiving Wines: Scholium Project (for the Adventurous without the Spanish accent)

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: The first skin contact sauvignon blanc that ever graced my shelves. And now, I have three on the shelves. One’s even sparkling. Oh, what a wild, wild wine world it’s become. (And yes, I did indeed drink this wine on that Thanksgiving Day. And it was delicious.)

Originally published on November 23, 2008

Scholium Project is one of those wineries that exists within the wine ether. I’m not sure where I first heard of Abe Schoener’s project, but I know it was well before the Eric Asimov’s NY Times piece this fall. Lucky for me, I can just point you to the NY Times piece as background…here, which I would rather do than reinvent the wheel.

While Mr Asimov’s piece gives good background on the overall project, I would rather just talk about one of the Scholium Project’s wine’s in the contact of turkey…

2006 Farina Vineyards the Prince in His Caves

This wine is everything you’re not supposed to do with Sauvignon Blanc: long fermentation, wild yeast, oak (some of it new, I think), skin contact. It should be absolutely horribly, but it’s not. It’s actually the perfect match for Thanksgiving. I think it even ranks above the LdH, which is pretty close to perfect. You get peaches…but not just peaches. Grilled peaches, with a bit of ginger spice. Enough weight to stand up to the side dishes, but not so heavy that it can’t play well with the turkey.

At just over $40, it’s not inexpensive, but it is the single best wine I can imagine for Thanksgiving. It’s what I’ll be pouring.