The gastronomic challenge to find wines that will go with the wide array of flavors--from sweet potatoes with marshmallows to cranberry sauce, from Brussels sprouts to well-seasoned, herb-inflected stuffing and marshmallows--makes choosing bottles for Thanksgiving daunting. Especially since one's extended families have their own preferences in beverages on that holiday.
It would be easy enough just to trot out a nice white wine and serve it throughout the meal, but there are so many distinct, often conflicting flavors in the traditional turkey dinner that one has a lot of leeway to make the right or wrong decision. The rich flavor of a good mahogany-skinned turkey with a dark brown gravy is better served with a red wine. But the stuffing usually has several assertive herbs and spices, and the sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce are very sweet indeed.
Next week I shall be tying Thanksgiving wines and spirits to those that might actually have been enjoyed in the years that followed the first feast, in 1621. For the moment, these are a variety I have enjoyed this far this fall and would happily drink on the third Thursday of November.
FERRARI BRUT ($23)--For more than a century in the province of Trentino, Ferrari has made one of Italy's finest sparkling wines, according to the traditional "metodo classico." Made from 100% chardonnay (and not to be confused with Asti spumante, made from moscato), the wine is matured at least 24 months on the lees, with a gradual turning of the bottle to concentrate sediment that is then disgorged, followed by a small dosage of sugar liquid. At such a good price (there is also a reserva at $56), this sparkler is easily a competitor for Champagnes three times its price, and with a pleasant 12% alcohol and a delicious apple ripeness, it is the perfect first wine of a Thanksgiving dinner and will last all the way through it, toast after toast.
PAZO DAS BRUXAS RIAS BAIXAS ALBARIÑO 2014 ($20)--This light (12% alcohol), frisky wine from Spain's Miguel Torres is named after the bruxas (witches) of Galicia, but they would seem to be very convivial ones. Too many albariños--and there are far too many--are bland and taste like sweet-sour water. This example has much more flavor, and the tangy sour apple component will most likely please every wine drinker at your table and may be the only wine to cut through sweet dishes like cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes.
WENTE VINEYARDS MORNING FOG CHARDONNAY 2014 ($15)--Here's a price point for a quality chardonnay that reminds me, perhaps nostalgically, of the way a good, old-fashioned California chard used to taste: a tad sweet, with a little coconut flavor and some ripe tropical notes. Wente has never wavered from producing wines easily recognizable as their own, and the very reasonable 13.5% alcohol makes this a very good choice for white meat turkey and most everything around it.
CAIRDEAN VINEYARDS PICPOUL BLANC 2014 ($25)--Now here's a varietal you don't run across every day: Picpoult blanc, whose principal region of production is the Languedoc, is one of those wines you drink when you're in the region, an easy, light, almost astringently lemony little wine that goes as easily with seafood as with poultry. Cairdean (which means "friends" in Gaelic) is the only California producer (Rutherford Valley) of the varietal I know, and it's an enchanting if modest wine everyone will love. . The winery is owned by Edwin and Stacia Williams, who also make a well-regarded gewürztraminer.
FEL PINOT NOIR SAVOY VINEYARD 2013 ($70)--While I still decry out-of-balance, high alcohol California pinot noirs, the Anderson Valley produces the better examples in the state, and FEL proves it with this young but vibrant wine at a not unreasonable 14.4% alcohol. Remarkably this is one of FEL's early efforts (the winery is named after proprietor Cliff Lede's mother, Florence Elsie Lede, "a home winemaker who provided the early inspiration for Lede's love of wine.") Their pinots usually sell out quickly, but the 2013 is still in play, with 605 cases produced. The tannin is definitely there and the hint of sweetness you find in California cabs, but it's also velvety right now and the fruit makes this admirably priced pinot wonderful with turkey dinner.
DONNACHIARA TAURASI RISERVA ($50)--Located in Montefalcione in the province of Avellino, Italy, Donnachiara is owned by the Petitto family, who also make the DOCG wines fiano di avellino and greco di tufo. The winery is only ten tears old but the vineyards have been in the family for 150 years, named after a great grandmother who maintained them through two world wars. This is one of the finest, and most expensive, Taurasis, made from 100% aglianico, with the richness and refinement not always evident in this big bold Campanian varietal. With the dark meat and stuffing of the turkey, this is a terrific match.
GOUGUENHEIM MALBEC RESERVA 2014 ($20)--I continue to be impressed with the wine of Mendoza, Argentina, especially its malbecs, and this example, from the high desert climate of the Oco Valley shows how fine a wine can be when its grapes have to work for its nutrient. Patricio Gouguenheim entered the business only in 2002, producing small batches, so that the consistency of the wines can be better gauged throughout the seasons. Soft, with a yielding backbone of tannin, the wine has the right amount of acid and minerals to match up with something like pumpkin soup, parsnips, chestnuts, and even mild cheeses.
SUSANNA BALBO CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2012 ($25)--A true pioneer in Mendoza, Balbo began as an enologist, then began making her own wines, always experimenting with all the factors, from yeast to oak, that effect grapes in the winery. She has several lines at different price levels but her signature series is top of her line. This still young cabernet, with 5% merlot, aged first in new French oak, then in old, surmounts the difficult challenge of taming so much cabernet with just a little merlot so that the wine is muscular without being muscle-bound. I'd give it a year or two more time to achieve greatness.
ROBERT MONDAVI RESERVE TO KALON VINEYARD 2012 ($155)--This is the second vintage of Mondavi's To Kalon Vineyard-designated Reserve from the western edge of Oakville. The first vintage was named "Vineyard of the Year" by the California State Farm Bureau in 2011. Mondavi's Vineyard Manager, Matt Ashby, says that "Following two cooler and wetter growing seasons, the 2012 vintage was a walk in the park with warm days and cool nights that slowly built of the fruits and sugars to allow an ideal hang time, hand-harvested between September 27th and October 26th." The final blend was 90% cabernets sauvignon, 7% cabernet franc, and 3% petite verdot. Here's an example of California cab at its best, not overly alcoholic, at 14.5%, with all the elements integrated along with abundant spice notes. It will go well throughout a Thanksgiving dinner.