Thanksgiving 2009 and Thanksgiving Wines Re-visited

I had a realization last Thursday, the last Thursday of November and the day commonly referred to in the United States of America as "Thanksgiving." As much as I enjoy exploring the synergy, indifference, or, every so often, the discordance between food and wine, I would prefer not to during Thanksgiving. I simply don't have the patience or mental acuity necessary to engage in such an activity. Especially as the host, responsible for cooking much of the food, negotiating space in the oven, and making sure that dinner is served at a reasonable hour. By mealtime I just want to eat and drink a single red and/or white wine to complement the meal. No careful consideration of multiple wines and how they complement the turkey, the truffled mashed potatoes, stuffing and multitude of other sides.

Nope, next year I'll bypass that level of intense analysis and observation. It's Thanksgiving, which means getting mildly to heavily soused, over-eating, and passing out on the couch when it's all said and done. I accomplished two of the three last week, thanks in part to the food we made and were brought by friends and family as well as a few more than a few drinks. Here's an annotated list:

BASQUE CIDER
2008 Isastegi Sagardo; 2008 Sarasola Sagardoa

Both tasty (they're sour cider, how could they not be). Though I preferred the more expressive and appley Isastegi. Sarasola is comparably very acetic and slightly too tart. Like the Hansen's Geuze of Basque cider. After about finishing 3/4 of each bottle (with just a little help from Natalie, most people don't dig the sour) I was ready to progress to wine.

WHITE WINE

1999 Lopez de Heredia Viña Gravonia

Delicious wine. Somehow it's rich, soft, nuanced, expansive and possessing of that rare, elusive cutting white wine acidity combined with depth of flavor that I only seem to find in the likes of Huet, good savagnin, Equipo Navazos Manzanilla Pasada, Gerard Boulay Sancerre, vintage Champagne and some others I'm leaving out. Be careful with Gravonia and turkey, though! While this was awesome wine on its own and ok with epoisses, what a train wreck with our heritage turkey. It brought out the gamey flavors in a big way, and created a chlorinated public swimming pool like flavor in the mouth - not so pleasant.

2007 Domaine de Nembrets (Denis Barraud) "Les Chataignieres" Pouilly Fuisse

Not bad. It's become rounder, plumper, a bit more expressive, and also slightly oakier since last tasting it several months ago. For Pouilly Fuisse you could certainly do a lot worse.

2008 Pascal Janvier Jasnieres

Does Chenin Blanc sec to demi-sec always have an intensely mineral pungency along with its sweet fruit flavors? I liked it, and it was the white which best complemented the meal. A stick to your palate Loire white, very distinctive.

2008 Evesham Wood Puits Sec

85% Pinot Gris, 15% Gewurztaminer. Delicious wine, though unfortunately the best of Williamette white alongside the best of Jasnieres white will inevitably be overshadowed. I enjoyed this wine's fruit expression and long dry finish. It just seemed a little one note compared to Janvier's Jasnieres.

REDS

2008 Benaza Mencía Monterrei

A fairly simple and basic lighter style Cote du Rhone like showing. Cherry fruited, peppery, lacking in the acid I need for a meal like this, and come to think of it, the acid I generally prefer in wine, food or no food.

2005 Algueira Ribera Sacra

10 months in French oak, a significant portion of it new, has not robbed this wine of its intense plum and blue fruit quality. Subtly smoky, with delicious fruit. Sort of somewhere between a Pommard and Crozes Hermitage. Nearly 7 days after first opening, this still bears more than a passing resemblance to its orginal self. OK with turkey, but what it really wants is lamb. Next Thanksgiving, young turkey and lamb! While this is a very interesting drink right now, I'd love to check back in five years. Famed mencía master Raúl Perez acts as consulting winemaker here.

2007 Marcel Lapierre Morgon

Tasty, and not surprisingly the best wine for dinner. It had enough depth to handle heritage game, plenty of acidity to refresh the palate, and such a high level of quaffability that Natalie and I nearly took it out ourselves (after some heavy drinking beforehand).

2007 Domaine Cheveau Saint-Amour "En Ronty"

Spotting this bottle in our tiny Beaujolais section at work, I wondered why I have heard so little about this particular producer. Well, I quickly figured out after sampling, giving the bottle more careful consideration, and even re-visiting on day two, that there is a reason I have heard so little about this wine: it is not good. Muddled, unfocused, uninspired.

2008 Evesham Wood Pinot Noir Williamette Valley

This winery makes very good wine. One of the few Williamette wineries (at least who sell out-of-state) whose new releases always get my attention. Two reasons for this: price ($18 for the basic PN and $14 for the white) and consistent transparency. Even in warmer vintages, the wines are nuanced, lighter in color, and taste the way Oregon pinot should but increasingly does not. This is the bottle of which our assorted lightweight guests drank the most.

Next year will be the year of turkey and red meat. Also, just two different wines at the table. Early front runners are good Rioja crianza and albariño just to keep it Spanish and to bore the French natural wine heads out there.

My version of the French culinary master's take on an Italian dish, with an Italian red and a French white

'Italienne Macaroni' From the Escoffier cookbook:

"Cook the macaroni in boiling water; completely drain it; put it into a saucepan, and toss it over the fire to dry. Season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg; combine it wth five oz. of grated Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses, in equal quantities, and two oz. of butter, cut into small pieces, per lb. of macaroni. Saute well to combine, and serve in a timbale."

This is about as simple a recipe as one could hope for from Auguste Escoffier. Which was perfect a few nights ago, when I was looking for a quick mac and cheese recipe to try. That having been said, I had gruyere but lacked parmesan, so I substitued cheddar cheese. I also had a head of collard greens I needed to use, so I chopped that up and sauteed it in olive oil. Then I combined it with the cheese coated macaroni, put into a round cazuela, grated a little extra cheese on top and put underneath the broiler for several minutes. I did not serve in a timbale.

The results were quite delicious if I say so myself. My girlfriend agreed.

As for the wine, I had a delicious bottle of 2007 Grange Tiphaine Montlouis Sec - a dry, rich chenin with tell-tale quince chenin flavors, as well as intense citrus oils, ripe acids, and a bit of a fat, ripe fruited style which really worked quite well with the richness of the pasta. Less successful: a 2007 Ruggeri Corsini Barbera d'Alba. On its own, the wine showed really sweet red pitted fruit flavors, foursquare, new oak. Doesn't sound like a good pairing, right? Well I suspected this would be the case, so I happily drank chenin throughout dinner. Next time I'll need to try gamay, poulsard, or maybe Les Cretes Tourrette if I want to keep things Italienne.

In fairness to the Corsini, it has opened up considerably in the past two days. I'm drinking it now, and though it's oakier, fatter, and less cutting than I would prefer my wines to be these days, the acidity is showing more prominently than on Friday night. There are slight floral and mineral components, and I guess that I don't mind the wine; otherwise I'd cork it up and wait another 2 days.

Hope it's a great week for everyone out there in food and wine land.

Minimal slacking on the wine drinking recently

On assignment for the podcast, I bellied up to the bar at Terroir recently and, in between interviewing a few patrons as well as the owners, I drank some wine. Here are the highlights, or at least what I remember well enough to briefly describe.

Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray Petillant NV

Decent, fresh, chenin sparkler, if a little lacking in excitement. Obviously this does not show the depth of flavor of the best ('02 or even '01 Huet). But, to me it also doesn't have the fruit purity and immediate appeal of the Pinon ('06 is so good, and the '04 out of magnum is stellar as well). May be more interesting with another year in bottle, employing the British style of cellaring a bubbly a year before drinking?

2006 Francois Mikulski Bourgogne Blanc

Based in Meursault, Mikulski has made one of those rare chardonnays not from the Jura or Champagne which I find to be both interesting and pleasant to drink. Fresh pear flavors, some subtle white flowers, and ripe warm vintage palate weight balanced by fresh acids and lovely lifted elegance.

2006 Occhipinti Il Frappato

Pretty, tiny red berry fruit on a relatively tight and light frame, but still somehow ripe, exuberant and Italian all the same. Does that make sense? And if yes, other than Cos (a bit controversial as some of you surely disagree here) and Gulfi do others make this style of wine in Sicilia? Let's not get into Etna reds, as they can be impressive but also a lot more mineral and intense as well. I'm just looking for the pretty berries, acid and drinkability, here.

2005 Quintarelli Primofiore

Corvina, Molinara, Rondinella, and a splash of Cab Franc (?) Very much the opposite of the wine above. Big, foresty, dark fruited and exotic as well. This wasn't so overblown and lacking interest as to be a struggle to drink the glass, though I definitely would not order a full bottle even to split 3-4 ways. Guess that for Quintarelli, one ought to go all in and splurge for the valpo or amarone experience.

2005 Jo Pithon 'Les Pepenieres' Anjou Blanc

Thanks to Michael for buying this one and suggesting the mini vert which followed. Big, ripe Chenin from this popular producer of generally rich, weighty, oaked chenin. While I thought the wine would be too much for my easily bullied white wine palate, I actually found the wine to be rich, flavorful, palate coating and still easy to drink.

2004 Jo Pithon 'Les Pepenieres Anjou Blanc

A more mineral and nervous version of the above. While I expected to enjoy it more, if anything it seemed a bit more closed. Though, as far as these mini verticals go, a big, powerful vintage that manages to retain its balance will often times outshine the more classic vintage, so I'd be curious to try each of these again on their own. Unfortunately, I suspect that the bottles of '04 are in very short supply.

The aforementioned Michael also brought these two wines from his cellar - very generous, thanks again, Michael.

2001 Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 'Les Preuses' Grand Cru

Really classic, creamy Chablis minerals here. Decomposed marine organism minerality (yes, I have had many decomposed marine organisms in my time) dominated the flavors of this wine. Not sure if I'd want to drink in another few years, but it tastes pretty good right now.

2001 Henri Gouges Nuit St Georges 'Le Vaucrain' 1er Cru

Seemed very firm, tight, and unwielding for an '01 burg around this level, but hey, it's burgundy so what do I know? And for that matter, it's red Burgundy so what does anyone really know about these wines?