Five Ways to Make Thanksgiving Wine Pairing Easy

We’ve been posting Doug’s tips for Thanksgiving on Facebook. Here are all five … from “lighten up” to “give up” to “sweet success!” Whatever you choose, here are some fool-proof strategies for picking great bottles to share with family and friends before, during, and after the big meal:

Lighten Up! – Well, that’s good general advice for a day that’s about being thankful for all the gifts of family, friends and the year. In wine terms, though, it means balancing the heaviness of traditional Thanksgiving feasts with lighter, refreshing wines. For whites try minerally Riesling (dry or lightly sweet), crisp Italian whites, or something more exotic like Txakoli. For reds, elegant Willamette Valley Pinot Noir will be a winner, as will good Beaujolais (NOT Nouveau), zingy Northern Italian reds or – a favorite of ours – Mencia from Spain’s Ribera Sacra.

Power Through – It’s a big meal, so match it with full and fleshy wines bursting with bold flavors. American Zinfandel and California Pinot Noirs are the classic suggestions here. But bold Rhone reds like Chateauneuf du Pape and Cotes du Rhone are just as much fun. You can find great value in Spain’s Tempranillo and Monestrell grapes or add a bit of luxury by going with powerful Priorat or even majestic Brunello di Montalcino.

Bring on the Bubbles! – It’s 11 am, the oven is cranked, pots are simmering on the stove, maybe you’ve just come in from setting up the turkey fryer – just imagine how good an ice-cold glass of fizz will taste! Sparkling wine is welcome at every table all year ‘round. Maybe start with some friendly Prosecco or Cava pre-dinner, then step up to rich, toasty Champagne to enhance stuffing and sweet potatoes. And nothing will make the dinner table look more elegant (or those way too heavy mashed potatoes go down easier) than pretty pink rosé fizz in every glass.

Give Up – Look, here’s what every wine professional knows: No wine is a really good match for the cacophonous spread of sweet, savory, tangy and salty foods on the traditional Thanksgiving table. While it’s not obvious how oaky California Chardonnay, rich Napa Cab, or savory matured Bordeaux will pair with your Thanksgiving dinner, who cares? It’s a feast. Eat as much as you like and drink whatever the heck you want to – just be thankful you can!

Finish with Sweet Success – The turkey has been demolished, dishes are piled up waiting to be washed, and only crumbs remain in the pumpkin pie plate. As you settle down to digest and savor the day, one last sip of something sweet is the perfect treat. Port, sweet Chenin, tangy Madeira, subtle Sauternes – any and all will bring an unexpectedly luxurious and delightful close to Thanksgiving Day!

Want to see some specific suggestions in each of these categories? Just visit our CBC Holiday Wine Selections page online and you’ll find our staff favorites for enjoying on Thanksgiving Day and beyond. Or just stop by our give us a call. We’ll be thankful we had the chance to make your Thanksgiving Day just a bit tastier.

Terra Alta – “Baby Priorat”?

Terra Alta is just southwest of the much more famous Priorat region, about 100 km west of Barcelona in Eastern Spain. This is arid, rocky, and mountainous territory that immediately begs the question – why would anyone try to make wine here?

But we know the Romans grew vines here and there is some suggestion winemaking started even earlier than that. The traditional Terra Alta wine was white and “rancio” (a nice way of saying oxidized and sour). Until the 1980s, though, this was mainly co-op country with growers focused mainly on quantity rather than quality.

Why Not Us?
In the 1980s, forward-looking growers in Terra Alta began to notice the critical acclaim (and high prices!) garnered by their neighbors to the aast in Priorat and asked themselves, “Why not us?” Growers had secured DO status in 1972, but revised the DO rule in 1995 to increase the region’s focus on red varieties, especially Cabernet Sauvignon.

In many regions, we think the addition of Cabernet and other “international” varieties is a bad thing, often warping and undermining traditional wine styles in pursuit of big scores and “international style.” In Terra Alta, though, Cabernet has shown itself as an adept partner to Garnatxa Negre (“Grenache” in Catalan), adding structure and complexity without overwhelming the wine’s essential sense of place. In other words, the better wines of Terra Alta taste like they are from Spain, not Australia.

Xavier Clua Capturing the Essence of Terra Alta
If Terra Alta is one of the most promising wine regions in Spain (and it is!), then Xavier Clua has to be one of the most promising winemakers.

The Clua family has been making wine for more than four generations, but Xavier is taking things to an entirely new level. Xavier worked in the family vineyards from his childhood, but left home and earned a degree in oenology in 1994. He then broadened his horizons further by working at several Chateaux in Bordeaux. He returned to Terra Alta with a new, somewhat paradoxical, conviction – that by modernizing his family’s vineyards and winery, he could produce honest, authentic, wine that married world-class quality with distinctive Terra Alta character.

So, he went to work. Blessed with 30-40 year-old Grenache vineyards, Xavier worked to improve his family’s plantings of Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah. The old-vine Grenache vineyards were converted from bush-vines to run along a trellis wire, allowing longer shoots and yielding smaller, more intense, berries. Xavier used temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation vats to allow longer, slower, alcoholic fermentation and ensure controlled malolactic fermentations. Finally, he began working with small French oak barrels, learning how to gain the maximum benefit from wood aging without overwhelming or masking his wine’s sense of place.

Clua Millennium – Power, Purity, Place
Xavier Clua views Mil.lennium as his top wine, the apex expression of his ethic, work and vineyards. And the wine has been very, very, good since we first encountered the 2005 back in 2009. Those early (for us) vintages showcased the power of Terra Alta, emphasizing richness, deep fruit, oak spice and intense, gripping, finishes. They were big, bold, wines that delivered what we (then) thought of as the essence of Spanish wine.

Over the past few years, winegrowers and makers across Spain have been exploring how to move beyond the pure power their old vines and hot, sunny, days easily give. More and more, we see fine Spanish wines that match ripeness of fruit and power of structure with something new: freshness.

Xavier, I think was a bit ahead of this curve: his wines have always matched ripeness with fresh, vibrant, structures. But the 2013 Mil.lennium seems to capture this balance better than ever. Yes, it’s a big wine with plenty of palate impact. But it’s also pure (not thick), clear (not muddy), spiced (not over-oaked), and fresh (not heavy or plodding). It certainly grabs your attention from first sniff and sip. But it will hold and deepen that attention as you move from one glass to the next. A delicious accomplishment you will not want to miss.

A Wonderful Valencia Surprise

So super-Spanish importer Jonas Gustafsson shows up at the tasting table one day and says, “I’ve got some really exciting wines from Valencia.” Now “exciting wine from Valencia” is a bit like “jumbo shrimp” or “military intelligence” – words that don’t seem to go together. After all, Valencia is baking hot, bone dry, and mainly turns out coarse, heavy, thick reds for the bulk trade.

I was skeptical.

But leave it to Jonas to discover Pago Casa Gran, an estate that does pretty much everything the exact opposite way from anyone else in the Levante. Founded by Spanish wine industry veterans in 2006, they farm their old vines organically – actually beyond organically as they have adopted the incredibly stringent Delinat guidelines for soil health and biodiversity.

The Grapes That Make Sense
Unlike international-style, consultant-driven, wineries in Jumilla and Alicante, they grow only the grapes that actually make sense for Valencia: Monastrell (Mouvedre), Syrah, and Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet) – no Cabernet Sauvignon to be seen. In a region where most everyone sprays herbicides to kill off “weeds” and ensure all of the limited rainfall goes to their grapes, they encourage extensive cover crops (year-round where possible) to protect the soil and naturally fix nitrogen (so no fertilizers needed).

In bulk wine production, growers here usually either do pretty much nothing to their vines – minimizing labor costs – or aggressively pull leaves from the vines so that groaning high yields of grapes can bake their way to ripeness.

Careful Vineyard Work; Gentle, Natural Fermentation
At Pago Casa Gran they work their vineyards all year long, thinning bunches and shoots and leaves so that balanced yields of grapes can ripen fully without developing cooked or dried fruit flavors.

They harvest by hand and plot and grape varietal, allowing them to get perfect ripeness and tailor each fermentation batch to the grape and soil type. Where others add cultured yeast and enzymes for consistency and extraction, at Pago Gran Casa they allow the yeast from the vineyards and winery to work on their own, developing complexity and sense of place. And, instead of large, bulk, fermenters that have to be pumped full of grape juice and then pumped out again to barrel, they use small tanks and a crane – lifting each fermenter up to allow the juice to flow out naturally and gently when it’s done.

Hard work, great vineyards and growing the right grapes all come together in these three fantastic wines from Pago Gran Casa. All have plenty of rich, ripe, fruit – we are in the south of Spain, after all! – but deliver it with remarkable freshness and complexity. If you think Spanish wines have to be heavy, thick, and overly oaked, these will change your mind.

And, if you love Spanish wines and appreciate Jonas’s other selections – well, then, Pago Gran Casa is about to become another in a long line of favorites. You can find out more about them on our website. Don’t miss them!

 

Serious Chianti Players Have a Little Fun

We’re enjoying the crazy label on our Carryout Case Special This Week, and chuckling at the fact that this great Sangiovese deal with the silly label comes in … a wood case! Here’s the story behind the wine …

At their Fattoria di Basciano estate in Chianti Rufina, the Masi family has made authentic, juicy, fresh Chianti just east of Florence for three generations. Practice clearly makes perfect, because Wine Advocate lavished praise over their new, estate-grown, Chiantis, calling them “one of the rising stars of Rufina.”

About a decade ago, the family started a second winery called Renzo Masi to purchase fruit from friends, neighbors with, as Wine Advocate explains, put an “emphasis on value wines with vibrant territorial personality.” We think they do a great job and are proud to have Renzo Masi Chianti Reserva 2011 on our shelves right now – a very nice Chianti value for $15.

Now, enter Robert Shack, founder, president, and chief wine guru of HB Wine Merchants. Shack has been an important importer for years, representing the likes of Michel Chapoutier’s Bila Haut, Peter Zemmer in Alto Adige, St. Urbans-Hof in Germany, and Fattoria di Basciano from Chianti. Plus, Bob has never been afraid to go out and look for values on his own – we’ve loved several vintages of Clos Robert (as in Robert Shack) Cabernet Sauvignon over the years.

So, when Bob was looking for an even more aggressively priced Chianti-like red from Italy, it was only natural that he’d approach young Paolo Masi, winemaker at Renzo Masi for help. Renzo spread his grape-buying net beyond Chianti to little villages and obscure vineyards across Tuscany – all the places that have the right soils and climate to create delicious Sangiovese, but lacked the winemaking skill or Chianti name to make it happen.

Then, he made a cheerful, all tank Sangiovese for Bob to bring to the American market at a bargain basement price.

What’s With the Fat Guy? And the Wood Case? Now, there’s a lot of low-priced Sangiovese on the market (although not very much that’s anywhere near as good as this one). So Bob decided that a bold label and memorable name would be in order. Where the idea for the plump guy with a thin mustache and slicked hair sitting on a stool came from, we can’t say. And, the less thought given to the colorful name, the better.

But the wine is really good, a big mouthful of juicy Sangiovese fruit with more than enough bright cherry acidity to cut through the red sauce and cheese on your pizza or plate of lasagna, but ripe and supple enough to simply sip while the pasta is still in the water. Add in the very attractive $9.99 price, and you’ll see why this has quickly become the most popular Italian red in the store.

So, here we have a popular, great priced, great value, Italian red that’s easy to get people to try, pulls in lots of repeat customers, and makes money for everyone involved for $10 bucks. So a few years ago, someone – the folks at Renzo Masi? Robert Shack? A marketing consultant? – for some reason decided something needed to change. Perhaps a wood case would work?

We had fun sharing the 2013 Il Bastardo in wood case with you back in 2015, although the fun was short-lived (we sold out in about 2 days).

When we found out they were offering it in wood again, we doubled our last order and piled it up high. It makes for a fine chance to lay in some sip- and gift-worthy Sangiovese at a screaming value $6.98/ea case price. Come by, give it a try, and we’ll roll the wood case out the door for you!

Focus on Farming: Domaine Girardin

Dom Girardin’s Marco Caschera and Eric Germain have pushed this estate toward greatness.

While it still carries the founder’s name, by the mid-2000s, Vincent Girardin had largely turned over responsibility the Domaine to GM Marco Caschera and winemaker Eric Germain. Since Girardin retired in 2012, Caschera and Germain continue to push this once very good estate forward towards greatness.

Under Germain’s leadership, the Domaine has moved away from the fleshy, super-ripe, and heavily-oaked style of whites that first brought it fame in the 1990s. The focus now is first and foremost on farming. The Domaine itself owns and tends about 50 acres of vines across Burgundy and has access to additional vineyards owned by trusted growers. Vineyard work is as natural as possible, following organic and biodynamic principles as much as Burgundy’s fickle climate and weather allows.

Yields are now modest due to careful pruning and thinning of the crop during the growing season. Grapes are harvested by hand and sorted twice – once in the vineyard by the pickers and then again in the winery by hand and – since 2016 – a modern optical sorting machine.

Getting the Fruit to Bottle. In contrast to the winery’s original style, Germain’s focus now is on getting his fruit to bottle with as little manipulation and handling as possible. For Chardonnay, that means no destemming before pressing – because knocking the berries off the stems opens the grape to the risk of oxidization before fermentation. Instead, whole clusters go directly to the press were the juice can be gently extracted and flow by gravity directly into tank for settling.

From tank, the thick, fresh, juice flows by gravity into French oak barrels for both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. Oak is important to developing richness and depth to Chardonnay, but Germain does not like the flavor of wood, so most wines see 10-15% new oak (enough to replace aging barrels) and only the very top, most concentrated, wines get as much as 30%.

Once the wine is in barrel, Germain….waits. Other than keeping each barrel topped up to make up for evaporation, the wine simply sits on the fine lees of fermentation for 14-18 months of resting and maturation. When the wine is ready, the cellar team simply knocks the bottom bung out of the barrel and allows the clear wine to flow out, leaving the milky sediment behind. Bourgogne Blanc – because of the amount made – requires a little pumping, so it sees a light filtration before bottling. Everything else goes naturally from barrel to blending tank to bottle.

All that’s nice, of course, but what really matters is what you’ll find in the bottle when you get it home. And that’s DELICIOUSNESS! Sure, these are super-sophisticated wines of terrior, complexity and minerality. But they are also flat out fun to drink right now and built to keep on improving more. Come, taste, and stock up while you can!