Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

That time of year has come again with much fanfare and falling rain and falling trees: It’s Autumn and with it brings the Spectacular Super-Special Carpe Vinum Annual Thanksgiving Wine Primer of “What Goes With Turkey?!” and the Tasting Announcement That Corresponds to That Tasting Special! And special it is! I believe I had it billed in the paper as “Pinot Noir, Gamay and Beaujolais” and, indeed, those I do have. Also, I have other great things. And they’re all meant to accompany your Thanksgiving meal, whether that be the traditional Tryptophan-induced-food-coma-style-giganto-meal or your non-traditional-macaroni-and-cheese-because-I-have-to-work-on-Thanksgiving-type meal.

So I thought I could start with a complete history of Thanksgiving. But then I fell asleep, hit my head and started drooling into my keyboard. So I thought better of the complete history of it and, suffice it to say, Thanksgiving is all about the food and family and, of course, the wine. It’s a hedonistic feast of epic proportions in a truly American style. It’s also a feast many people agonize over what wine to serve with all that stuff.

First and foremost of food and wine matching is the golden rule of “drink what you like”! I mean, there are classic combinations of certain foods with certain wines. Cabernet Sauvignon with steak. Merlot with lamb. Sauvignon Blanc with oysters. Milwaukee’s Best with Ramen Tacos and A-1 Steak Sauce (another story altogether). But if you don’t like the wine in question, even if it’s the perfect match, it’ll never work for you. For example, I could have a Syrah with just about anything besides shrimp, but even though Pinot Noir is a perfect match for many chicken dishes, I’ll still go for a Syrah. Make sense?

So from there let’s talk about the classic combinations for the traditional Turkey meal. Like I just mentioned earlier, Pinot Noir goes well with chicken dishes and, as another poultry, turkey is just a big chicken, isn’t it? So Pinot Noir is a shoe-in for that meal. And like the classic Pinot, any wine that is lighter in style so as not to be overbearing to the delicate flavors the bird and the vegetables would do well. One of my favorites is wine made from the Gamay Noir grape.

Gamay is the grape of the French Beaujolais, the district pretty far south within Burgundy. Burgundy proper produces Pinot Noir based red wines since the Gamay vines were ripped out back in 1395 by the duke of Burgundy. They survived in Beaujolais and now they make the finest Gamay-based wines in the world. And a lot of plonk. Apparently more than half of the wine produced in Beaujolais is sold as “Beaujolais Nouveau”, which is wine quickly fermented and sold just 2 months after harvest. The wine is not meant to be taken too seriously and can have all the appeal of a good can of Coke. On the other hand, the Cru Beaujolais, specific districts making serious wine do the Gamay Noir justice. Some of my favorites include Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, and Cote de Brouilly.

Oregon has been growing a small amount of Gamay Noir and in my opinion has been doing a smashing job of it. I’ve had a number of exceptional ones over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, the Gamay I look forward to getting every year keeps getting more exclusive so that I can never get my hands on it. That is the Brick House Gamay, and is apparently only available at the winery this year. Sigh. Also, all of the other Gamay producers are sold out of their remaining stock, due in part to low-yielding vintages. Ah, well . . . maybe next year.

Until then, here we have a couple classic Oregon Pinot Noirs and a trio of Beaujolais. Last year for this tasting, the surprise hit was a dark red and bubbly and slightly sweet wine from Italy. It was a . . . <gasp> Lambrusco! Apparently “Lambrusco” isn’t a dirty word any more. It was tasty and terribly popular and would make a suitable companion to the Turkey meal, and as a centerpiece of conversation, as well. So I brought it back.

Finishing out the lineup is another good wine to talk about. It’s a Syrah from Cristom (in keeping with my favorite food wines) and has lip-smacking white-peppery goodness that resembles Northern Rhone wines. This Syrah is made from estate grown fruit on the Cristom property . . . in the Willamette Valley. Yes. It’s a Willamette Valley Syrah. Which begs the question: Is global warming good or bad for the wine industry? Discuss.

So Friday, November 17th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Turkey Wines (Not wines from Turkey)!!!
Ca de Medici 2004 “Oblio” Notturno Dolce, Reggiano, Italy
Terrapin Cellars 2005 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Dupueble 2005 Beaujolais, France
Bernard Diochon 2004 Moulin-a-Vent, Beaujolais, France
Marcal LaPierre 2004 Morgon, Beaujolais, France

More Delicious T-Day Wines!!!
Cristom 2003 Syrah, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Anam Cara 2004 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.
Hope to see you here!

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Italy’s Tuscany!

And just so’s ya know, we will be open regular hours during the week(Tuesday and Wednesday 11:00AM to 7:00PM), but closed Thanksgiving Day. Any special orders needed by Wednesday will need to be in by mid-afternoon on Tuesday.

M