Gobble, Gobble Tofurkey Time

It's time for the obligatory blog post about wine to pair with your Thanksgiving feast. Apologies for the lateness as it is Thanksgiving eve and the short week has slipped away.

Check out "Can't-fail guide to Thanksgiving wines" for a more traditional set of Thanksgiving wine recommendations. Laurie Daniel of the SJ Mercury News has a good article as well.

My hubby Brent weighed in last year with his "It's Cool Whip Time Baby!" post last year.

Let's take a peak at the wines that I brought home from the Savvy Cellar for our Thanksgiving celebration. We are doing a potluck with friends (10 adults, 5 kids) this year, complete with BBQ turkey, potatoes, dressing, gravy, broccoli slaw, mac & cheese and, yes, tofurkey - it is N. CA after all!

We'll start the festivities with a little Prosecco. Should be crisp, fruity, acidic and refreshing - a gentle start as the hoard walks through the door!

• Chateau de Montfaucon from the Rhone Valley. 5-varietal blend dominated by viogner and marsanne. Bright, big, aromatic with plenty of acidity to cut through our fatty fare.
• Talbot Chardonnay from Santa Lucia highlands. This is a CA chard drinkers' crowd please. Lush, buttery. I might have a sip or two pre-dinner. Will do well with butter basted turkey.
• Georges DeBeouf Beaujolais Nouveau. So what does young french wine have to do with the quintessential America feast? Well, despite its simple flavor profile, this wine is fairly acidic and will not shy away from the big and competing flavors of a Thanksgiving spread.
• Paraiso Pinot Noir. Bright sour cherry and cranberry on the nose along with balanced acidity make this an obvious choice.

More important than the wine or food, is the great appreciation I have for my family, friends and neighbors who'll skip out on their families to join us tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Tastes Like Chicken

“It kind of tastes like chicken.” 

Instead of my usual verbose, poetic discourse, what if I were to just reply to every inquiry regarding the flavor of a red wine by saying, “Kind of tastes like Merlot…”?  Like the doomed-for-dinner chicken, this just wouldn’t fly. 

We are often familiar enough with basic food flavors that we are not intimidated to experiment, and hunger generally eliminates the need for a pre-consumption verbal seduction.  Wine is different.  A new wine-drinker may be able to understand the inherent difference between a Pinot Noir from a Merlot; but start talking about the distinctions between a velvety chocolate-laced Washington Merlot and brooding spicy Chilean Merlot or a sophisticated floral-graced Bordeaux, and it doesn’t take long for them to throw in the towel and just order a martini.

A lot like understanding a fine work of art (after all, that’s what wine is) advanced wine appreciation calls for an open mind, a willing heart, and a bit of experience for comparison.  To truly understand the narrow nuances of wine you have to taste many different types of a specific wine, ideally side-by-side.  If you have only ever had one type of Pinot Noir, it is hard to understand all the potential in that single grape; it is also tricky to know if you really like Pinot Noir, or if you really just like that Pinot Noir.

That is the purpose of Savvy Cellar’s Sunday Tasting Events: personal palate realization.  Each Sunday features a focused line-up of wines chosen to convey the unique attributes of region, climate, winemaker, grape, etc. Basically we give our customers a palate ‘master class’, to build confidence, strength, and quite frankly, to kill all wine ruts.

If I’ve whet your appetite, make sure to check out the Savvy Cellar website calendar, as all tasting themes for Sundays are posted each month. For those dying to get the dish on the ultimate grape diva, Pinot Noir, pop down to Savvy Cellar this Sunday, August 10th from 3-5pm, when we go Crazy for Pinot!

Blog Down South . . . All Wines Kiwi

“New Zealand Wine”

If your free association isn’t instantly Sauvignon Blanc, frankly, I would be surprised. After all, Sauvignon Blanc accounts for roughly 79 percent of the wines exported from New Zealand, and that the pungent, grass and grapefruit-laden liquid is one of the world’s most unmistakable and dramatic wine styles. As a young(er) wine buff back in my home-state of Florida, I developed quite the ‘NZSB’ habit during the 11 months of summer. It is a seasonal craving for me now that I call moderate Northern California home, but as the temperature is starting to push the mercury, my addiction has been roused. Even as I write this, I sip unapologetically on a glass of the 07 Spy Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc; if you are still unclear of what defines this region by style, stop reading and just taste it-- this guy is the textbook.

Now what if I were to say: “New Zealand Red Wine?”

Yep, if you think screw caps are a brilliant Kiwi invention, wait until you taste their offerings of that testy little diva, Pinot Noir. Most wineries brave enough to produce Pinot Noir might say they are in a perpetual experimental phase; New Zealand winemakers can technically claim it - the plantings of Pinot have shot up nearly 10 times in 10 years, and it is still trial and error when it comes to working these young vines. While I would say that Central Otago, the southernmost wine region in the world is the trade and media darling, the Pinot Noirs from Martinborough, a region at the tail end of the North Island seem to be the most consistently balanced. The best feature intoxicating aromatics of dusty floral and fallen leaves, perky acidity and an acceptably generous portion of red berries. They are not nearly as esoteric as Burgundy, but seem to offer more layers of spice and floral than many California Pinot Noir; it is most tempting to liken the best of New Zealand Pinots to the good juice flowing out of Oregon. I have had the good fortune to recently taste the 2006 Escarpment Pinot Noir from Martinborough, hands-down my new favorite this week.

“Purity” is the buzz-word for describing the ‘NZPN’, which I’m beginning to think is just how this country likes to keep things . . . unadulterated.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I am all for breaking tradition, making my own rules, subverting the modern paradigm, etc., particularly in the name of joy and revelry. And I am ALL for theme parties. But there are some times in life when one must face the reality of a situation, and call a spade, a spade. Or in this case, a shamrock, a shamrock.

It is an undeniable truth: St. Patrick’s Day is a beer holiday. No matter what silly attempts we in the industry make to convince people that wine can be an integral part of an Irish national holiday, it just is not reasonable. And out of respect for the divine juice of the vine, I am using this blog entry as a declaration that I will no longer humiliate wine with green food coloring on March 17th! Nor will I deny myself the joys of a good pint of my brew of choice if I decide to patronize the pub on this day of Irish pride.

This all being said, I am not one to give up on the excuse to enjoy wines because of the limitations of a holiday (And it is a shame to only get a go at wearing that garishly green shirt one day out of the year)! As the hours of sunlight grow longer, and the days grow warmer, the green that graces the month of March is not the exclusive rights of those that hail from the Emerald Isle. No, this Savvy Sommelier implores you to drink to ‘the rite of spring’ this month, and what better way than with a glass of wine that honors all things green.

No, put that food dye away!

Creative thinking is at the root of all great parties; here are a few ideas to run with, and a few great wines to feature:

• Go green by throwing an environmentally-friendly party featuring all organic goodies, and pour only the best in organic or biodynamic wines. Alma Rosa is a top organic winery in Santa Barbara County, and their Pinot Noir is always a crowd-pleaser.

• Be literal, and in season: throw an “All About Gruner” party, and pour only Gruner Veltliner wines. “Gruner” translates as ‘green’ in German, and these super-crisp white wines have bright green herbal flavors that go very well with the fresh produce of spring. A tasty one to try is the Schmeltz 2006 Gruner Veltliner.

• Green Spain. Spain is a gold-mine of great wine and food, but often leaves people seeing red. However, the Basque region of Spain is also known as España Verde, or Green Spain. The food is centered around the fruits of the sea, and the acidic, refreshing wines of the region are spectacular to pair with them. Celebrate the same lust for life as the Spanish and enjoy the culinary delights of this culture. The 2006 Nessa Albarino is a beautiful and delicate white that begs for oysters, while the 2006 Jose Pariente Verdelho is a rounder, peachier wine, that adores cheeses and more substantial dishes, like paella.

Once you get going, there are many possibilities for a greener state of mind when it comes to wine! Stop by Savvy Cellar's "Green Wine Tasting" this Sunday 3-5pm.