Red Holiday Wines
I get a lot of questions about Holiday wines this time of year. With family and friends joining you for special occasions to make memories, this is a time you want to have just the right wine to make the dinner that much more special! For Thanksgiving, I always recommend Pinot Noir, Cru Beaujolais, Chenin Blanc, Dry Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. All these wines have great pairing potential with the foods of the holidays, and they are sure to surprise and delight a diverse crowd!
Of all these wines. Beaujolais and Chenin Blanc are probably the most misunderstood and underestimated wines of the season! Beaujolais is from a region called Beaujolais, which is South of Burgundy and North of the city of Lyon and the Rhone Valley region of France. These wines are made from the grape Gamay. Gamay is a thin-skinned varietal, much like pinot noir, with natural high acidity, (which makes it a great food wine) and typically has the flavors of dried berries, cinnamon, and cherries.
Most people’s first introduction to Beaujolais was by trying the Beaujolais Nouveau wines from the region. Those wines have improved a lot over the years, and we will have one available at the club from a very good producer. The best Beaujolais are called Cru Beaujolais and those are from the ten best villages in the Beaujolais region. Cru Beaujolais, unlike Beaujolais Nouveau wines, are made in the traditional method of making wines and aging them. Great versions of these wines come from the villages of Morgon, Brouilly, Moulin-A -Vent and Fleurie. We will have some of these available at the club, too.
White Holiday Wines
As for white wine for your holiday table, Chenin Blanc is a wonderful food wine and crowd-pleaser. So many people are pleasantly surprised when they try this wine! The wine is high in acid, medium body, ranges from dry to semi-dry and has medium alcohol. The flavors of the wine are pear, apple, meyer lemon and quince. The high acid makes it a great food wine. Often, there is the perception that this wine is sweet. It does have a lot of floral and fruit characteristics, but only some of these wines are vinified in a fashion that they are sweet, but most are off-dry! The best examples of these wines come from a region in the Loire Valley in France called Vouvray and South Africa! South African Chenin Blanc is a wonderful quality wine for surprisingly great prices! A fun fact, South Africa grows and makes more Chenin Blanc than France now!
