We always try to select November wines to pair with a Thanksgiving menu. This is a meal with a mix of flavors – savory, sweet, tart and creamy (think buttery mashed potatoes!) Add oysters and you get an even more mixed profile to match. If you serve the meal in courses, wines can be paired by course, but Thanksgiving is traditionally a celebration enjoyed around a table laden with all the favorite traditional dishes.
One sure way to add a festive touch to the meal is to start with a toast of sparkling wine. Although not our club selections, our Bohigas Brut Cava or Willm Cremant d’Alsace Prestige Brut are great starters. From there we have selected wines from France. The white is from the western edge of the Loire Valley. The red is from the Cru Beaujolais region of Burgundy.
2024 Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie is a Mary Taylor import produced by Jacqueline Delaunay. It is a crisp, dry white wine made 100% of Melon de Bourgogne (Melon Blanc) grapes. Sur Lie means the wine is aged on the dead yeast cells after fermentation, which adds a slight creamy texture, body, and subtle complexity. This is your wine for seafod, particularly oysters.
2024 Bonne Neige Brouilly is a Cru Beaujolais made from Gamay grapes from Brouilly, the most southern and largest of the ten official cru (top-tier production areas) appellations in the northern part of the Beaujolais wine region of Burgundy. Standard Beaujolais (Nouveau Beajoulais and Beaujolais-Village) are light, fruity, and meant to be drunk young, though higher-end Cru Beaujolais from northern villages offers more structure and complexity. Brouilly Beaujolais ages well. This is a versatile wine to blend all of the food tastes on the Thanskgiving table. May serve slighly chilled but avoid refigerating too long.
If you are one to indulge in fun on holidays, we have something unique to try – paint your own turkey! Bissinger Handcrafted Chocolates has a milk chocolate turkey you can “dress” with milk chocolate “paint.” If you like this, Santa is coming in December!
20024 Mary Taylor Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, Loire Valley, France $17
This Loire Valley wine has high acidity with crisp citrus (lemon and lime), green apple, and distinct salty or wet-stone minerality. Perfect with seatood or as a stand alone with oysters on the half-shell. Alcohol: 12%
2024 Bonne Neige Brouilly, Cru Beaujolais, Brugundy, France $17
Deep red in color with violet tints. The nose is subtle, with floral fragrances that lead into a fruit-forward palate of wild strawberry and peppery notes. The silky tannins lead into a long, pepper-spiced finish. Alcohol: 12.5%
