Weekend Wine: Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving and the holidays are just around the corner and it is time to pick wines to serve with our family feasts.

Given that many of us will end up with turkey or ham as the main protein, I have a couple of obscure wines to recommend. And for the time-crunched among us, I also have recommendations that are easy to find at your local wine seller.

Let’s start with an obscure white wine that will amaze you. Tenuta Sallier de La Tour is a Sicilian winery with difference. The same family has owned the winery for eight generations and they like to do things the traditional way, focusing on a white varietal that is grown mainly in Sicily, Inzolia. It is an amazing bottle of wine that, at $16, delivers everything you could ask for from a food-friendly style. It has a medium rich density with just enough sparkling acidity to tickle your tongue and cleanse your palate.

If you don’t have time to search out a bottle of Inzolia, try the widely available Erath Pinot Gris ($14) or J. Lohr Chardonnay ($13). If you’d like to have a Texas wine try McPherson’s Picpoul Blanc ($20).

Merlot also goes beautifully with turkey or ham and Washington state has some of the best in the world. Chateau Ste. Michele’s Indian Wells Merlot ($18) has been so good for so long that people often forget about it. Sadly, that often includes retailers, so it is not as easily found as it should be.

For a couple of easy to find wines, consider the Chateau Ste. Michele Merlot ($16, note this is the level below the Indian Wells), or the Decoy Merlot ($25) made by the folks at Duckhorn Winery. Or, for one of the wine world’s great bargains, try Bogle’s Merlot ($9).