Wednesday Wineblogging

People are walking around in shorts and flip-flops, Whole Foods is still selling local organic tomatoes, and I've got the windows open while I'm preparing next week's Thanksgiving dinner wine list. If you wouldn't know any better, you'd think I'd moved to Charleston, SC after all!

I'm working hard on my homework so that I won't get stuck in Iraq. Maybe Margaritaville, but not Iraq.

From left to right: '05 Owen Roe Abbot's Table (35% Cab S, 17 Merlot, 15 Zin, 9 Cab F and 6 others), '03 d'Arenberg (makers of Stump Jump) Laughing Magpie (94% Shiraz, 6% Viognier), '01 La Bete Aligoté, and '00 Chateau Dereszla Tokaji.

Each of the wines featured above would make fine Thanksgiving dinner wines. All are fairly bold wines which is probably a good thing for Thanksgiving. The Laughing Magpie is quite quaffable and the Viognier is a nice touch. Abbot's Table is complex and has some good spice to soften the bird up a bit. Meanwhile for the white drinkers, Abigoté is sort of like a cross between Pinot Gris and Viognier which should compliment some of the sweeter parts of the dinner. Finally, the Tokaji is all you would expect from a Tokay desert wine and is quite highly rated. Yes, I opened them all tonight but I didn't finish all the bottles. I did eat the tomato and prosciuto.

Some of the above wines are available in Boston and not at Total Wine in Delaware. Also, since I don't know what the final menu will be, it's hard to predict what to get. But as for now, what follows is the list. It's on the sweet side. In semi-chronological order:

To begin, any or all of the following:
Moscato d'Asti
Viognier
Grüner Veltliner

Whites we like:
Eroica
Evolution

Reds:
Pinot Noirs. Can't do without 'em for Thanksgiving. Honestly, prices look kind of high on the website, so I can't really make a recommendation...take what looks good at the time.
A Zin, like the 7 deadly.
And a Beaujolais neuveau. One of the producers that sells there should be offering one of their fresh wines.

Desert wine?
Maybe a Beerenauslese?

We shall see as the final list gets honed down in the next few days.