Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Thanksgiving Wine Notes

Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs (California) 1999: Tiny bubbles in a lovely golden wine. This chardonnay-based sparkling wine from my favorite California sparkling wine house was a great starter for our Thanksgiving dinner. The bright acidity of the wine coupled with the very slightest touch of sweetness framed spicy lemon, pineapple, apple, and pear flavors. The finish shows vanilla and toast. Grade: B+ Ridge Pagani Ranch Zinfandel (Sonoma County) 1997: This is a beautiful mature Zinfandel. A medium ruby shading to an attractive brick-red at the rim. A low intensity subtle nose of leather and dried currants on a backbone of cedar shavings. Any rough edges - and Pagani can be tough when young - have been smoothed away. Claret-like flavors of lead pencil and dried currants, with a fading memory of its jammy youth in flavors of nutmeg, cardamom, and vanilla. A rich and dense wine that still has the stuffing to go on aging. As a match for Thanksgiving dinner, it was (if I may say so) inspired. It complemented the various flavors without either being overpowering or being washed out by any of the strong flavors of the meal. The nutmeg and vanilla element echoed the flavors of the sweet potatoes, while the curranty/cedary component resonated with the herb-rubbed turkey and, especially, the savory stuffing (which was dotted with currants in a variation of the good wife's family's tradition of putting raisins in the stuffing). Grade: A- Heitz Cellars Grignolino Port (Napa Valley) 2000: A unique red dessert wine from an unusual grape. It's a port only in the sense of being sweet and fortified, as it is designed to be drunk young. Intensely fruity with a blast of peach aromas and flavors - it reminds me of the peach nectar I drank as a small child. Perhaps also a note of orange marmalade. Already well-integrated, with modest tannins. A great dessert wine, it went well with pumpkin pie. Grade: B+