Turkey Day Wine Faves

...Hart Cellars Vidal Blanc (or is it Seval Blanc?)....

James, It's Vidal, as I don't think I've made a Seyval since '02, when the grower I buy from had to tear out the Seyval vines due to crown gall. Wish I could still get some nice local Seyval. BTW - you neglected to mention that you will undoubtedly be having the finest bread and rolls on the East Coast.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

...it's absolutely amazing how the right or wrong wine can either bring "acclaim" or "defame" depending on the food match. Best of luck to all this Thanksgiving Day weekend!

Here's my wine list for Thanksgiving Day and the extended weekend:


2006 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau

2005 Louis Jadot Beaujolais

2005 Mionetto Vino Novello Marca Trevigiana

2006 Mionetto Vino Novello Marca Trevigiana

2000 MoselLand Arsvitis Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Riesling

2003 Barton & Guestier Vouvray

2003 Villa Maria New Zealand Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough)

Nothing spectacular, just some fun wines to accompany a fairly wide food flavor spectrum!
After a little recovery time I hope to be able to eke out some tasting notes.

We're taking some Prosecco to make Kir, a Trimbach Gewurztraminer, a Jadot Beaujolais Village, and a Clos Du Bois Pinot. From past experience I predict that the Prosecco will barely survive the uncorking, the Gewurz will be gone within a couple of hours, and the reds will barely be touched, other than by my wife and I.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Hello all. I am new here to WLDG. I tried to get my account active before my feast and get some feedback. I was thinking of serving either a vouvray or chinon this year and wanted to know what you all thought. I ended up serving prosecco with Blue Point Oysters before dinner. Adelsheim Pinot Noir was the star at dinner, though.

I always like pinot noir with the Thanksgiving feast.

Menu:

Turkey with Butternut Squash, Cranberry, and Hazelnut Dressing
Gravy (duh)
Roasted Green Beans with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Pearl Onions
Sweet Potato Mousseline
Leek Gratin
Brioche and Pain au Lait Rolls
Apple Pie
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Welcome, Robert.

Sounds delicious! Did you do all the cooking yourself? Could you share the recipe for the Leek Gratin?

I ended up by myself for dinner today, so just stuck with the brut I opened for basting and gravy making. Might open a bottle of something else for the evening though!

First course; Antipasta- imported prosciutto, sweet soperssato, sweet dry sausage, Genoa Salami, imported sweet cappicola, extra sharp imported provolone, pepper salad, roasted sweet red peppers, oil cured black olives and black pitted olives, cracked green Greek olives, anchovies, assorted Brooklyn Italian bread (prosciutto bread, cheese bread, and regular and semolina Italian bread- the best on the east coast Howie).

Second course: Soup- chestnut soup, very “untraditional” for me but my (older) sister did a great job, it tasted fantastic!

Third course; Lasagna, my younger sister prepared this dish and she also did a great job!

Main course; Roasted Turkey
Deep fried Turkey
Stuffed mushrooms
Bread stuffing
Cajun style sausage stuffing
Dixie style Sweet potato
Broccoli cheese quiche
Baked fennel with provolone cheese melted on top
Cranberry sauce

Final course; Dessert (assorted cheese cakes, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie), assorted nuts, fruit, coffee, tea, espresso and Anisette

Wines; Home-made Zinfandel and Barbera (both 2004 vintage)

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Salute

Beth and I ended up travelling on T-day, all day in fact. So the family Thanksgiving dinner will be on Friday, out of necessity. And I have read this entire thread and have decided that I must open a dry Vouvray, and a Pinot Noir or two, and perhaps a nice ice wine for dessert. For the Vouvray, I will do the Bourillon Dorleans Vouvray sec. For the Pinot, the Drouhin Vero which is innocent enough to satisfy my kids, and interesting enough to appease Beth and me, and a very nice food wine. And for the ice wine, I think a nice Cab Franc from NOTL. And maybe to start things off, an off dry Riesling from the Old Mission Peninsula, maybe a Brys Estate.

We had honey-roasted Cornish Game Hens, Biscuits, a nice salad, and pie. My family are not really wine nerds, but I enjoyed the very, very dry (atypical), minerally, savory Elizabeth Spencer Mendocino Sauvignon Blanc with the salad. My brother didn't like this, and the brother in law was non-committal.

The Raymond Generations Cab (1998) showed very well this afternoon. The fruit in this bottle was more forward, with nice black tones and none of the stewed/porty character I've noted in some bottles-more fruit than the previous '98, which was pretty much all savory secondary flavors. Very balanced. Sadly, I only have one more bottle. I wonder if the winery has library wines for this vintage? I do have a '99 I want to try.

Main course; Roasted Turkey
Deep fried Turkey
Stuffed mushrooms...

Hello Victor,
I'd absolutely love it if you could post your "stuffed mushrooms" recipe in the "kitchen forum".

Thanks alot,
Aaron

Welcome, Robert.

Sounds delicious! Did you do all the cooking yourself? Could you share the recipe for the Leek Gratin?

I ended up by myself for dinner today, so just stuck with the brut I opened for basting and gravy making. Might open a bottle of something else for the evening though!

Hello Cynthia. I did some of the cooking. My mother did the turkey and dressing this year. I did the potatoes and the apple pie. The leeks are really easy:

Cut the white ends off the leeks (I use a little green, too.) and halve lengthwise.
Blanch the leeks in water in a sautee pan until just tender.
Put leeks into a casserole and cover with cheese (I like to use Fontina or Pecorino Romano).
Pour in enough cream to coat the bottom of the casserole.
Season with sea salt and pepper (I use a four-peppercorn blend)
Cover with some hearty bread crumbs (optional).
Bake until bubbly and leeks are very tender (375 degrees).

I also did something new with my pie crust this year. I usually use all butter (I don't really like using hydrogenated oils) but this time I substituted some (4 tbsp.) of the butter with duck fat. It was the flakiest and most flavorful crust I have ever made.

Thanks, Robert, that sounds great! I don't know why I've never done it before as I love all the ingredients and the technique.

[James Roscoe]

Howie's Gamay and Vidal Blanc were "The Bomb". The crowd especially enjoyed the Vidal Blanc. It really was the best white of the day, and we drank an Albrecht Pinot Blanc too! I loved the Gamay and thought it was the WOTN. Others were put off a little by its minerality. They were also drinking red fruit bombs (a spoofy Spanish tempernillo and Andeluna Cab) with cocktails so their palates may not have adjusted very well to the lighter Gamay's flavors. I loved it. It paired well with my turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, mushrooms, fresh limas, stuffing and roll (I passed on the sweet potatoes, peas, and creamed onions). Thank you Howie for this wonderful gift! I can't tell you how much they were enjoyed. I can't wait to crack your Chardonnay at my winetasting dinner in two weeks!

Thanks, Robert, that sounds great! I don't know why I've never done it before as I love all the ingredients and the technique.

No problem. I love making gratins. They are easy and delicious. I like to put sorrel in a potato gratin.

Hey Gary! In reading your post about the bread you took to to your T-day festivities, made me so hungry that I went looking for the bakery. I found it too. Man it sure sound like this guy has got it right. http://www.papasoven.com/Pages/AboutUs.html

....and roll (I passed on the sweet potatoes, peas, and creamed onions). Thank you Howie for this wonderful gift! I can't tell you how much they were enjoyed. I can't wait to crack your Chardonnay at my winetasting dinner in two weeks!

Glad you and the family enjoyed them James. Did your wife bake the rolls? I'm still at my sister's in Maine (eating lobster with Vouvray and my home made Chardonnay in about an hour), so I'll report on my T-Day wines when I get back home.

Howie, report on the Vouvray too. At least let us know what wines you had and what you thought of them. I had a bottle of 2004 Moncontour yesterday with some leftsover from T-day (although I didn't have turkey). I picked up 2-3 bottles of this at Sam's Club in Ann Arbor while up there for Mo'Cool, and now that it is all gone, I wish I had a couple cases of it.

[James Roscoe]

Glad you and the family enjoyed them James. Did your wife bake the rolls? I'm still at my sister's in Maine (eating lobster with Vouvray and my home made Chardonnay in about an hour), so I'll report on my T-Day wines when I get back home.

The wine was outstanding, although I would give the edge to the Vidal Blanc. That was some of the best white wine I have ever had. Anyone who wants to know what Vidal can do in the hands of a master vitner needs to taste Howie's Vidal Blanc. It will forever change your mind about hybrids. Howie could sell 10,000 cases a year of that stuff at $15 a pop without batting an eyelash. the Gamay is a beauty too and would win plaudits from anyone who knew what a Gamay was meant to taste like.

Howie, the rolls were made by my sister-in-law. She got the recipe from her mother, which is where my wife got her bread recipe. The rolls are made from scratch and mealt in your mouth. They have barely any need of butter unlees, like me, you ned an excuse to get more fat into your system. Make sure we get a full report.

Yep,James,I warned you..you are now a full-fledged Howie groupie! I agree whole heartedly, if Howie went into the business,he'd have no trouble having the wines fly out the door.
Glad to read you enjoyed the experience.

Cheers!
JuliaB

Here's my wine list for Thanksgiving Day and the extended weekend:


2006 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau

2005 Louis Jadot Beaujolais

2005 Mionetto Vino Novello Marca Trevigiana

2006 Mionetto Vino Novello Marca Trevigiana

2000 MoselLand Arsvitis Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Riesling

2003 Barton & Guestier Vouvray

2003 Villa Maria New Zealand Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough)

Nothing spectacular, just some fun wines to accompany a fairly wide food flavor spectrum!
After a little recovery time I hope to be able to eke out some tasting notes.

This has been a really awesome wine/food-experience weekend! All of the above mentioned wines were tried and were all great with the exception of the '05 Mionetto. I cellared it for a year just for fun as an experiment to see just how much this "Novello" would change in a year. It changed quite a bit, although it was still drinkable, but with noted oxidation. It started going a little caramel-raisiny on me.

Something else special happened this weekend as well! I had my first "IceWine" experience this weekend! It was all that I expected and much much more! I've never tried dessert wines outside of fortified wines and I'll tell you what- this was a pretty "sweet" experience (pun intended)!! I'll give a detailed WTN in the forum later.

Thanks forumites for participating in this thread. Looking forward to any weekend re-caps.


P.S. Here come the Holidays, more culinary discovery & exposition just ahead...!

OK, may as well chime in on this thread, too. We had a small family gathering of 5 for dinner (4 for the pre-dinner treats).

A few hours prior to the meal, we popped the cork on a bottle of NV Guy Charlemagne Reserve Brut Blanc de Blancs. We drank this while munching on crackers and soft cheeses.

My son had picked up a domestic Pinot Gris, for which I cannot recall the name. We opened this bottle of wine, which was rather forgettable, too; I really do not care for oaky Pinot Gris.

Our meal proper started with fresh greens, garnished with dried cranberries and carmelized almonds & walnuts, and served with a nice poppy seed dressing. I opened a bottle of 2005 Domaine Gerovassiliou Malagousia Epanomi, which is very much like a Viognier. The white wine drinkers also drank this selection with the rest of their meal.

I had two bottles of red wine to choose from, and the choice was made when our daughter in-law asked for some red wine to add to the cranberry-fig relish she was making. As a result, the Pinot Noir remained in the box and the Grenache was opened. The red wine drinkers went on to enjoy the 2000 Ridge Lytton Estate Genache with their meal.

Dessert choices eventually came around. We had some 2002 Andrew Rich Les Vigneaux Gewurztraminer to go with pumpkin pie. We also had the 2004 Kiona Red Mountain Chenin Blanc Ice Wine to go with a slightly tart deep dish apple pie.

Other than that Pinot Gris mentioned above, the wines were all very enjoyable and they ended up being very good food matches.

-- Clark

The wine was outstanding, although I would give the edge to the Vidal Blanc. That was some of the best white wine I have ever had. Anyone who wants to know what Vidal can do in the hands of a master vitner needs to taste Howie's Vidal Blanc. It will forever change your mind about hybrids. Howie could sell 10,000 cases a year of that stuff at $15 a pop without batting an eyelash.

James, it's very heartening to read your words vis-a-vis Howie's Vidal (and his homemade wines in general, which I've had the pleasure of trying too). You see, this is what I have been saying for years on this forum: Hybrids, when dealt with an uncompromising mind to quality and hands-on respect from vineyard to glass, make outstanding wines of great purity and structure. It's the commercial imperative that has cause so many hybrids to be made into politically correct dreck that gets a bad name, and often, deservingly so. When you get a vineyard manager who doesn't push the vines to overproduce but instead treats his vines with the same loving care as a professional chef puts into his food, for example, the results have no choice but to show through.

Hey Gary! In reading your post about the bread you took to to your T-day festivities, made me so hungry that I went looking for the bakery. I found it too. Man it sure sound like this guy has got it right. http://www.papasoven.com/Pages/AboutUs.html

Hey, Bob!! Yeah, everyone went nuts over the bread. This fellow used to own the Tobacco Loft in the next town over, pipes, cigars etc. I guess he saw the future of tobacco in California and changed horses in midstream, something I wish I had had the cojones to do. His place is really small, but he has these family-style dinners (check out the bottom of the menu) for $15.00 which are really kind of good, even if a bit eclectic. B.Y.O.B., of course.

It's a different kind of place for Martinez. You know. We're smack dab in the middle of wine country and even have a winery in town, but we have no fine wine shops ... just the supermarkets and liquor stores. Papa's Oven is a refreshing change of air and I hope he survives. Those turkey sandwiches on the fresh baguettes were killer!!!

Started a new tradition this year as I re-explore Cru Beaujolais.

We served a 2005 Fleurie "Domaine des Quatre Vents", which everyone loved.

Plus we also served a 2006 Kim Crawford SB as well as some Cristalino sparklers (Spanish Cava).

Richard

My faves of the weekend were:
Drouhin Vero Pinot Noir, 2003, perfect with the T-Day main meal. A bit on the simple side, euro structure, American tastes.
Royal DeMaria Riesling Ice Wine, 2002, a great end to a fabulous T-Day meal. Beautiful acidity, not the least cloying.
Pegau CdP 2001, made leftovers seem like a feast. Seemed older than 5 years. Open for business.
Also ran: Bertanura Moscato d'Alba 2005, La Spinetta Barbera 2004, Clerico Barbera 1999, Chateau Tricot 2000 Bordeaux, Sebastiani Chardonnay 2004, Bourillon Dorleans Vouvray sec 2004.