It’s almost that time of year again—the six straight weeks where you’re forced to eat your weight in roasted birds, imbibe alcohol nightly at countless holiday parties, don ugly sweaters, cut construction paper into festive shapes, and try to stay sane while listening to hot political takes from your worst relatives. First up is my personal Super Bowl: Thanksgiving.
Growing up, Thanksgiving was always an excuse for my dad to open magnums of California Zin and my mom to gleefully force every guest to go around the table and share what they were thankful for. While I still follow my family’s example for slight emotional coercion, the wine list has changed drastically. Gone are the days of big beefy reds on my turkey-day table. Gone are the purple teeth and stained tablecloths. The wines I serve at Thanksgiving now follow three simple rules:
- Moderate alcohol. Thanksgiving is a marathon, not a sprint.
- High acid. Oh-so needed to cleanse that battered palate on Thanksgiving.
- Moderate price. Thanksgiving is, statistically speaking, the most likely day of the year to host someone who will mix their red and white to make rosé. This is the day to seek out values. Luckily, that's the Little Thing way.
This six-pack was created with those three rules in mind. (Ditto our new two- and four-bottle clubs.) Depending on how many people you have over for dinner, you could open all of these bottles on Thanksgiving day and be very happy; or savor them throughout the month, popping open a bottle of Crémant on a random weeknight or cru Beaujolais with a plate of perfect fall mushrooms. November marks the start of slow season, and with the cold coming in quickly, you should feel free to consume this wine however you like.
Cheers
Dylan
NV Paul Chollet Les Quatre Saisons Crémant de Bourgogne: When it comes to day drinking, sparkling wine is a must in my book. It’s lower alcohol, it keeps the palate buoyant, what’s not to love? And I think for most people, Thanksgiving includes some amount of day drinking, whether you’re eating dinner at 2:00 pm or simply pouring yourself a glass while you cook. Crémant is the perfect option, scratching the itch of Champagne at a fraction of the price.
For anyone unfamiliar with Crémant, it’s sparkling wine from France, made in the Champenoise method, but not from Champagne. It can come from eight different designated regions in France, like Alsace, Jura, and Champagne’s own neighbor, Burgundy. This particular bottle of Crémant comes from Savigny-les-Beaune, where Maison Paul Chollet has been making sparkling wine since 1995. Now run by the third generation—Gilles and Joël Rémy—Chollet blends tradition with modernity, expertly shown in the precision and drinkability of this bottle.
This Crémant is an argument for the extraordinary caliber of French sparkling wine that is produced outside of Champagne. The nose is expressive, mixing flint with citrus and earth; the palate expansive, with pristine bubbles and texture galore. It’s a whole lot of wine.
2021 Flavia Ava Vino Bianco Terre Siciliane IGP: Oh Sicily. Is there any place in Italy pumping out more energetic, value-driven wines right now? No! Not in my opinion, which I’m assuming you’re here for if you’re reading this. Sicily has it all: a food culture that can’t be beat; an ancient winemaking history that dates back to 750 BC; a wild and mountainous interior that rises from shores of the Mediterranean to over 10,000 feet in a handful of miles; an active volcano spewing lava; Jennifer Coolidge’s corpse! The wines from this 10,000 square foot island are chock full of character and they are in heavy rotation at my house.
This liter bottle is 100% Grillo, an indigenous grape from Sicily. (Or Puglia, depending on who you ask.) It’s the grape traditionally used to make fortified Marsala wine, but over the last century, it’s been vinified more regularly as a still table white. Slowly, Grillo has been claiming its place in the lineup of dry, easy-drinking white wines of Italy.
Made by the brother and sister team, Giacomo and Flavia Rallo, from their family’s Etna vineyards, the grapes are raised organically, hand harvested, and fermented with wild yeast. The first thing you’ll notice is the color: a golden-hour yellow that screams of a sepia-toned Sicilian summer. The nose is a seafoam, honeysuckle mix with a touch of funk, while the acid-driven palate walks a tightrope between fruity and savory. The whole thing twinges with saline and perfume. We first tasted this back in the late summer and knew it needed to be on the Thanksgiving table. The complexity at play, along with the sheer drinkability, makes it an excellent candidate for dinner.
2022 Domaine Gueneau Chavignolet Sancerre Rosé: Rosé is one of the great food pairing wines of the world. Well-made rose has immense versatility: acid-driven structure, fruit impact, complexity, even a touch of tannin. It opens the bottle up to all sorts of cuisine. That is why many a Wine Professional® will try to sell you rosé for your Thanksgiving table; it’s a perfect smorgasbord wine.
And while finding a well-made rosé isn’t hard anymore, it’s also not hard to end up with an inexpensive bottle of insipid pink drink. Cue Sancerre Rosé. Sancerre is a region in the Loire Valley that is more famous for its mineral-drive Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s also home to some pretty special Pinot Noir, which gets made into red wine and rosé. Rosé makes up less than 7% of all the wine made in Sancerre, so it’s not always easy to get your hands on.
With the third generation, Elisa, at the helm, Domaine Gueneau farms about 40 acres of sloping vineyards in Sancerre. The Pinot Noir is grown sustainably on clay-limestone soils, and used entirely for this rosé. It’s red berried and lemon-tinged, bringing together textbook Sancerre notes and Pinot Noir’s fruit core. You can tell from the color, this is not your typical Provençal rosé. There’s some seriousness at play, with a touch of tannin and a helluva lot of elegance. But the end of the day, it’s the mineral-and-acid spine that makes this one stand out.
2020 Prà Morandina Valpolicella: I love this wine. Let’s start there. It’s so crunchy and delicious, a perfect light red for anyone who “doesn’t really drink red” and a serious enough option to keep professional red drinkers happy, too. It comes from Prà, one of the world’s greatest producers of white wines. They are known as a benchmark, historic producer of Soave, but they also make undeniably delicious red wines, albeit, a little more under the radar.
Valpolicella is the region–in Veneto, in northern Italy–and the grapes to know are Corvina, Corvione, and Rondinella. Valpolicella is home to Amarone, a full-bodied red wine the region is better known for, but it’s the rosso bottlings that best represent the region. Prà farms about ten hectares in Valpolicella, all certified organic, formed by glacial runoff. They have a high percentage of active limestone, which is so apparent in this mineral bomb of a bright, light red. Fermented with native yeast in stainless steel and aged in neutral French oak, this is sleek and nervy, carrying red fruit, greenery, and spice all along a chalky core.
If you’re not popping this open on Thanksgiving day, the pairing options are endless. It’s a perfect pizza wine, naturally, but also ready for a clam shell of bbq pork from Kau Kau in the ID or burrito from Carnitas Michoacan on Beacon Hill. It would be an amazing adobo wine; thrilling with a burger from Taurus Ox; next level with chowder from Local Tide; or drunk in the park on an unseasonably dry late-fall day with salmon jerky from the market. Basically, go eat at your favorite Seattle place and drink this at the same time.
2020 Léon Boesch Les Jardins Pinot Noir: When we put the Léon Boesch Crémant in August’s wine club, I knew we were just counting down the days until another singular, pristine wine from the Boesch portfolio made an appearance. I first fell in love with these glorious Alsatian wines a few years ago when I tasted an entry-level bottle of Edelzwicker—a whimsical field blend from the region. I remember thinking: holy moly, if this is where it starts, where does it end? I set myself on a mission to find out, and quickly fell head over heels for the crystalline whites and electric reds of this biodynamic producer on the French-German border.
The Boesch family has been making wine in the Haut-Rhin in Alsace for eleven generations. They have been biodynamic for over two decades, though Demeter certified for the last 10 years. Their Pinot Noir plantings are spread out across their valley estate, resembling little gardens, hence the name Les Jardins. The grapes macerate for about three weeks before getting pressed, and the wine is then aged for a year before release, unfined and unfiltered.
For many in the world of wine, Pinot Noir is be-all and end-all. People will spend countless dollars chasing the pristine pleasure that fine Pinot Noir can bring, searching for the ephemeral joy of a balanced, expert Pinot Noir. While I’m not going to try to compare this bottle to the highest price point Burgundies of the world, I think that Léon Boesch’s Pinot Noir has that je ne c'est quoi they are looking for. That unique balance of fruit and earth, of time and place, that can hardly be described. For my own house, I buy this wine by the case.
2021 Yohan Lardy Moulin-a-Vent Vieilles Vignes 1903: For your consideration: another pristine bottle of Beaujolais to wax poetic about. This one is sourced from century-old vines in Moulin-à-Vent, a cru of Beaujolais—a special growing site—that sits towards the northern end of the region. It’s named after the famous 300-year-old windmill that perches above the vineyards and is known for crafting the most full-bodied, age-worthy version of Beaujolais. In their youth, they are floral and fruit-driven; as they age, spicier, earthier characteristics emerge. The soil here is made up of manganese-rich, decomposed pink granite and quartz soils known as Gore. (The same soil series can also be found in St. Joseph and Cornas in the Northern Rhone.) Manganese is not found around all of Beaujolais. It is actually a detrimental mineral to grapes, slowing overall growth, resulting in smaller, more concentrated yields. This is what makes Moulin-à-Vent so age worthy.
Yohan Lardy is a fifth generation grapegrower who has his hands on a number of old-vine parcels. This particular set of vines was planted in 1903. How often do you get to try wine from century old vines? Basically never, so it’s kinda thrilling if you’re a nerd like me. And if you’re not a nerd, it’s super delicious to boot. The nose is a fruit-fueled blend of strawberry and blueberry fruit, iris, sumac, anise, crunchy leaves, and granite. It’s what I love most about Beaujolais; that ethereal blend of fruit and the earth where it was grown. The structure here is impressive, showing off more than enough acid and tannin to spend some time in the cellar. It’s a heavyweight version of Beaujolais, but still gulpable. I love the inbetween nature, it feels universally appealing for a holiday meal when you have a lot of people to please. As a diagnosable people pleaser, sign me up.
Roasted Squash with Curried Yogurt and Herbs
I used to hate squash—and sweet potatoes for that matter—because people seem to insist on leaning toward sweet rather than savory. Friends. It’s time to stop drowning these gourds in maple syrup and topping ‘em with marshmallows. It’s time to embrace the savory! The subtle flavor of winter squash is best when playing its role in a holistic dish, adding needed sweetness to salty, fatty, acid-rich dishes. In this recipe, the winter squash of your choice layers rich, caramelized sweetness with tangy greek yogurt, spiced curry, nutty roasted legumes, and bright herbs tossed with citrus. It’s a delightful addition to big meals like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it’s also hearty enough to be a vegetarian main or weeknight dinner on its own.
Time: 40 minutes
Active Time: 15 minutes
Serves: Four to six adults as a side dish; two adults as a main dish.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Greek yogurt
½ tbs curry powder, we used a mild, yellow curry here
2 limes
1 medium-large or 2 small shallots
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch parsley
1/2 cup peanuts
2 pounds of winter squash, roughly 1 medium squash
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 425 °F
- Mix greek yogurt, curry powder, zest and juice from one lime, and salt to taste. Set aside for later use.
- Mince your shallot and toss in lime juice from one whole lime. Set aside for later use.
- Cut squash in half, removed seeds, and cut into 1/4-inch thick half moons
- Toss squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper
- Lay squash on a sheet pan and roast for 25 - 30 minutes minutes
Don’t let the squash overlap or it will steam rather than roast. You can flip the squash halfway through, but if you leave it to cook on one side you’ll get better caramelization.
- Chop cilantro and parsley, stems and all, and mix with reserved shallots.
- Roast peanuts. When there’s about 8–10 minutes left on your squash, throw your peanuts on a small sheet pan or oven-safe skillet and roast them. This is a higher temperature than you’d usually roast nuts, so we’ve reduced the time drastically. But still, keep an eye out for burning.
- Remove squash and peanuts from oven and let cool slightly
Now, it’s time for plating:
First, take your curried yogurt and spoon it on the center of a large serving plate. Fan it out in a circular motion with the back of your spoon. Then, layer squash in a mound in the center of the plate. Add some flaky sea salt and pepper. Top with cilantro-parsley-shallot mixture, and finally peanuts.