There are only two weeks until Thanksgiving – my favourite holiday. There’s no pressure to find someone a gift. No over-the-top decorations. Just good food, friends, wine and being thankful. Here, five wines I’m thankful to have tried this past year. Bonus: They all go well with turkey.
Joseph Drouhin 2019 Bourgogne Chardonnay
(Burgundy, France)
A fantastic value, this fresh white has clean, honey-citrus-spice flavours and a bright finish. It’s lovely with simple white fish dishes, but it’ll also work with turkey, or, if you’ve scaled back your celebrations this season, a roast chicken, too. Serve this organic/biodynamic gem slightly chilled.
About $23 at Aspen Wine & Spirits; select Co-op Wines & Spirits; Craft Cellars; 4th Street Liquor; Highlander Wine & Spirits; select Safeway Liquor locations; Willow Park Wines and Spirits; and Zyn — The Wine Market in Calgary.
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery 2019 Benchmark Series Viognier
(Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada)
Viognier is such a gorgeous wine, and the Okanagan Valley’s wineries make fine, solid examples, such as this one from Township 7. It is so fragrant: notes of lime, flowers and honey, so good you won’t want to take your nose from the glass.
If you’re cooking vegetarian this season, this wine is suitable for vegans and will be brilliant with roasted root vegetables. And for the rest of us, just add turkey. Serve slightly chilled. About $28 at the winery.
Hester Creek Estate Winery 2019 Syrah
Cooking lamb at Thanksgiving? We often do at least once over the long weekend; it gives a break from turkey for those of us who cook multiple times that weekend.
Mostly Syrah, with a hint of Viognier, this spicy rich red has savoury, peppery, dark fruit flavours and aromas, and will be mighty fine with slow-roasted lamb or – you guessed it – turkey and dressing with sausage. About $30 at the winery.
Jim Barry Wines 2019 Watervale Riesling
(Clare Valley, South Australia, Australia)
Riesling may not be the first wine that pops to mind to pair with your Thanksgiving dinner, but it’s actually pretty genius because it can adapt to so much. Sweet potatoes as a side dish? Your Riesling won’t taste bitter or lose its character. A few chili flakes in the dressing? A Riesling can handle it. Turkey? Of course.
For more than 50 years, the Jim Barry team has been making wine in Australia, and while the entire lineup deserves attention (the Assyrtiko, for instance, is another gem). But this fine Riesling has all those floral, lemony, wet rock aromas and flavours, with just enough acidity to be bracing – but not overwhelming. And more trivia: Wine has been made in the Clare Valley since 1851, and Watervale is the tiny village – population 246 – located close to the vineyards where these grapes are grown.
About $25 at Bin 905; Craft Cellars; Highlander Wine & Spirits; Sundance Wine Market; and Willow Park Wines & Spirits in Calgary.
Gray Monk Estate Winery 2017 Odyssey Cabernet Franc
(Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada)
I love myself a Cab Franc, and Gray Monk’s great example doesn’t disappoint. With smoky, vanilla, dark berry flavours and aromas, it will go with lamb or roast beef, but it’ll also shine alongside turkey, or a simply spiced vegetarian dishes.
Trivia: Gray Monk was established in 1982 as BC’s third estate winery. That first year, the team made 125 cases of wine. Now that number hovers around 100,000.
As for this Cab Franc? It’s $35 at the winery.