Thanksgiving is a time for tradition. The traditional turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and yams with that marshmallow topping. A safe, time-honored wine, Pinot Noir. Yawn. This year I’m gonna shake things up a bit. I’ll be pouring a sweet wine for the main event and not just for dessert. I’m inspired by Aline Baly, a champion of drinking what most of us consider to be dessert wines, from the beginning to the end of the meal. Aline’s family is the proprietor of Chateau Coutet in Barsac, a sub-district of the Sauternes region in the southern part of Bordeaux. Chateau Couter is a Premier Cru Classe Sauturnes. That’s all they make. Last time Aline was in the San Francisco Bay Area, she invited me to join her for lunch at Wood Tavern in Oakland (one of my fav restaurants). To demonstrate how versatile her Sauternes wines are, we ordered straight…
DRINK – What’s in our glasses for Thanksgiving
I usually get assigned the task of bringing the wine for holiday events. For Thanksgiving you always see wine experts recommending a good Pinot Noir or Riesling to pair with the meal. Not for me this year. I’m serving bubbly. If you think about it, Champagne or sparkling wine goes with just about any food, and the bubbles help cut through some of the rich foods that are part of the Thanksgiving meal. Best of all, I got a deal. Seguras Viudas makes terrific Cava, the sparkling wine of Spain. It’s refreshing and lively. I picked up this magnum for only $9.97. Yes that’s right, $9.97 at Cost Plus markets. There were still plenty of bottles when I got mine yesterday. So a magnum is 1.5L which equals 2 standard bottles of wine. The funny thing is Cost Plus has the 750 ml standard bottle of the same Cava for…