Perfect Thanksgiving wines under $20

Thanksgiving is a great time of year to enjoy the three Fs: family, food, and football! The tricky part is picking the right wine to go with your Thanksgiving feast. Some of your guests will appreciate a pairing that goes well with the meal while others will gulp down anything you put in front of them. 

Here are our suggestions for great Thanksgiving wines that are all under $20. They all go well with turkey, ham, and a wide range of fixins. Even better, you'll probably find them in your local liquor store, wine shop, or supermarket no matter what part of the country you are in.

Riesling
An off-dry Riesling can be a refreshing compliment to a heavy Thanksgiving feast. Our choice is the 2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling. It earned a 91 point rating from Wilfred Wong and retails at BevMo for $7.99.

Chardonnay
This is a good choice if your guests want a white wine but don't want the sweetness of a Riesling. Stick with lighter Chardonnays and avoid anything that is too oaky or buttery. Our pick is the 2008 Simi Sonoma County Chardonnay, a nicely balanced Chardonnay that has a light apple taste without a lot of citrus. It retails at BevMo for $18.99.

Pinot Noir
This is a terrific choice for a red wine that won't overwhelm the food. Stick with more fruit forward, light-bodied California Pinot Noirs. Our selection is the 2010 Chalone Monterey County Pinot Noir, which always tastes like a more expensive Pinot. Little known fact about Chalone - Julia Child was a part owner. This wine retails for $18.99 at BevMo.

Zinfandel
This varietal is a terrific choice if you are looking for a medium-bodied red wine that pairs well with your menu. You can't go wrong with the 2008 Lake Sonoma Zinfandel. The last time I shared a bottle with friends it quickly disappeared and I was glad I had a second bottle in reserve! It normally retails for $19.99, but the current club price at BevMo is only $9.99!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shared bottles are the best bottles!

Bonus question: what is featured in the picture behind the wine?Wine always tastes better when it is shared.

A few months ago, I had dinner with a few colleagues while on a business trip in Alexandria, Virginia. The conversation turned to wine and some of the wine regions and wineries we all liked to visit. My friend Pat told me about a winery in Napa Valley that she and her husband really enjoyed called Benessere. I made a note to check it out on the next time Sally and I were up there.

The next day at work, Pat surprised me with a bottle of 2008 Beneserre Zinfandel. She was really enthusiastic about the wine and wanted to share it with Sally and I.

Sally and I enjoyed the bottle with dinner a few nights ago. The wine was light and jammy with very light pepper and a smooth finish. As Sally would say, this was an “ingredients to dessert” wine, meaning you could open it while cooking and enjoy it all the way through to dessert.

We started with some Dubliner cheese and crackers. The Beneserre Zinfandel complimented the sharpness of the cheese quite nicely. Dinner consisted of teriyaki steak kabobs from our favorite butcher shop, Iowa Meat Farms, and grilled vegetables. The wine paired with the teriyaki was outstanding. Unfortunately, it was so good that there was no wine left by the time it was time for dessert!

Sally and I raised a glass to toast Pat for the amazing bottle of wine. Hopefully, I’ll see Pat soon and get a chance to share a bottle with her!

Great Deals on Great Wines ~ BevMo Wine Sale

It’s time again for the BevMo 5-cent sale ~ buy one wine, get the second for 5 cents.  This sale is available for ClubBev members ~ purchase one bottle at regular price, and get second of same bottle for only 5 cents.  While the sale applies to select wines, there are over 200 to choose from.  When this limited time sale comes around, we are frequently asked for recommendations of what to buy.  There are so many great wines included, you can hardly go wrong with any pick.  But, if you are really stuck… here are three we’ve enjoyed ~ all with price points of $19.99

Bridlewood Syrah Reserve '06

We discovered Bridlewood earlier this year from a recommendation of a friend.  While visiting the winery, we had the opportunity to taste the Syrah Reserve.  This wine has a sweeter nose, with a touch of earthiness.  It is a full bodied wine, with soft, but powerful tannins.  It has pinot noir-like qualities, but carries the punch of a true syrah.  Interesting, and very enjoyable. 

Lake Sonoma Zinfandel '08

In 2010, one of our favorite stops during our annual trip to Napa and Sonoma was Valley of the Moon.  While there we also had the opportunity to taste Lake Sonoma wines as well.  The zinfandel is a complex wine from start to finish, with abundance of ripe raspberry & strawberry flavors, enhanced with subtle notes of smoke, white pepper and a touch of vanilla.   Very enjoyable ~ especially for the price!

Wattle Creek Triple Play Red '06

Wattle Creek is one of our favorite wineries ~ we especially enjoy their red wines.  The Triple Play is a versatile, big red wine.  It’s a blend that is mostly a Syrah with some unique characteristics.  It is what I call an ‘ingredients to dessert’ kind of wine ~ enjoy on its own while you cook and with dinner.  For more of a review, read 2006 Wattle Creek Triple Play

BevMo is running a fun promotion along with the sale called the 2 Bottle Challenge.  Here’s how it works:

• grab your wine and enjoy each bottle in two completely different ways, capture with pictures
• upload your photos to facebook.com/bevmo
• check out the other photos posted and vote for your favorite

Sounds like fun ~ we will be playing along… and hope you do, too!  If BevMo is not in your area ~ you can still play along with us ~ share your photos and tell us a little about the wine on facebook.com/sharethebottle. 

BevMo 5 cent sale runs 9/14-10/24. 

2007 Heitz Cellars Zinfandel

We generally don't like to read a winemaker's tasting notes before trying a wine. They tend to be full of marketing hyperbole and describe subtle or exotic flavors (barnyard funk, anyone?) that are too obscure for our palates to find. 

On the other hand, it can be fun to read the winemaker's tasting notes after you taste a wine to see how much you agree. We recently enjoyed a bottle of 2007 Heitz Cellars Zinfandel at our favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, Antica Trattoria. Winemaker David Heitz's notes were spot on with our observations.

"Ours is a medium-bodied wine that delivers the unadulterated characteristics of the varietal. Marvelously balanced and softly rounded, the delicious core of wild berry flavors picks up a touch of spice before building to an elegant finish."

Zinfandels tend to have a higher alcohol content than some other wines. At 14.5%, this one isn't too extreme, but the wine was so smooth you could hardly tell it had any alcohol at all. And, it went wonderfully with our meals. Jeff had a veal chop while Sally enjoyed a nice bowl of capellini.

A couple sitting next to us in the restaurant noticed how much we were enjoying the wine and asked if the bottle was on Antica Trattoria's wine menu. Sorry - we brought this one in ourselves!

The best part? Heitz is either extraordinarily kind with their pricing or they don't know how much of a gem they have on their hands. You can still pick up a bottle of the 2007 direct from the winery for $22 per bottle. You might pay $15 - $20 more per bottle for a similar quality Zinfandel at some other wineries, so snatch some up if you can. 

Visit the Heitz Cellars online store

"Table wine" doesn't mean bad wine

Don't let the term "table wine" fool you.

Sure, some people think of cheap, mass-produced wine that any self-respecting wine snob would avoid. For us, table wine is often tasty, versatile wine that pairs well with a wide variety of food. Wines that are marketed specifically as "table wine" or simply "white wine" or "red wine" tend to be blends of several grapes that the winemaker has selected for balance and flavor.

Here are three table wines that we always like to have in the house.

Menage a Trois California Red
We always have a few bottles of this in the house because it is inexpensive, goes with almost anything, and is damn good for the price. It's a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot that is very smooth and drinkable. Did I mention the price? We get ours at the San Diego Wine Company for $6.99 a bottle, but you can also get it at BevMo, Specs, and many other fine liquor stores for a buck or two more.

One word to the wise - this isn't a great bottle to bring over to someone's house. Especially if you are a couple and they are single. People always seem to get the wrong idea.

Lined up and ready for Tuesday's dinner or "third bottle" duty.

Conundrum California White Wine
The name implies it is a conundrum to decide when and how to drink it. It is silky smooth with a little bit of sweetness that is mighty tasty. We've had it before dinner, after dinner, and with all sorts of white wine friendly food. There's a lot going on here with Muscat Canelli, Chardonnay, Semillion, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier making up the blend, but it all works. A not so secret secret is Conundrum is a side project of Caymus, a winery famous for big, expensive reds.

We get ours at the San Diego Wine Company for $16.95 per bottle. If you aren't in San Diego, you may want to order directly from Conundrum.

A bottle of Conundrum sits in our fridge, ready to go at a moment's notice

Vincent Arroyo "Nameless"
This table wine is a special treat, both because of its $30 price point and its awesome taste. It's a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. It's fairly fruit forward, which makes it stand out on its own or pair well with a variety of foods, but has just enough tannin to stand up to your meatier dishes. We shared a bottle with our parents last weekend in memory of Sally's father, Ken. Very tasty.

Vincent Arroyo sells a lot of their wine via futures, meaning you buy it before it's bottled, but Nameless is typically in stock and ready to go. I don't think it is distributed, so best to go straight to the winery.

That bottle of Nameless evaporated!What's your favorite table wine?