Thanksgiving Thirst

originally posted by Chris Coad:
Jay Miller, Man On the Go.

Lisa picked the wine, and of course went for Bordeaux, '03 Pontet-Canet. I tried to push the '89 Raffault, but she would not be denied her ripe juicy goodness. In the meantime we're sipping prosecco and checking in on the House marathon. Creamed onions are due to go into the oven in twenty-five minutes. Turkey has been flipped over rightside-up. Giblet stock almost ready for gravy treatment. All systems are go!
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1990 Raffault was quite nice last night, as was the 2007 Clos Roche Blanche #2 Sauvignon Blanc (both off the list at Mas). Food sounds yummy! Enjoy! I'm having "food that should not be left in the refrigerator for two weeks" for dinner. Green salad with duck confit and sesame ginger dressing and an apple/banana/berry smoothie.
 
Qualified success here. Bird got a little scorched on the bottom due to oven malfunction (it decided to go to around 575 on its own, and it took about twenty minutes for me to realize it), but no real harm done, as the bottom is probably the last thing we'll eat. Giblet gravy was the highlight of the night, creamed onions better in theory than practice, pistachio/apple stuffing gave a solid showing, roast potatoes could've used a bit more of a generous hand with the bacon fat, but were pleasantly undersalted. '03 Pontet-Canet seems a bit closed, which in this case is a good thing. It actually had a semblance of restraint and elegance, overachieved.

Chocolate souffles and Banyuls will come soon, after some coffee, digestion and phone calls.
 
I ended up going all Talley and they were great. The 2007 Talley Riesling wasn't as focused as the one I tasted in the tasting room, probably because it was twist and pour and I didn't give it as much time to breathe, but the 1999 Talley Rincon pinot was fabulous. The most pinot funk I've had in any Talley. Tremendous finish. It's a wine with lots of bottle variation, which was probably why I was able to pick it up for $30 off eBob's commerce corner.
 
Donati Camillo Lambrusco and Occhipinti Nero d'Avola actually made me enjoy the cranberry sauce with my food for the first time ever (I always take an obligatory dollop when it's passed, as my father takes so much joy and pride in making it, but I never enjoy it with all my brown salty deliciousness on the rest of the plate). Both wines tied all the flavors on the plate together in a new way for me, and I even took seconds of cranberry sauce. Yay.

I really like the idea of pistachio/apple stuffing. Can I have your recipe, Chris?
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Florida Jim:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
If he really wants to be on the macho pedant's list, he needs to send me a bottle to review. While not generally macho, I am a widely recognized pedant.
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I doubt I'd recognize you if we passed on the street. Not that I'm the yardstick on recognition, but I'm just saying . . .
Best, Jim
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Physically recognizable is too narrow a definition. You know my name. And you know that pedantic statements are signed by that name. Note for example this very message. That means you recognize me as a pedant. The phenomenon is widespread.
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Clearly, I am in the presence of pedantical greatness.
Uncle.
Best, Jim
 
Magnum of 04 Pinon non-dose (that is a nice, fun bottle)
94 ZH Gewurz Turckheim with the stinky cheeses
04 Sauzet St. Aubin En Champlots (I think - somehow I missed the vineyard)
06 Roilette
leftover 04 Chave Offerus from the night before
00 Roty Marsannay Ouzelois

It all seemed well liked. Topped off by a run down Lake Washington Boulevard in our cousin's '75 Ferrari 308 GT4! Happy Thanksgiving indeed!
 
Carema White Label 2004 (mag)
Lapierre Morgon 2007

Big hits with everyone. I watched with some amazement as a pair of petite Japanese women worked their way together through a bottle of the Lapierre in all of an hour.
 
I liked the Carema white 04, although I gather this was supposed to be an off year.

We cooked an 'heirloom' turkey, raised locally (don't hit me, Joe!), after dry-brining it and icing the breasts. The breast and thigh meat came out just about right, thankfully, and it looked very pretty. We served with sweet potatoes, roast potatoes, flash-fried green beans, pork-liver stuffing, giblet-based gravy, and stewed cranberries. This was my first turkey, which demonstrates conclusively that any idiot can cook one of these things with a good recipe, a bit of organization, and some friendly advice (as provided in this thread).

We drank a 1998 Weinbach Grand Cru St. Catherine l'inedit 1998 - from magnum - and a Bachelet Bourgogne 2002, both decanted about an hour and a half. The Weinbach was very fine, with a brooding kind of full body, buffered by modest botrytis roundness, sweetened discreetly with RS, and finishing with a precisely-detailed acid filigree (VLM has a good note on this wine in Cellar Tracker, by the way). We finished the remainder with dinner tonight, and though the various parts were better integrated, I missed the very fine acid etching at the tail end. This was excellent with the meal, though somehow I expected a bit more brute power from this wine, based on my experience with 2000 Burn Clos St. Immer Riesling.

The Bachelet started thin and weak at the outset, even decanted, but as the meal progressed, and its profile of tart, sappy acid and slightly underripe stawberry fruit emerged, it was quite terrific with the turkey, which was ever so slightly gamy. In retrospect, this wine was about ideal with the meal.

We have much to be thankful for this year, not excepting the start-up of this forum.
 
Unlike all you fancy folks, we had invigorating 2007 Ppire Muscadet and a slightly-too-tart-even-for-Rahsaan 2007 Tue Bouef Cheverny.

Nice family times.
 
We started with a 2001 Donnhoff Oberhauser Leistenberg Riesling, which I decided to sequester in a cool room once the masses showed up. Great detail and texture on this wine, with very distinct petrol notes on the nose along with fainter peach.

Also in the white category was a 2006 Fevre Preuses, which was a bit slow out of the gate on the nose, but eventually developed chalky white flower aromas. On the palate there was no such reluctance, a rich, almost opulent style (if that term can be used for a Chablis at all), with very distinct saline flavors tinging the wine's minerality. Great palate coverage, with a scintillating spiciness showing up on the nether reaches of the palate on the finish. A really fascinating contrast with the other 2006 Fevre 1er and GC I have tried.

Then a quick bottle of Deutz NV Brut Champagne, a fine example purchased on closeout at Safeway for only $18. Good ripe fruit at the core, but also plenty of yeasty aromas to lessen the regret for not having purchased that Krug I saw at the store.

Then on to 3 bottles of 1995 Pontet Canet, which perhaps surprisingly was drinking very similarly to a bottle I had at the Chateau a few years back. This has good ripe Cabernet at its core, but perhaps lacks the depth and structure to ever develop in to an outstanding wine. The wine is certainly drinkable now, but would benefit from 3-5 more years, since those secondary notes are just now apparently beginning to emerge. I would say that Parker over-rated this wine by a couple of points...

Then two magnums of Chateauneuf du Pape, a 2001 Brunel les Cailloux that was showing very well, with that characteristic Cailloux balance that makes it eminently drinkable at almost any age. This wine has plenty of life left in it, so I will be saving the others most likely. Then a magnum of 2003 P. Usseglio Chateauneuf du Pape Tradition, which at least highlighted the character of the year in the region with its super-ripe Grenache. Reminded me a bit of a 2003 Vieux Donjon in terms of its almost creme de Grenache flavors and just a touch of heat on the nose.
 
Carl:

Thanks for the notes - sounds very festive. Seems early for an 06 GC Chablis, but I hear Preusses is often a candidate for early drinking. We have a reserve mag of 01 Cailloux I've been debating about; with your note in mind, we'll be in no hurry to open it.

Cheers.
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
Quite decentCarema White Label 2004 (mag)
Lapierre Morgon 2007

Big hits with everyone. I watched with some amazement as a pair of petite Japanese women worked their way together through a bottle of the Lapierre in all of an hour.
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The Carema was a big hit in SoCal as well.
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
Quite decentCarema White Label 2004 (mag)
Lapierre Morgon 2007

Big hits with everyone. I watched with some amazement as a pair of petite Japanese women worked their way together through a bottle of the Lapierre in all of an hour.
Click to expand...

The Carema was a big hit in SoCal as well.
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And the Lapierre here in MA. I had decanted a couple hours prior, as indicated by another recent bottle's evolution, but bottle variation saw this reaching its full potential after the pie was served. We went back to it for leftovers that evening, and it was great.

Luckily, a back-up bottle of pop-and-pour Bardolino from Corte Marzago served the table well. Light, lovely stuff from an organic producer in a former convent near Lake Garda. Same grapes as Valpolicella, with good minerality, red cherry, and light tannin. Are other Disorderlies familiar with this? We sold the heck out of it at our tasting for nontraditional T-day pairings.

There were a couple of bottles of Bordelet Poire Granit flowing throughout the day, too. This was great not only as an aperitif and pairing to the dessert round, but tied things together nicely on the table, too- mitigating our especially tart cranberry/orange-peel relish, the effervescence and minerality cutting through the maple-glazed sweet potatoes, etc. Such fun stuff.

Finally, a bit of an outlier for the board, but my brother and I also split a bottle of Old Odense Ale, a limited bottling of gruit brewed at Denmark's Norrebro Bryghus in collaboration with Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. As I understand it, gruit is an ancient beer recipe that uses things other than hops to provide preservative qualities and the bitter counterpoint to the malt. This one lists star anise, blackthorn berries, maple syrup and herbs among the ingredients. I'm not sure whether all gruit are in the sour lambic/gueze tradition of open fermentation and brettanomyces, but this one certainly was. Out of the fridge it was pretty tart and berry-focused, but with some time to warm up and air out a bit it showed more of the malt, maple, and spice I was hoping for as a pairing to the pumpkin and apple pies.

Lovely day of family, with some good grub, and successful enough pairings.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Carl:

Thanks for the notes - sounds very festive. Seems early for an 06 GC Chablis, but I Hear Preusses is often a candidate for early drinking. We have a reserve mag of 01 Cailloux I've been debating about; with your note in mind, we'll be in no hurry to open it.

Cheers.
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Yes, early for 2006, but the vintage is a bit more accessible than some for the right Chablis (wouldn't touch a Clos or Valmur except under special circumstances). That, and I have tasted through most of the 2006 Fevre Chablis and I was curious to see how the Preuses compared. All in the name of science...

Some people have reported that the 2000 Cailloux were on the downhill slope, and I did have one bottle that struck me that way. But other bottles have been fine even for this relatively accessible vintage. On the 2001 CdP, few of them really seem ready to me. The 1998 (another relatively backward vintage) are just starting to come around...
 
We were a long, long, long way from the land of turkeys, so other than Theresa's quail ballotine there was nothing remotely Pilgrimish about our meal or our wines, taken in a stylish but slightly underachieving bistro in Franschhoek. But with Saldanha Bay oysters, various charcuterie, wildebeest carpaccio, Malay-spiced mussels with cubes of butternut squash (no, really...but it was a surprisingly tasty match), lemon-pepper sptzle with cpes and sesame-encrusted mozzarella, and the aforementioned quail, we had:

Monis "Dry Sherry" (South Africa) - Recognizable as the type, with nuts and flowers given a warming bit of heat, but the finish is very short and there's absolutely no complexity.

Overgaauw 1984 "Tria Corda" (Stellenbosch) - Absolutely dead on first decanting, so much so that I worry about TCA. But as so often happens with these very elderly wines (and '84 wasn't a great vintage here), things grow and develop as the evening goes on, and the very last sip is the best of the evening. That said, it's still well past its peak. Old liqueur in a dusty bottle, with traces of dark cherries and apples, some spice, perhaps a bit of eroded minerality. Largely an intellectual and historical pleasure, at this stage, but 24 years is an awful lot to ask of a wine from this region and that era.

KWV 20 Year Old Brandy (South Africa) - Floral and the usual range of warmed sugars. Good enough, but thinner than I'd like.
 
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