CellarTracker Tracks Thanksgiving 2007 Wine Patterns

What wine did you have with Thanksgiving dinner?

CellarTracker started tracking what people were popping open with friends and family on Wednesday, and will continue tracking the stats throughout today. These numbers provide a fascinating window into what varietals and producers were popular among one cross-section of wine-crazed consumers. So far more than 6500 bottles of wine have been consumed and the data entered into the program. (image from Daedalus Howell)

The varietal winner so far? Pinot Noir, followed by Cabernet, Chardonnay, Red Bordeaux Blends, and Zinfandel. We drank an excellent white Rhone blend from Tablas Creek, but white wines were the minority in the top ten, which went on to include Syrah, Red Rhone Blends, Riesling, Riesling, Shiraz, and Sauvignon Blanc.

The leading producer so far? Kistler (chardonnay and pinot), followed by Turley, Ridge, E. Guigal, and Chateau Ste. Michelle. Kosta Brown, William Selyem, Peter Michael, Beringer, and Carlisle rounded out the top ten.

Keep in mind that the numbers reflect that some people were having BIG parties and were lucky enough to have multiple bottles of the same wine to open. They are also incomplete since folks are probably just beginning to count the empties and enter their notes from last night. But it's a fun feature to check out today if you are bored with shopping or finished your turkey sandwich. You can sort the list every which way--by producer, vintage, varietal. Have fun and see where your wine came out in the rankings!

Happy Thanksgiving

Good Wine Under $20 wishes you and yours a happy, joyful, and safe Thanksgiving.

Mauritson Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley

Holiday Wine and Food Survival Strategy #2: Spice it Up

By Friday morning, it is highly likely that you or your loved ones will be uttering a version of Scarlett O'Hara's famous phrase that goes like this, "As God is my witness, I'll never eat turkey again."

If this is the case, then there is one surefire antidote to the Bird Blahs: you can spice things up a bit. Thanksgiving dinner tends to be a symphony of earth tones, creamy textures, and fairly bland seasonings. What you need is something vibrant, something red, something with lots of oomph in the flavorings.

You need saffron, fennel, garlic, tomato--none of which is normally on the menu for Thanksgiving. You need a bowl of pasta with saffron and sausage sauce. (photo from Food & Wine Magazine) It has chunky tomato sauce, laced with saffron, sage, and basil. Sausage gets crumbled in there, too, and then the sauce goes over any kind of pasta shape. The recipe calls for malloreddus, but I usually use penne and it's just fine. The result is warming, spicy, and silky.

With it, pour yourself a spicy, silky wine that can stand up to the tomatoes and the saffron, like the 2003 Herdade do Esporao Trincadeira (this was included in domaine547's Catavino blogger-pack of three Portuguese wines that I purchased recently, or you can buy a single bottle from domaine547 for $24.99) This was a very good bottle of wine. Dark aubergine in color, it wasn't filtered and threw some sediment so if you don't like that you might want to decant. There were spicy aromas of plum and vanilla, which followed through to the flavors. In your mouth, some blueberry notes entered into the mix, and added a nice richness and complexity. There was some grip on your tongue from spicy and toasty oak, but the texture of the wine remained fairly silky. This was my first experience with this grape, which was like a spicy pinot noir, and it represented good QPR.

One surefire way to survive the holiday season is to remember that some spice every know and again can really help to balance out the creamy, heavy, and rich foods of the season.

WBW News: #39 Roundup and the New Theme for #40

We always knew there was very little that would keep Neil the Brooklynguy away from beloved Burgundy wines. But this week he rose to new heights. Despite computer problems, he managed to get the roundup of tastings from WBW #39 ("Silver Coast" Burgundies) up in under a week. There were some new bloggers (like regular reader Jeff at Indiscriminate Ideas), some bargain finds (Farley at her new blog Behind the Vines found a Burgundy for $3.99!), and all in all 36 reviewers tasted 52 wines. A great showing for a great theme.

And next month, there is more fun in store as Sonadora from Wannabe Wino leads us on a tasting adventure through Petite Sirah (or Durif, as it is known in some parts) in Wine Blogging Wednesday #40. This is a great winter wine, with lots of body and should not be confused with a syrah in a 375 ml split--this is its own grape! Get ready for some rich, robust red wine drinking and send her any notes or links by December 12. To read her full brief, click here. And if you want to learn more about the grape, its history, or its producers, you may want to visit the Petite Sirah advocacy group, PS I Love You.

What to drink next month...maybe something from a winery with a big, gnarly old tree...?

Recognizing Community: What I'm Thankful For

Over the weekend I discovered that Wine Scamp had given me the nod for a Community Blogger award, along with Jill from Domaine 547 (who started Women's Wine Blogging Day), Tom Wark (from Fermentation) and Lenn Thompson (from Lenndevours who started Wine Blogging Wednesday). I haven't started anything but this blog, but I really appreciated the mention in such great company!

The Community Blogger Award was started by CelloBella at redsultana to recognize a blogger who "reaches out and makes the blogger community a better one." It's a great idea, so use these links to spread some love at Thanksgiving and give thanks to those people in the blogosphere who are making it a better place.

I would like to pass on some of the season's appreciation by not only adding my kudos to the folks above, but voicing my particular thanks to and bestowing Community Blogger Awards on Joel Vincent at Wine Life Today, who has given us a place to post stories of interest to the wine blogging community of readers and authors; and Jason Haas from the Tablas Creek Blog for making me feel like a virtual vintner with his well-written and informative news from the winery. Thanks to both of you for doing what you do!

Who are you thankful for in the blogging world? Give them a community blogger award and let them know.