Wine of the Week - Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon

You already know about this producer and about this wine, the Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon #2, $14, Louis/Dressner Selections. I am not going to shed any new light on the situation. I will say this, however, and please don't start drafting your hate mail yet - I don't love Clos Roche Blanche as much as some of you do. I have much respect and I've had some great bottles, but overall, not one of my favorite producers. Nothing complicated - I just don't always love the wines. My favorite is the fantastic Touraine Sauvignon Blanc.

But I am still frustrated by this wine. I have had bottles that just blow me away, and then had bottles that are simply uninspiring. There is variation with any wine, but I find more so with Clos Roche Blanche than with most other wines. Or perhaps, it is just that when a $14 wine is as beautiful as this one, it is equally frustrating when the next bottle is nothing special.

I've had the 2008 several times now and at its best, it rivals wines from Sancerre that cost more than three times as much. Like the bottle I opened the other night when my parents, who don't care a lick about wine, were here - I wanted to open something good, but not terribly dear to me because they don't care one way or another. The wine was utterly gorgeous. Even my mother who was mesmerized by her granddaughters said "Wow, this is great wine, I don't think I've ever had anything like this before."But when I served it to some close friends a few weeks ago as part of a blind wine dinner, it was totally unremarkable. How frustrating!

When you get a good bottle, this is what you get: smokey earth and minerals, black licorice and herbs, incredibly pure citrus fruit, vibrancy and balance. As Sharon Bowman recently pointed out, this wine can be addictive. And at 13.5% alcohol, be careful. But it's not always this good, and when it's not, I find that the drop off is rather steep. I'll keep buying this wine because it's so great when it's good, and at about $14, the risk is manageable. Is it just me, or have you found there to be lots of variability here?

Chess, Jazz, Baseball, and finally, Cheese.

Pairing wine and food is something that, if approached seriously and with the right balance of art and science, can produce thrilling results. But a serious approach is not necessary in order to be thrilled by food and wine pairing. The idea that a person must be steeped in knowledge in order to participate is nonsense, and I think people are starting to free themselves of this burden. People seem to be more and more comfortable with the notion that wine doesn't have rules - that they can drink white wine with Lasagna if they feel like it, and that wine and food is really about pleasure, not pretension.

I'm not trying to dumb down wine and food pairing. I think that our popular wine culture is close to going too far to denigrate as snobby the art of wine and food pairing. Overcompensating probably. It is snobby if a person is made to feel that they are wrong to make a certain pairing, or that their lack of knowledge should prevent them from happily participating. But it is not snobby to suggest that there is an art to pairing food and wine, and that a bit of practice and perhaps some study can produce great results.

I think that wine is like chess, jazz, baseball, and many other things that are easy to enjoy, but are still complex things. Wine can be enjoyed by just about anyone - it tastes and feels good. It's something that people all over the world drink with dinner. But like chess, jazz, or baseball, wine rewards careful attention in that its deeper intricacies are revealed only to those who spend enough time "practicing." And even for those who practice a lot, not everyone will experience the deepest pleasures of these things because there is a degree of talent involved. Luckily, we can enjoy without too much practice. But the practice is fun, and that's why you're reading this blog, isn't it? It's why I write this blog, anyway - it helps me practice and get even more pleasure from wine.

This has been a rather long winded way of getting to my point: I am essentially clueless when it comes to pairing wine and cheese. I understand that cheese helps to tame tannins in wine, like milk in black tea. And I am familiar with some classic pairings. But I don't know why certain wines work better than others with certain cheeses. And when I plan dinners at my house, the most uncomfortable part for me is picking wine to go with the cheeses I am serving. I know a little about cheese, more about wine, but I know almost nothing about how to make them work together. I enjoy all of my attempts, but I know enough to know that I don't know anything. I'm even confused about what to me is the most basic issue: red or white wine?

I decided that I'm going to use the light dinners on hot nights this summer to practice some more with wine and cheese. I'll read some, but I warn you - I'm going to just open different bottles with various cheeses and see what works for me and my friends. So there.

I started last week with a classic pairing - Loire goat cheese with a Loire Sauvignon Blanc. Sancerre is probably the most heralded wine to use, but I wanted a more humble wine. At Ten Bells a few weeks ago I asked the bartender to pick a wine to enjoy with their wild boar sausage. She picked a declassified Cheverny, now a Vin de Table, a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir by Christian Venier,a Loire hipster-natural-wine-biodynamic-producer. It was utterly delicious. There was no wild streak like in Puzelat's wines, but there was a volatility to the wine, particularly to the alcohol component. Served cool out of the wine fridge I just loved it, and it was perfect with the thinly sliced sausage.So why not Venier's Sauvignon Blanc? We sat on the deck on a lovely summer evening with a bottle of the 2007 Christian Venier Touraine Le Gautrie Sauvignon, $17, Savio Soares Selections, and a well known Loire Valley (from nearby Poitou, actually, but close enough) goat cheese called Le Chevrot. It is not young cheese, and not an aged cheese either - somewhere in the middle. The center of the pate (the 'dough' of the cheese - check out Fork & Bottle for great cheese info, tasting notes, and fancy terms like pate) is snow-white and chalky, and the outer part is creamy and yellow, but not runny, even at room temperature. The wine paired well and was lovely, although not as stunning an example of Loire Sauvignon Blanc as Venier's VdT is as a Cheverny. We had a great time that evening, and as Morgan Freeman said to his Captain at the beginning of the movie Se7en: "There will be more of these."
And by the way, our lily that blooms for only a few days each spring finally bloomed. We noticed it while enjoying our goat cheese and Sauvignon. It should have happened over a month ago but there has been so much rain, everything is all out of whack with the plants.

Selecting Wine for Myself Alone

On Saturday afternoon during what must have been the 19th overcast and rainy day in a row in Brooklyn, good friends invited us to go to an opening at an art gallery and then to dinner in my old neighborhood, Prospect Heights. Since there was no chance of getting a babysitter on short notice, only one of us could go out. It's important to be spontaneous and to accept these kind of invitations, even if one of us has to stay home with the kids. We decided that BrooklynLady would go. So I was home on a Saturday night, our two sleeping kids in the other room.

Earlier that morning at the farmer's market I bought two richly purple pieces of tuna, a fish I almost never buy. Tuna is ubiquitous in restaurants - tuna tartare, tuna steaks, tuna burgers, tuna this, and tuna that. It seems so overdone. But the tune looked beautiful and I had already seen some baby bok choy making its debut appearance of the summer, so I allowed dinner to select itself for me.

And now, what wine to drink with a simply prepared rare tuna steak and baby bok choy tossed in the wok with slivers of green garlic? It's strange how picking wine for myself is so different from picking wine when you dine with others. Should I open something special and savor it greedily, not having to share it with anyone? I looked through our little cellar, considered a fancy Chablis, flirted with a great bottle of Champagne, and toyed with the idea of an Equipo Navazos Sherry. But a great bottle of wine by myself can be like the sound of one hand clapping.

It is a delicious indulgence to open a great bottle of wine for yourself and yourself alone. But in the end, part of what makes a great bottle of wine so special is experiencing it with someone else, talking about it, seeing their pleasure in drinking it. So instead of opening something glorious, what I most certainly would have done if BrooklynLady and/or guests were with me, I opened a bottle of the more humble 2007 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon #2, $15, Louis/Dressner Selections. I've had great Clos Roche Blanche bottles, and so-so bottles, and this one was great, with a satisfying roundness, finely toned minerality, great texture, snappy acidity, and lovely herbal aromas and flavors. When this wine is good, it's less about Sauvignon Blanc and more about the hills outside of Tours. It was a kind and generous companion to my seared Tuna steaks with baby bok choy.

And in the end, a nice dinner, a humble and lovely bottle of wine, and a few hours of alone time - something that can be very hard to come by with two small kids - that's one of many recipes for a great Saturday evening.

Three Little Wines That Could

If you drink wine regularly you know the value of finding delicious and interesting wines at everyday prices. And I'm not the only one thinking about this lately. Especially now that the whole financial sector seems to be imploding.

The other night at my pal Adam's house, we drank three wines with dinner, and each was an absolute gem. And none of them will run you more than $20 retail. Including tax. Even less with the mixed case discount.

2007 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Cuvée Gamay, $16, Louis/Dressner Selections. I'm one of the anomalous natural wine lovers who just can't figure out why everyone goes so crazy over Clos Roche Blanche. I decided to take another shot, and started with this wine. And what a wine! A bit reductive upon opening, and I was concerned. But after about 15 minutes the nose blossomed, showing sweet ripe gamay fruit, earth, herbs, stony minerals, and an energetic wildness running underneath. Just delicious and quite complex. There is a dense feeling to the wine, although it is not at all full bodied. This is excellent wine by any standard, and if you include it in a mixed case you're paying $14.40 for the bottle.

2006 Thierry Puzelat Touraine Pouillé, $18, Louis/Dressner Selections. Weird, right? Another amazing Gamay from the Loire brought in by Dressner. I hope you can sense my sarcasm. This wine was utterly delicious. Such ripe fruit, nice concentration without feeling too dense or heavy, well balanced with great acidity, a bit of structure for everything to lean on, fresh and pure. Honestly, our mouths hung open at how good this little wine is. This is Puzelat's old vines Gamay, and it brings way more than $18 worth of pleasure.

2007 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Clos des Briords, $16, Louis/Dressner Selections. Whaddaya want from me - Dressner brings in good wine. I actually wasn't crazy about the 2007 Briords when I tasted it back in April. But it was just excellent the other night, particularly alongside our linguine with clam sauce. The nose is creamy and bright with citrus notes, exceptionally pure. There is a lovely mingling of citrus and sea shells on the palate, with good acidity and length. This wine goes so well with food - I don't think you have to limit yourself to seafood, as is typically suggested. I think this would go well with lighter cheeses, or dare I say roast chicken? Yes, I dare.

Ah, the Loire valley...still a haven for those among us who want great wine at reasonable prices.

By the Glass - Thierry Puzelat Edition

Thierry Puzelat, along with his older brother Jean-Marie, is responsible for a big lineup of delicious wines from the Touraine and Cheverny appellations in the eastern part of the Loire Valley. The family estate is called Clos du Tue-Boeuf, but Thierry Puzelat also operates a négociant business, buying grapes from nearby growers who farm as he does. The Puzelats grow Pinot Noir, Gamay, Côt (called Malbec in Argentina), Bréton (called Cabernet Franc in the film Sideways), Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris (called Pinot Grigio in Italy), and the rarely seen Pineau D'Aunis and Menu Pineau (called Arbois in the Jura).

Puzelat's wines are delicious regardless of the particularities of the weather in the vintage. The style may change depending on the year, but not the level of quality. These are food-friendly and inexpensive wines, even now with the terrible dollar. These are natural wines - vineyards are organically farmed, fermentation is accomplished using yeasts on the grapes and in the cellar, and there are no further manipulations to the juice. The Puzelat brothers' wines are an institution at natural wine bars in France, and are firmly entrenched in the vocabulary of natural wine aficionados here in New York.

Here's what I love about these wines: they taste honest, like real representations of the grapes and soil from that place. They buzz with energy, some say "wildness." They are eminently drinkable, great with dinner, and they just feel right.

My guess is that if you like the wines that I talk about here, you might already know about Clos du Tue-Boeuf and Puzelat. But if not, why aren't you drinking these wines? You love good wine, right? And most of these are under $20 a bottle. Maybe it's because the shops you frequent don't carry Dressner's imports. Or maybe your shops focus on high scoring wines, and these wines don't really feature in the publications that dole out the points. Maybe the wines are sitting right there on the shelf and you never tried them because after all, the grapes aren't always listed on the label and there are so many cuvées...where would you start? Start anywhere - it honestly doesn't matter. Everything is good. Here are some notes on wines I've had over in the past month or so:

2004 Puzelat Touraine Pineau D'Aunis La Tesnières, $18. Tesnières is the little village near Cheverny where Puzelat sources grapes. The new vintage is 2006, so you're not going to find this now, but it's a gem each year. This one offers fresh strawberries and cracked black pepper on the nose, a waft of caramel underneath is the only clue to the wine's age. Fresh and light in the mouth, this is great with a chill. Well balanced, great acidity, energetic and alive in the mouth. I'm drinking it right now with a plate of Buffalo Mozzarella and golden beets. It works.

2006 Puzelat Touraine La Tesnières Pinot Noir, $18. A funky nose of mushrooms, red fruits, and violets. Pure and lovely palate of ripe fruit and mushroomy earth with buzzing unpolished energetic tannins. Very impressive indeed, and a great price for interesting Pinot Noir. This recently reappeared on shelves in NYC.

2007 Clos du Tue-Boeuf Cheverny, $17. Cheverny rouge must be a blend, and this is about 90% Gamay and 10% Pinot Noir. I love this wine, just as much as I loved the 06, although this one is quite different. A much lighter wine - in color, in flavor, in texture, and in alcohol too - this is only 11%. A bright red berry and potting soil set of aromas and flavors, with that Puzelat wildness that provides underlying energy. There is some spice, the tannins are smooth and friendly, the overall effect is incredibly gulpable. Chill a bit and pair this with literally any food. Literally. Okay, maybe not with starburst fruit chews or haggis. But steak, eggplant Parmesan, lobster, mushroom barley soup, scallion omelets, raw oysters, chopped liver, etc.

2002 Puzelat Touraine Pinot Noir La Tesnières$18 I stumbled on this bottle, the last in the store, at Astor the other day. How's that for sunken treasure? And the bottle was imported by Jenny & Francois, not by Dressner. Who knew? Four years of age on one of these is rare - it's almost impossible to stop your self from drinking these on release. This has an interesting color, like strawberry juice with some orange bricking, and a bit cloudy. The nose is very Pinot, strawberry with cooling herbs, a pleasant soft earthiness. Almost no tannins left in the wine, or they're so fine and sweet that I can't perceive them. Light and graceful on the palate with delicious hints of stewed strawberries, soil, and subtle minty notes on the finish. Some chalk on the palate too, and lovely acids - not bright, gentle. If this wine were a person it would be Jessica Tandy.

2005 Puzelat Touraine La Tesnières, $19. Can you guess what this is from the name of the wine? Me neither.This is the glorious white wine made from Menu Pineau, known in the Jura as Arbois. This is honestly one of the finest bottles of white wine I have had the pleasure to consume in 2008. A rich golden yellow color, like a much older wine, but this is as fresh as a daisy. Nose of smoke, petrol, mineral water, figs, and fennel seed. A really amazing nose, clean and incredibly well defined. BrooklynLady thought we were drinking a northern Italian wine - the fennel threw her off. Viscous on the tongue, full bodied, it really spreads out with figgy and citrus flavors, all supported by vibrant acidity. Smoked fish! Pickles! Black Mission figs! Sushi! Pasta with a tangle of spring herbs and green garlic! How I want to drink this wine with all of those foods...

2006 Clos du Toe-Boeuf Le Brin de Chèvre, $18. For whatever reason, this was denied appellation status and is a Vin de Table. This happens periodically and should act to convince you of the wine's particular interest and deliciousness. Not as tingly of a nose as the 05 Puzelat Touraine Tesnière, but lovely nonetheless. Smokey figs, nuts, citrus rind on the nose. Viscous texture with really sharp acidity. Slightly oxidized, especially on day 2, but very delicious. I would lay this down for a year and drink the 05 Puzelat Menu Pineau today.

There are many others to try too, this is just a sample. If you haven't yet done so, taste a Puzelat wine. Hard to do better for less than $20.

A Diamond in the Rough

There's this wine store in my neighborhood whose selection is pretty boring, on the whole. But I go in there because amidst the uninteresting wines, it's possible to stumble on a total anomaly, something brilliant and unexpected. Like the 4 bottles of 2004 Puzelat Touraine Pineau D'Aunis I found the other day. Sitting there sandwiched between the J Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon and the Jacob's Creek Shiraz. Well, not exactly, but you get my point.

I was cautious, actually. Why would they have this wine? The 2006 is on retail shelves now. Was the '04 stored properly? And even if it was, does Pineau D'Aunis improve or decline with three plus years in the bottle?

Turns out Pineau D'Aunis can be delicious if it has a couple of years in the bottle to think things over and if Thierry Puzelat, natural wine maker extraordinaire made it.

2004 Thierry Puzelat Touraine La Tesnière Pineau D'Aunis, $18, Louis/Dressner Selections. Gorgeous rose petal color. Clean and fresh strawberry and cracked black pepper aromas, with a hint of caramel running underneath. The wine is lively in the mouth, with strawberry juice, something herbal, and black pepper, all floating in a pool in of pure spring water. Everything is integrated nicely at this point - it might be the perfect time to drink this wine. Well balanced with good acidity and 12.5% alcohol. What a gem!

Sorry, I went back and grabbed the last three bottles. But you can find the 2006 and maybe lay down a bottle or two.

Two Great Values from the Loire Valley

Even though the Euro commands more than one and a half dollars, there are serious and beautiful wines to be had from the Loire Valley for under $20. Cellar-worthy wines too.

Here are two very fine examples :

2005 Château d'Epiré Savennières Cuvée Spéciale, $18. Sort of sad that as a lover of Savennières, I've never tried an Epiré wine until this one. This wine really blew me away. But not in a hedonistic this-is-so-delicious-right-now kind of way. Deeper than that. An amazingly focused nose of woolly minerals, like standing in a wet limestone cave, with hints of lime pith, and green apple. The structure and concentration are apparent even on the nose. Completely transparent palate with tight flavors of wet rocks, citrus oils, quinine. Incredibly persistent, the finish really lingers. This is a thinker of a wine, and I imagine that it has many years ahead of it. I'm putting a few bottles of this down to sleep. If you like Savennières you might consider giving this one a try. And I remind you, it's under $20.

2006 Puzelat Touraine PN, $18, Louis/Dressner Imports. That's right, this is Pinot Noir, and it's delicious, AND it's $18. No, I'm not trying to trick you, I am absolutely serious. The o6 vintage says "PN" on the label, not Pinot Noir, by the way. This has a slightly funky nose of mushrooms and dried leaves, but also of red fruits and violets. A lovely palate of ripe fruit and earth with a bit of rusticity. The tannins have not been polished out of this wine, they are right there and gently providing all the structure you could want. There is a buzz of energy to this wine that makes it great on its own, but even better with food. You could do roast duck, any kind of game, and mushroom soup or risotto would be great too. If you can find this just buy whatever they have, you will not be disappointed. I would enjoy drinking this one over the next year.

By the Glass

I used to call this kind of post "Recent Sips," but I think I like this better. Anyway, here are a few interesting wines from the past month or so that did not get their own post:

BrooklynLady and I learned our lesson, and went to dinner last weekend on our date (no more cooking classes for now). We went to Rosewater, a neighborhood favorite. They believe in using local and sustainably raised foods whenever possible, and the food is generally delicious. Great atmosphere too - small and intimate with flattering lighting, a knowledgeable and friendly owner/host, interesting and satisfying dishes - this place is a winner. Worth coming to from Manhattan, or when visiting NYC. Just take a look at their wine list! Someone cares about this list, you can tell.

BrooklynLady enjoyed her Goose Island Nut Brown Ale from Chicago and I was really impressed with my glass of 2006 Castello di Borghese Sauvignon Blanc (about $20, available at the winery or at Vintage NYC). A relaxed nose with citrus and grassy wisps, and a well balanced palate that followed through on the nose, with a round and smooth texture. This was a great sipper, and it paired very well with our cheese pumpkin risotto appetizer. I bet this would have done well in our recent blind tasting.

I ordered "Rabbit Three Ways" as a main (roasted rack, lardo wrapped loin, confit of leg) - what to drink with this dish? I went with a Gamay from the Loire Valley, a glass of 2006 O. Lemasson Touraine Le P'tit Rouquin ($14 or so, available at stores that carry Dressner wines). This is a challenging wine - I tasted it once before and thought it needed food. The nose is dominated by dried leaves and funk at first. Aeration brings about the cool minty red cherry fruit, but this is a foresty, potting soily wine, and it did go very well with the ever-so-slightly gamey rabbit.

Whites

2006 Jean-Claude Thevenet Mâcon-Villages Pierreclos ($15, readily available). A little Wine Blogging Wednesday research, if you will. This regional wine was dominated by minerals, Minerals on the nose, on the palate, all over the place. It had an almost quinine character to it. Maybe with clams on the half shell, but difficult on its own, not lots of flesh in this one.

2005 Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux (about $23, Dressner stuff again, might be sold out at this point but there are other Chidaine wines on the shelf - try one). I know that some people find this wine to be lacking in acidity. But I really like it. Yes, it's a fleshy and off-dry monster, but it has pretty quince and hazelnut aromas, herbal and woolly complexity, and a great mouth feel. I think this is a great aperitif, or maybe with young and creamy goat cheeses.

2006 Domaine des Cassagnoles Vins de Pays de Cotes de Gascognes Reserve Selection (about $12, should be easy to find - a Peter Weygandt wine). I loved the "regular" version of this Southwest France gem, so tasting the reserve was a no-brainer. This wine is 100% Gros Manseng and its much fleshier and richer than the "regular" blend, with a more floral perfume. Very lovely indeed, although I think the "regular" wine might be more distinctive. At $12 this is a great value too - a $15 beauty without question.

Reds

2006 Domaine du Vissoux Beaujolais Pierre-Marie Chermette ($15, readily available). My first 06 non-Cru (is that a word?) Beaujolais. More stemmy and rustic than the very ripe and easy 05, needs about an hour to show its stuff. When it does, it is lovely red fruit with foresty undertones. Very nice, but not in the same league as the 05.

2002 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses (about $17, readily available). I love it when good producers hold back some of their wine and release it when it's a bit more mature. That's exactly what Raffault has done here. This is the top wine from that estate and 2002 was a good vintage in Chinon. If you come across this it's definitely worth a try. This is light to medium bodied wine with a complex nose of forest and fruit, with plenty of iron minerality. The palate is earthy and broad, with dark fruit and more minerals, maybe a bit of tobacco at the finish. It is graceful in texture and firmly structured at the same time. This could keep aging for sure, but it's fun to taste a high quality somewhat mature Chinon now...

Some Thanksgiving Wines

I wasn't going to get on the "Thanksgiving Wines" bandwagon, but it seems to be some sort of initiation rite for wine bloggers. Who am I to buck the trend? I try to stay hip and to be relevant, but what are you gonna do? So I might as well try to be helpful. Here are a few things that I keep in mind regarding Thanksgiving wine planning:

A) For many of us, Thanksgiving can be an emotionally loaded time. People may not have seen each other in a while, and they may have had plenty of time stuck in traffic or at the airport to get nervous. Keep the alcohol level in your wines as low as possible. Don't throw extra wood on the fire.

B) You know more about wine than anyone else in your family. Stick to wines with flavors and smells that are easy to access and identify. Don't challenge grandma's senses.

C) This is a celebration - its supposed to be fun. Don't spend too much money, because its no fun to watch your uncle fill his glass to the rim with pricey premier cru Burgundy and then spill half on the table.

Some specific suggestions for wines that meet the above criteria and that are also readily available at most large wine stores:

Sparkling Wine - sure, help folks loosen up a bit over an aperitif. Let's open a fun bubbly with bright and fresh flavors, and in this case, with a lovely raspberry color. And at only 7.5% alcohol...fill that flute up to the rim! NV Renardat-Fache Vin de Bugey-Cerdon Methode Ancestrale, $16 is a bubbly winner. This might be a tiny bit tougher to find than the other wines in this post, but you can do it. Get any Bugey rose bubbly if you can't find this one. The wine is made from the Poulsard grape, one of the classic varietals used in the wines of Jura and Bugey. I know - it sounds like I'm breaking rule B because no one will have heard of these places, but the wine is beautiful to look at, full of fresh berry flavors, and it won't get them drunk before dinner.

Whites - You can be confident that the 2005 Clos Roche Blanc Touraine Sauvignon, $12 will be a tasty and fruity Loire Sauvignon Blanc. The price is right, any good wine shop will have it in stock, and it should go well with whatever is on the Thanksgiving table. It comes in at about 12% alcohol though, and you might want to keep it lower if possible. I would bring any white from Kurt Darting's portfolio. Darting is a newfangled producer of German wine, mostly Riesling. You will see his wines for as little as $15, and they weigh in at about 8% alcohol. If your wine shop has it, I recommend the Kabinett Gewurztraminer from either 2004 or 2005. Piercing flavors of lychee and peaches, with nice acidity and a floral freshness. These are definitely off dry wines, but they go well with food.

Reds - Bernard Baudry's wines are a good match with Thanksgiving dinner. You can be proud to open the 2004 or 2005 Chinon Les Granges, $14, or the 2003 Chinon Domaine, $16. I have written about Baudry before. The fruit forward style of these wines combined with the reasonable 12% alcohol level make them a good choice.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends, whatever wine you drink.