Vino 40/40 Cabernet Franc
Mendoza, Argentina

Williams Corner Wine | Passion Distributing

$24.99


Cabernet Franc is a protean grape, shapeshifting based on the temperature, sunlight, and soils available to it. In the Loire Valley, close to the northerly limit of grapevine cultivation, it can be light and perfumed with floral notes and delicate structure. In the heat of California, it can be robust and gastronomic with notes of dried cranberries and baked raspberries. And in the heights of Argentina, bathed in subtropical sun but cooled by wind coming off the Andes, Cabernet Franc can produce a wine that is both light and textural, fresh and earthy.

Vino 40/40, the vineyard of internationally esteemed biodynamic oenologist Lucas Pfister, is located near the 40-kilometer marker of Mendoza’s iconic Ruta 40 (hence the unsimplified fraction). The 40/40 vineyards are rocky and dry, experiencing as little as one inch of rainfall annually. The high altitude and low latitude produce hot sunbaked days and bitterly cold Andean nights. These punishing conditions bring out refreshing acidity and concentrated, ripe fruit flavors. In the winery, Pfister takes a gentle, low-intervention approach to winemaking to avoid obscuring the austere beauty of the grapes themselves. Limited extraction keeps the wines light and low alcohol, protecting the more volatile flavor compounds sometimes lost in more aggressive winemaking techniques. No sulfur is added, and the fermentation is long and slow using only the natural yeast present on the grape skins. Their Cabernet Franc exhibits lively notes of ripe black cherries combined with aromas reminiscent of chai or stuffing spices, while a pliant yet prodigious body produces a wine perfect for pairing with poultry.
-Abigail Dahlke

Ovum Wine Music for Lovers Gewürztraminer 
Rogue Valley, Oregon

Free Run Wine Merchants

Regular: $31.99
SALE: $24.99


Ovum has become one of my favorite producers over the past decade. Despite my enduring skepticism of many natural wineries, I am continually impressed by the quality and consistency of Ovum's craft. It can be all too easy to succumb to the pitfalls of the natural wine ethos, producing wines that are volatile, uneven, and unappealing. Yet, with each vintage, they seems to defy the odds to deliver wines of sophistication, elegance, poise, and place -- no mean feat considering the number of technical hurdles they must clear with little-to-no opportunity for intervention in the winemaking process.


Ovum’s Music for Lovers Gewürztraminer comes from the Gerber vineyard (perched at an impressive 1600 ft. elevation) within Oregon’s Rogue Valley. While the more famous Willamette Valley to the north is known for its temperate climate that fosters world class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines, Rogue Valley is markedly warmer with a longer, later ripening season. The husband-and-wife duo John House and Ksenija Kostic started Ovum to explore Riesling and other varieties that were overlooked by the ubiquity of Pinot and Chardonnay across Willamette. Rogue Valley offered exciting variation with a more diverse selection of varieties to experiment with. In particular, Gerber Vineyard’s elevation, broad diurnal range, and alluvial clay with silty sandy soil composition made it a compelling candidate. 


Like all of their wines, Music for Lovers is free of all fermentation additives: no sulfur, nutrients, enzymes, or yeasts are added to modulate the fermentation process. Native yeast fermentation occurs spontaneously in a mix of concrete egg fermenters and acacia barrels before ageing on the fine lees for 9 months. The wine is then racked and blended for bottling without fining or cold stabilization. Only minimal effective SO2 is added to ensure consistency. 

Gewürztraminer redefined what wine was capable of to me when I was first learning about wine in earnest. Intensely perfumed and aromatic, Gewürztraminer sets itself apart the moment you pull the cork from the bottle. Ovum’s profile varies somewhat from its Alsatian cousins, but it hits many of the same name notes with a tropical twist. Perfumed aromas of candied orange peel, honeysuckle, roses, and lychee fruit. The palate is full-bodied, rich, oily, and viscous with a touch of sweetness. Salted grapefruit, nectarine, Mandarin orange, and poached pear on the palate. The finish has notes of candied ginger and citrus pith. With the intense mix of flavors, aromas, and varying degrees of savory, sweet, and rich cuisine that comprise Thanksgiving dinners, Music for Lovers is guaranteed to add interest and unity to every bite! 
-Andrew Sayers

Terre Rouge Mourvèdre

Sierra Foothills, California

Salveto Distributing

Regular: $34.99

SALE: $29.99

Too few wine lovers get the chance to try a perfectly aged, mature wine in its peak drinking window. Cellaring wines yourself requires ideal storage conditions and superhuman patience, and already-aged wines can be hard to find—and expensive. Enter Terre Rouge winery in the Sierra Foothills of central California. Owner-winemaker Bill Easton was one of the pioneers of Rhône varietals (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, et al.) in California in the 1980s. He makes small-production, organically farmed Rhône-style wines at high elevations in the hills east of Sacramento. Terre Rouge was recently named one of the top 100 wineries in the world by Wine & Spirits Magazine. The name is a nod both to the vermillion soils of the region and to the stylistic lean of the wines, which skew more earthy-French than fruity-Californian. Bill cellars his wines for years before releasing them, ensuring they are perfectly aged upon release.


The Terre Rouge Mourvèdre comes from the 2014 vintage. The thick-skinned, sun-loving Mourvèdre grape (the “M” of GSM blends) is most closely associated with Bandol in Provence, France. Terre Rouge’s version is simultaneously more expansive and riper, while still preserving the grape’s classic savory, meaty profile. An impressive concentration of ripe black plum, blackberry, and smoky oak flavors is complemented by a leathery character that has emerged with age. Mourvèdre’s famously firm tannins have softened over the years into a ripe, mouth-filling texture, making this the perfect slow holiday sipper.

This wine is a perfect illustration of the magic that can happen over a long, gentle aging period, when distinct flavors meld into something greater than the sum of their parts. Limited quantities are available. Happy Thanksgiving!
-Benjamin Glass

Lioco Wine Co. Chardonnay
Sonoma County, California

Potomac Selections

$29.99

Lioco Winery was founded in 2005 out of an effort to create a more nuanced style of California wine than is typical. Lioco is owned and operated by husband-and-wife duo Matt and Sara Licklider, who source their fruit from family-owned ranches spread across five California counties. There are no estate-owned vineyards; instead, fruit is sourced from sustainable, organic, and biodynamic sites.

Lioco wines are made with minimal intervention. Their winemakers believe that if the grapes are holistically grown, there is little they can do to improve them. Their job, as they see it, is simply to usher the grapes through fermentation and into the bottle with as little human influence as possible.

The fruit for this Chardonnay was hand-picked and fermented mostly in stainless-steel tanks, with some neutral oak. They use a mix of French oak barrels—but zero new oak. A selection of complementary Sonoma County vineyards comes together to form this wine, with the winemaker’s intention being to express the region’s unique character. Warm days, cool nights, and oceanic fog help create nuanced Chardonnays balanced by crisp acidity.

Enough of the technical stuff—what’s the Lioco Chardonnay actually like? Well, it is absolutely splendid! Aromas and flavors of pear, lemon custard, tangerine, fennel, and wet stone combine to create a harmonious palate that’s sure to please even the most devoted Burgundy lovers. The wine is somehow rich on the palate without being weighty or buttery. It shows perfectly integrated, well-balanced acidity and a long, flavorful finish.


I believe the Lioco Sonoma County Chardonnay will be a perfect complement to your holiday meals—from turkey with stuffing and gravy to a holiday ham, and everything in between. If you wanted red with your meal, try the Lioco Mendocino Pinot Noir. It's equally fantastic!

Cheers!

-Dan Zetlmeisl

Red Tail Ridge Pinot Noir Pét-Nat 
Finger Lakes, New York

Salveto Distributing

$29.99


For hundreds of years, Italy has celebrated the natural union of good food and sparkling red wine. Thankfully, the U.S. has begun appreciating this pairing as well. Once regarded as a curiosity (think big, rich, inky, powerful sparkling Australian Shiraz) or dismissed as sweet, simple plonk (Riunite Lambrusco in the ’70s and ’80s), sparkling red wine has now found its rightful place at the dining table.


And for good reason! Bubbly red is the perfect match for a feast, combining the zip and freshness of white wine with the ripe fruit and tannic grip of red—a perfect complement to the Thanksgiving spread in all its diversity of flavor.


This November 27th, I will have on hand at least one bottle of Red Tail Ridge’s Sparkling Pinot Noir. I can’t think of a wine that tastes more like Thanksgiving itself. The nose shows fresh cranberries and raspberries, cream, bark, and a little earth. The texture is lovely: a soft but lively mousse and a light richness balanced by vibrant acidity. The palate offers ripe red berries, cream, anise, clove, dried cranberries, and faint leather. A hint of residual sugar rounds everything out. The Red Tail Ridge is remarkably pleasant and easy to drink—one of those rare wines that will please both novices and wine nerds alike.

A word of warning: please, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before opening! This sparkling Pinot is a Pét-Nat and will foam ferociously if opened warm. Pét-Nat (short for pétillant naturel, or “naturally sparkling”) is a style of sparkling wine that predates Champagne. Unlike Champagne, in which wines are blended and undergo a second fermentation due to the addition of yeast and sugar, Pét-Nats are created by bottling while the wine is still fermenting, resulting in a product that remains alive and evolving—natural bubbles!


Many Pét-Nats are funky and cloudy, but the Red Tail Ridge Pinot (though unfined and unfiltered) is clean and clear. This is due to the winemaking skill of Nancy Irelan, owner and winemaker at Red Tail Ridge—one of the greatest living American winemakers and a pioneer of Finger Lakes oenology. In 2004, after years of research into soils and topography, she left her position in California as Gallo’s VP of Viticulture and Oenology and purchased land along Lake Seneca to create Red Tail Ridge.


This Thanksgiving, my bottles of Red Tail Ridge Pét-Nat will pay homage to a pioneering American winemaker, a great East Coast winegrowing region, and general tastiness and good cheer. Happy Thanksgiving, all!
-Kasimir Bujak

Domaine Huet 'Le Mont' Demi-Sec
Vouvray, Loire, France

The Rare Wine Co. | Roanoke Valley Wine Company

$56.99


Stop being afraid of drinking a little sugar—it's Thanksgiving!


My Turkey Day bottle this year is Domaine Huet’s Le Mont Demi-Sec 2022. The legendary Chenin Blanc producer from the Loire Valley was founded in 1928 by Victor Huet. His son, Gaston, began running the estate in 1937 and, throughout the 20th century, helped establish Domaine Huet as one of the most respected white wine producers in the world. Domaine Huet produces Chenin Blanc in various styles and sweetness levels: Pétillant, Sec, Demi-Sec, Moelleux, and some of the finest dessert wines in great vintages.


Domaine Huet has long practiced biodynamic farming, and their attention to detail and purity shows in each of their bottlings. It can be argued that the Le Mont vineyard of the Première Côte is the best in Vouvray, with its stone and green clay soils that produce wines of minerality and precision. Grapes are hand-harvested in two to three passes each vintage to ensure perfect ripeness. Whole bunches are pressed, and fermentation takes place in old demi-muids and tanks. After fermentation, the wines are racked in old barrels throughout the winter, then bottled in spring. The winery neither encourages nor discourages malolactic fermentation. Le Mont Demi-Sec 2022 was bottled with 22 g/L of residual sugar.


Le Mont Demi-Sec 2022 is an expressive wine with complex aromas and a laser-focused palate. A slightly floral bouquet of jasmine and orange blossom accompanies freshly juiced pear, dried apricot, and honey. On the palate, light sweetness is perfectly balanced by bright acidity. Flavors of dried apricot, ripe peach, golden apple, jasmine, developing honeycomb, and lemon peel are vivid and lingering. The finish is long and palate-awakening, with a slight stony, mineral grip.

This Demi-Sec is a perfect aperitif, an ideal pairing for the entire Turkey Day spread, and can even carry you all the way through sweet potato pie and bread pudding. It’s exciting to imagine how its aromas and flavors will develop over the coming years—drink now through 2050 (properly stored)!
-Matthew Supik