#WineWednesday #Wine thread time. Let's dive into what wines go well with Thanksgiving, besides what's already in your glass at any given moment. Like my old commander used to say at the beginning of a briefing, prepare to copy. https://twitter.com/noodletwoone/status/1329092678378811392

2. There are 2 schools of thought when pairing wine w/ food.
A. Complement the food with wine that has similar flavors
B. Contrast with wine that has flavors which clash against those of the food served (more on this later).

3. If you're complementing, then you must know in detail what you're serving. Easy in this case, because you're serving turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, & cranberry sauce. Except for the cranberry sauce, what 1 ingredient do all these dishes have in common? Butter.

4. If you're like me, you'll probably use what most chefs scientifically all a "metric shit ton" of butter that day. So, butter. Dairy. Fat that coats your entire palate. Salt. Savory. What wine complements salt & butter? Glad you asked.

5. I'm going to over-simplify things, but here goes. CA Chardonnays, usually the ones from the Russian River Valley in Sonoma (but not always) are made like any other wine, with sugars from grapes being fermented into alcohol.

6. At the end of the main fermentation process, sometimes even during, bacteria is introduced to the juice. This has 3 main goals: to release CO2, de-acidify the wine, & convert malic acid found in grape skins into lactic acid. Hence, malolactic fermentation (MLF).

7. MLF (get your minds out of the gutter, class is in session) imparts palate notes you normally associate with dairy products into a Chardonnay. This is why you'll hear guys like me talking ad nauseam about how buttery or creamy a given Chardonnay might be.

8. That covers the complementary flavor. Besides MLF, what other flavor components do most CA chardonnays have? A bit of acid, leaning towards green or red, & occasionally a tropical fruit note. This isn't to say that you're drinking apple or papaya wine at all.

9. It's just how the sugars in the chardonnay grapes transmorgify (another oenophile buzzword for you) into things your brain associates with other fruits. You want some acid in a Chardonnay, especially with Thanksgiving dishes, to help cut through all the fat.

10. My personal preference, besides chardonnay on Thanksgiving, is Riesling. You can go full out with a Kabinett or Spätlese from Germany, which have varying levels of residual sugar (sugars not fermented to alcohol), a nice minerally note, & a hint of nectarine or summer peach,

11. depending on the amount of residual sugar in the Riesling. Because not all the sugars are transmorgified, Rieslings tend to have lower alcohol content than other white wines. My personal preference lately, besides Schloss Vollrads in Mosel, is WA or NY.

12. Why those 2 AVAs (American Viticultural Areas)? Their Rieslings are not overly sweet or cloying, have a nice balance between residual sugar & acid, & are still hefty enough to match with poultry/butter/starch that day.

13. But Dan, you protest, I don't like white wine. No problem there either. Let's visit Oregon, shall we? And yes, you can buy a metric shit ton (there's that scientific terminology again) of Pinot Noir from the Central Coast of CA, like you're Miles in Sideways, but the real

14. magic happens further north. If you were to fly directly west from Bourgogne (Burgundy), the ancestral home of Pinot Noir, you'd end up in Oregon. That totally isn't an exaggeration, look up 44 degrees north latitude. Vitis vinifera vines have been growing here since the

15. 1840s, and now account for almost 2 million cases (9 liters per standard case) sold worldwide each year. The best of these wines are made from Pinot Noir, the most difficult vitis vinifera grape to cultivate. Why difficult? Because Pinot Noir requires a climate with no

16. sharp changes in temperature. Like Goldilocks, it has to be just right - not too hot or cold. Oregon Pinot Noirs tend to be a little lighter than their Central CA cousins - think of red cherries that are just this side of unripe, as opposed to cherry jam.

17. The best part of Oregon Pinot Noir is that, lighter bodied though they may be, they still have enough body to stand up to fish & poultry. The Pinots with a touch of acidity will also cut through all the butter you'll be cooking with on T-day.

18. Are Pinots too light for you? Then head north to WA, whose wine industry predates Oregon's by about 20 years. Thanks to the introduction of widespread irrigation from snowmelt from the Cascades, Bordeaux varietals (Cab Sav, Cab Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot) flourished.

19. I personally wouldn't drink Cab Sav with T-day, but this thread is intended to be descriptive, not prescriptive. You do you, as the young'uns say. With that said, WA Merlot has the right mix of dark berry fruit, tannin, & medium body to go well with turkey/butter/starch.

20. After all this, more heresy from your Twitter Sommelier. You needn't spend more than $15 for a decent bottle of any of the aforementioned wines. I say this because you might have guests, you might use some of the wine in your cooking, or you just might be thirsty.

21. Recommendations (finally)
Russian River Valley Chardonnays under $20:
Sonoma-Cutrer
Raeburn
Hartford Court
Folie-a-Deux
Splurge: Nickel & Nickel, Truchard Vineyard

22. Oregon Pinots under $20:
Elouan
King Estate
A to Z
Cloudline
Splurge: Bergstrom, Cumberland Reserve

23. WA Rieslings:
Chateau Ste Michelle, Eroica
Washington Hills
Poet's Leap

NY Rieslings:
Bellweather
Empire Estate
Element
Hermann Wiemer

24. WA Merlot/Red Blends:
7 Hills
Chateau Ste Michelle, Canoe Ridge
Gordon Estate
Canoe Ridge, Expedition
Splurge: Northstar

25. Here endeth the lesson. Be excellent to each other.