Our First Wine Pick in our Countdown to TDay

Fast facts:

• 2021 Valle de Inez Pinot Noir, San Luis Obispo, CA ($9.99* @ Costco, California – Item #1374624)

*Net price after $10 in store discount

It’s hard to believe, but we will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States in three short weeks.  Then we’re on the slippery slope to the end of year holidays.  But let’s address things one holiday at a time, shall we?

For the next three Thirsty Thursdays, we will be featuring a different wine that has been chosen as suitable for the tall order that is Thanksgiving wine.

The traditional Thanksgiving meal is actually quite difficult to pair wine with. That’s because there tend to be such a wide range of flavors and dishes to contend with. So it is best to forget about the usual suspects: Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Rather than trying to match individual flavors or dishes, go for bottles that complement a wide variety of foods. You need wines that can blanket the entire dinner. At the top of our list is Pinot Noir.  It’s a light-bodied red wine that avoids heavy use of oak. And they tend to pack enough fruit and acid to complement but not overshadow a range of dishes and flavors. (French Gamay, especially Cru Beaujolais, would also when pair well with Thanksgiving dinner as would light Italian reds.)

This particular Pinot Noir from Costco would be a great choice.  It recently made the Wine Enthusiast magazine’s list of Top Pinot Noirs under $20 with a rating of 93 points. And with the $10 discount that is being offered, it is well under $20…

Tasting  Notes:

Courtesy of Wine Enthusiast: “This vintage of Doug Margerum’s more affordable label is a complex and delicious stunner, beginning with opulent aromas of black cherry, wet loam and light mint on the nose. There’s a tight line of stony, loamy minerality on the palate, balancing the wild raspberry, mulberry and black-pepper spice flavors.”

 

We’ll be back next week, with a new Thanksgiving wine pick, this one a white wine.

If you’re headed to Costco soon yourself, you can find our most recent reviews of Costco wines here in our Lucky 13 list.

And if your  shopping finds you at Trader Joe’s, you can find our Lucky 13 list of TJ’s wine here.

Cheers!