Giving Thanks For Wine
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008by Jay Erisman, EQ Wine and Spirits Manager
Here are a couple of no-brainer wines for your Thanksgiving table, or indeed any holiday dinner. Both Ecker Grüner Veltliner and Ramsay Pinot Noir are superbly balanced and more than flexible enough to swing with the diverse and challenging food matches common to a Thanksgiving dinner.
From all of us in the EQ, have a simply super Thanksgiving.
Ecker Grüner Veltliner, Austria/Weinland, 2007 liter $12.99
Anyone looking for a dry, savory, insanely good value white wine for their holiday table should consider the fat liter bottle of Ecker’s 2007 Grüner Veltliner. Master importer Terry Theise offered a perfect description of this wine which I shall borrow: “Slim and racy, spring water strained through herbs.” The lithe, thyme/green bean/mineral flavors of Grüner are backed by fairly generous ripe fruit in a zesty, bone-dry palate. Matched against such tough Thanksgiving customers as The Green Bean Casserole, Ecker suggests: have seconds.
Ramsay Pinot Noir, North Coast, 2006
Ramsay Pinot Noir is a terrific Thanksgiving wine, and I have the scars to prove it. In 2001, my first holiday season at The Party Source, Ramsay was all the rage with our staff and customers. Case after case of this well-balanced, juicy, P. Noir left the store. In the midst of the biggest wine selling days of the year, it felt like Cincinnati was inhaling Ramsay Pinot Noir. Well, despite our enormous warehouse, we of course ran out of Ramsay the day before Thanksgiving. A concerned elderly customer came asking for more Ramsay–nothing else would do for her family but this terrific Pinot value. I had to inform her that, sadly, we had run out of Ramsay–and then she smacked me! True story. I’m pleased to say that the 2006 Ramsay is better than ever, and seven years later is still a square deal at $17.99.



















