Two years ago, I'd shared the recommendation that in pairing food and wine on thanksgiving, drink what you like. I still believe in that philosophy, but in posting an entry on this year's Thanksgiving meal on my primary blog, in which I elaborated on our refinements in brining and grilling a turkey, I also noted a trend in pairing Chateauneuf-du-Papes with turkey over the years.
The photo on the left is of the Rhone wines we had with turkey last year - the 1998 Patrick Le Sec Chateauneuf du Pape "Aurore", the 1998 Domaine de Villeneuve "Ville Vignes" and the 1999 Chateau St. Cosme Gigondas - the photo on the right is of the two we had with turkey this year - the 1998 Domaine de Villeneuve Chateauneuf-du-Pape "Ville Vignes" (again) and the 2000 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape "Chaupin". Of all of these, the Janasse is my favorite (in general, and with the turkey).
I believe most, if not all, of these are based predominantly on the Grenache grape, and so, as I noted in my main blog post, I may experiment with some single varietal Grenache next year, and perhaps a bit of Cinsault (Chateau Ste. Michelle offered their first single varietal bottlings of each grape this past year, and both sold out very quickly to Wine Club members).
I decided to repost this information here, as this is the forum in which I like to log my most interesting experiences with food and wine pairing ... and Chateauneuf-du-Pape may not be an obvious choice for most people looking for wines to pair with turkey.
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