It sure seems like a Costco Christmas, doesn't it? We thought about that as we considered our recommendations for Thanksgiving wine this year.Thanksgiving is the single most special meal of the year for many of us and the wine choice is always a matter of intense consideration. Every wine writer dutifully offers advice on the "perfect" pairing, but there are far too many variables -- from what flavor Jell-O mold to whether the bird is turkey, goose or actually made of tofu -- to make any single choice.
Cabernet Sauvignon goes great with the Thanksgiving bird. Tastings columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher suggest some surprising places to buy bottles of wine, and Blenders that won't roast your wallet.
Overall, it's important that the wine be fairly light on its feet -- not too alcoholic, not heavy, not overly oaky -- so it doesn't seem like yet another side dish on a table already overloaded with them. Many people start the festivities with sparkling wine as an aperitif, so keep in mind that sparklers are often outstanding accompaniments to food, too, because of their good acidity and bubbly digestibility. If you serve a white wine, we once conducted a tasting with our own annual Thanksgiving meal -- roast turkey, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with marshmallows -- and found that a dry Riesling or Pinot Gris from the U.S. worked well. In terms of reds, Pinot Noir is a fine choice, especially the ever-improving Pinots from Oregon.
Now, all that said, our longtime advice for Thanksgiving -- what we have enjoyed every year -- is an American Cabernet Sauvignon with some age on it. Here, briefly, are the reasons: 1) It's an American holiday and the wine should be American. 2) We prefer red wine with the meal because it stands up to such an imposing menu and it's appropriate to the season. 3) Good Cabernet Sauvignon has the structure, stature and bearing to belong at the Thanksgiving table. It's not for nothing that America's best, most-famous and most-expensive wines continue to be made from Cabernet. 4) An older Cabernet, with tastes that have melded and tannins that have softened, is great with both white and dark turkey meat and pairs well with the other dishes without overwhelming them.
So if you do have any older Cabernet Sauvignon around the house, now is the time to open one. The grim financial news of the past few months certainly should remind all of us that the time to drink our good wine and give thanks for what we have is now.
We realize that most Americans don't have any older Cabernet in the house, but we would still recommend Cabernet for Thanksgiving. It is the world's most majestic red grape, after all, and this is the time to showcase it. There are more and more outstanding merchants these days who would love to talk with you about a fine wine for Thanksgiving. Where do Americans actually buy wine, though? Costco.
[Wines at Club Stores] Juliette Borda
The Dow Jones Warehouse Cabernet for Thanksgiving Index
In a tasting of every American Cabernet Sauvignon we could find at Costco and Sam's Club stores in New Jersey, these were our favorites. If you were going to buy your Thanksgiving Cabernet from these stores, these are the ones we would recommend. The offerings at the warehouse stores generally do not include many outstanding, small-production Cabernets that are available at the burgeoning number of excellent neighborhood wine stores all over the U.S. The prices we have listed are the prices we paid at the Costco and Sam's stores. The Charles Krug and Raymond generally cost about $5 more, while the others cost about what we paid.
Charles Krug Winery 2005 (Yountville, Napa Valley). $20.99.
Very Good.
Best of tasting (tie).
Lovely dark color, with cedar on the nose. Ripe, dark fruit, excellent tannins and some aging potential. A complete wine, with layers of flavor -- Bordeaux-like structure and rich California fruit.
Simi Winery 2005 (Alexander Valley). $20.48.
Very Good.
Best of tasting (tie).
Looks rich and even smells like ripe, chewy fruit, with blackberries, blueberries and savory spices of the kind we'd put into stuffing. Earthy, with good tannins and a little bit of bittersweet chocolate. Big, rich, friendly wine.
J. Lohr Winery Estates "Seven Oaks" 2006 (Paso Robles). $11.52.
Good/Very Good.
Best value.
Pleasant and grapey, with some acidity and blackberry fruit. Nicely dry finish, with some herbs and pepper. Well-balanced. This will be drunk merrily. We didn't like the 2004.
Raymond Vineyard & Cellar "Reserve" 2005 (Napa Valley). $22.99.
Very Good.
Lovely fruit and nicely dry. Tastes classy, with some structure and even a hint of tobacco, like a fine Bordeaux. A wine of some stature, appropriate to a fine meal.
Sterling Vineyards 2005 (Napa Valley). $20.86.
Good/Very Good.
Crisp, clean and nicely acidic. Mouth-watering, with some minerals and a nice little bite at the end. Good with food because it's not too heavy. John thought it was thin; Dottie thought it was simply restrained.
NOTE: Wines are rated on a scale that ranges: Yech, OK, Good, Very Good, Delicious and Delicious!
Costco has become America's wine store. Its world-wide sales of wine in the fiscal year ended Aug. 31 totaled $1.1 billion, the company said. In the U.S., Costco warehouse-club stores sold more than 75 million bottles of wine, making it the nation's top retailer of wine.
After a slow start, Wal-Mart is trying to catch up. More than 2,000 of its stores now have beer and wine licenses and of the 594 Sam's Club stores, 453 sell wine. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club declined to release any figures on their wine sales, but of all the money that Americans spend on wine at stores in the U.S., 10% is spent at club stores, according to Nielsen Co., which tracks sales in food and drug stores.
It seems to us, in these difficult times, that many people will be looking to Costco and Sam's for their Thanksgiving wine. So we visited Costco and Sam's stores and picked up every American Cabernet Sauvignon they offered, regardless of price or vintage.
What we have said about Costco's wine prices in the past -- and what we found again this year, both at Costco and Sam's -- is that the prices are good. They are not giving away wine at ridiculously low prices and, in fact, just about all of the wines are available for less somewhere else. But the prices are consistently in the low range among stores, so that, overall, the prices are fair and reasonable, especially because buying wine and food at the same place saves gas.
We found 40 different U.S. Cabernets at Costco and Sam's. The selection at Sam's was lower-end, with most of the wines priced at $20 or less. The only bottle that cost more than $26 was Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages 2000, which was $54.56. Most of the wines were familiar names, though we also saw, for the first time, Newman's Own Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 ($12.88). Costco also offers low-end wines, but has made its reputation by selling wines in all price ranges. Among the wines we bought there were Pine Ridge ($65.99), Grgich Hills ($53.99), Silverado ($42.99) and Joseph Phelps ($43.99). We also found a Robert Mondavi Reserve 2005 for $98.99.
Because of the high turnover, you can never be sure what wine you will find at any Costco or Sam's, but, overall, they provide a pretty good overview of wider-distribution American Cabernet Sauvignon, with names like Beaulieu, Beringer, Kendall-Jackson, Kenwood and Louis Martini. Most of the wines we bought were from the fine 2005 vintage. Neither Costco nor Sam's offered a house-brand Cabernet when we were shopping, but Costco did have a house-brand Kirkland Meritage 2005 (a Bordeaux-style blend that, in this case, was 29% Cabernet), so we included that. Most of the wines at Costco and Sam's are produced in significant quantities by large companies, such as Constellation Brands, that own many wineries. For the kind of small-production, personal Cabernets that often offer special depth and vision, it really is a good idea to visit a fine local wine store.
DO THEY STACK UP?
We tasted the 40 wines in blind flights over several nights. Foremost on our minds: Is this a wine we would recommend to friends for the most festive, most carefully prepared, most filling dinner of the year?
Toasting a New Vintage
A few of Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher's favorite wines to still celebrate the arrival of 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau. Read Wine Notes.
On Nov. 20, you'll have the chance to enjoy the earliest fruits of the French harvest. See the list of worldwide Beaujolais Nouveau parties.
The answer, in far too many cases, was no. For years now, we have warned that American Cabernet Sauvignon was getting stupid. Instead of layers of flavor dominated by rich fruit, too many have become leaden and lab-made, tasting more of vanilla, oak, herbal infusions and even sugar.
Unfortunately, this tasting showed that this sad trend has continued. A majority of these wines would be absolutely wrong with your Thanksgiving meal -- far too sweet, far too heavy. It is so important that wines have good acidity and a clean, dry finish so diners are prepared for the next bite of food. Too often, these left us feeling that we'd just sucked down some pancake syrup.
Your guests would not drink them lustily because they are hard to drink. They would eat less because the wine itself is so heavy. They would not enjoy dinner as much because they wouldn't be drinking wine as freely as they might, and conversation -- the precious time together getting caught up -- would certainly suffer. And you know how carefully you chose just the right herbs for the stuffing? Forget it. No one would be able to taste that kind of subtlety. (By the way, we liked the expensive Mondavi, but it was not among our favorites. We did not like the Kirkland Meritage or Newman's Own.)
That means it's important to choose very carefully (and at these stores you're likely on your own). There were some exceptions, as listed in the attached index, and these are the ones we'd recommend. These are wines that tasted like Cabernet, with good fruit, nice acidity and real balance. Any one of them would be a fine addition to your Thanksgiving meal. From the first whiff to the long finish, these would remind everyone at the table that America's bounty includes some fine wines.
Good American Cabernet tastes like America to us and gives us something special in our glass with which to toast a future that we're sure will be very exciting. Happy Thanksgiving.
