The always provocative Randall Grahm, the mind behind Bonny Doon wines, who is also the king of the well-marketed wine (Big House Red, anyone?), was on The Splendid Table (listen to it above) a couple of weekends ago promoting his new book, Been Doon So Long. Not one to miss an opportunity like this one, he stirred the pot on Australian Shiraz, and poked a bit at the well-marketed ones, too.

He did acknowledge that not all Australian Shiraz are manufactured, overdeveloped swamp juice, but if one cares deeply about OZ Shiraz, the main point may have been irritating enough to cause them to miss that.

Too Easy to Get Into
His main position is that many too many a Shiraz from Australia is TOO EASY to drink, thus ruining the experience of (or making more difficult the transition to) balanced, carefully made Shiraz and Syrah from all over the world. "Shiraz" as a moniker has come to embody assembly-line wine with over-the-top, fat, roasted, syrupy qualities, and this is evidenced by estates in California using the name to indicate the nature of a Syrah (which is what it is usually called there). There are even some Australian wine makers who have taken to calling their Shiraz "Syrah" to indicate the style of the wine. Some folks feel that (the stereotypical) OZ Shiraz is the Avignon Papacy compared to the TRUE SYRAH found elsewhere. Nonsense. It is just that the empirically less-interesting--if quite delicious--wine happens to be extending the hand of friendship, while great Syrah often presents (if opened and drunk too young) a clinched fist.

A Problem Where There Shouldn't Be One
Why is it a bad thing that Shiraz should be too easy to drink? Well, nothing, per se, is wrong with that, any more than there is anything wrong with White Zinfandel. Despite some who hold out for White Zin's promise in the way that Sarah Palin thinks that elected officials should be no better than an average person, it really is not a true exposure to the best potential of the wine grape in question. Of White Zinfandel I used to say, "that's not wine." But it technically is, just as Yellow Tail, Little Penguin, Three Monkeys (or any other critter-named wine) are also--despite the purists' desire to deny it--wine.

An unadulterated Zinfandel is a RED WINE, bold, plump with berry fruit and in some regions has the potential for such high alcohol that one bottle alone can be a party. Syrah/Shiraz can and should be in that league too: the nature of Syrah is that it is at its best and most emotionally evocative when it tastes appropriately of fruit AND of herbs, rocks, and the undefinable mystery that only great wine grapes possess.

A Road Map for Peace
To my mind, Syrah should not be a front-line wine. Merlot? Of course! Malbec? Naturally! But well-made Syrah--even when it has a forward, friendly fruitiness--has an aloof quality...the vinous equivalent of a cool reception, which evaporates, however, the more time one spends with it. A great wine grape shouldn't be relegated to making one dimensional wine with such preponderance that its name suffers. Merlot has endured this affront at the hands of some irresponsible growers; Pinot Noir may have dodged it in the post-Sideways drift away from mass-consumption of the variety; let's help Syrah/Shiraz avoid it, too.

I applaud Shiraz if it's tasty (no matter the style) and deplore those that aren't (whether they are tarry and overripe, or so "elegant" that they are "dreadful"). Running alongside this is the assembly-line approach to many Shiraz from Australia, which turns me off: wine is not intended to be manufactured, but shepherded from the vineyards through the winery to the bottle. When most of the Shiraz in the world meets this kind of standard, the swamp juice will disappear, the schism between Shiraz and Syrah will heal, and we can raise a glass of the two together.

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This the reason to have watched the previous video posting. Apparently Welles was drinking the product he was pitching....

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Back in 2005 I became a member of The Wine Century Club. This is hardly an achievement, but it fits my high geek-level. It is a loose-knit (that's an understatement!) group of wine lovers who have tried at least 100 different grape varieties. Considering most wine consumers rarely deviate from their typical encounters with Chardonnay or Merlot, this is going to be a small group.

More Than Just An Excuse to Drink Wine
It actually doesn't require über-geek classification to qualify, so long as you pay attention to the wines you drink and occasionally seek out unusual wines in order to expose yourself to new possibilities. What better reason could there be to drink wine, anyway? There's no sense in lying about it either, because you don't win a prize for having tried 100 different varieties (though you do get a hilarious certificate of membership--suitable for framing, of course).

I think The Wine Century Club does a wonderful thing for wine, in that it encourages wine lovers to try new wines (if they are interested in being involved with such a thing). The group of people who are interested in it are incredibly fun, because they find wine FUN, which negates any exclusiveness one may associate with wine (or with a club of people who've tried over a hundred grape varieties). There are even some local "chapters" of The Wine Century Club around the country: people get together to share some wine, and if you bring an off-beat wine, great, if you bring a Chardonnay, that's great too. And you don't need to be a member to attend. In fact, no one I know who has downloaded the form and filled it out would EVER exclude a non-member of the Wine Century Club from anything to do with wine, because we all want YOU to come share WINE with US.

There Is More than the Club
The man behind The Wine Century Club, Steve De Long, also created an ingenious table of grape varieties based on the layout of the Periodic Table of the Elements (the cunningly titled Wine Grape Varietal Table). If you are into wine but just learning, it can help serve as a basis for understanding your favorite wines. If you are already very experienced with wine, it can provide a solid reference for and reminder of the nature of the grape varieties that we so quickly take for granted. You might guess that I have this item already, but I also bought a fabulous map of the wine regions on the Iberian Peninsula. De Long has also prepared a map of California, which I will purchase alongside a pending map of Italy, which I am eagerly awaiting (because for a while there things were changing in Italian wine legislation as fast as Silvio Berlusconi changes teenage lovers, and I couldn't keep up).

I have no financial interest in these things, by the way--just an interest in sharing the work of a man whose perspectives on wine are not common enough. Check it out--drink some more wine, and join the club.

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Au Bon Climat Hildegard
I just yanked a 2002 of this out of my cellar, opened it and wanted to scream for joy, but my kids were asleep, which doesn't happen easily, so I just went outside and whooped around, pretending the Braves had actually won the World Series.

Its flavors were so vivid and potent that I couldn't have been happier (obviously). The aromas alone were unique and heavenly enough to seduce me--almonds and lavender--but it had a bit of fennel emerging when I tasted it, making it seem at once possessed by the freshness of youth and the wisdom of the ages. This blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Aligoté (!) from California's Central Coast is a unique wine to be sure, and it comes in the single heaviest bottle I have ever held, but it cried out to be drunk with the Thanksgiving feast! One among many I will be drinking (I have a hard time stopping at one, but I don't suggest that everyone take my approach!).

Run, don't walk, to your local retailer (or call them--if they don't have it they can probably order it in by Thanksgiving) and get the current release, which should be the 2004--an amazing vintage of the wine. It's not inexpensive (in the mid-$30s, as I recall), but it is an extraordinarily special wine. And if you are lucky enough to find an older vintage (it matures beautifully--see below), don't hesitate to grab it!

Indeed It Can Last a Long Time...
A friend brought me the 1999 Hildegard recently and it absolutely made my WEEK! Its original release date was September 11, 2001, but that suddenly seemed a frivolous thing, I am sure, and they forgot eventually about it. It's available now at the winery, and may be available in the marketplace, if enough people ask for it.

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There is only a week remaining until one of the most important events on the food/wine pairing calendar! I have always looked forward to this time of year, and when I was a wine retailer it was especially invigorating, because sales were excellent and it was fun to get excited (and get customers excited) about wines for the holidays. Time to spread the joy once more!

Dealing with Thanksgiving Food
The flavors of the foods on the Thanksgiving table are so disjointed that one would almost be better off having a companion drink for each dish rather than a single libation. Or just have water (which is asinine unless alcoholism is a factor, so we'll set THAT idea aside). Back to the food and what's often on the table...turkey (relatively bland); stuffing (rich taste made all the more intense if sausage or oysters are added); green vegetables (green beans are the norm at my house, typically hard on wine); sweet potatoes (rich flavor and welcoming of many wines); cranberry sauce (exuberant flavor, not all that wine friendly); and these are just the basics! Obviously there are too many dishes to even consider multiple wine pairings, so let's look at this a bit more nonchalantly: if you want to taste your drink with your feast, you'll need something with bold flavor. If you want to taste your feast with your drink, you'll need something with some grace. My favorite wines with Thanksgiving are not-necessarily full-bodied, but are somewhat warming, even if normally served cold.

An Opening Consideration
Let's go ahead and eliminate big, fat, oaky wines (this means Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon in their typical guises). Heavy oak treatment generally inhibits a wine's utility with food. There are obviously some Chardonnays and Cabernets Sauvignon that would work fine with Thanksgiving fare, but these will be out of the ordinary. Wines with other stylistic extremes like those with high alcohol levels are fine (as long as they are not too much about themselves (i.e., like the overripe swamp juice out of Australia)), as are those with low alcohol (so long as they still have vivid character). Wines intended for the Thanksgiving table should also have enough zip to pull through the fats in the food, but not so much that your mouth puckers (nor should they be so devoid of "zip" that they seem flabby).

If any of the following suggestions make you think, "What is that wine?", "How can I find that?", or "Now I'm even more confused!", then you should talk to your local retailer. They can help you find the best option for you.

Here are some of my favorite wines for Thanksgiving:

Rosé
How can you go wrong with rosé? The answer is, YOU CAN'T!!!! If you have any left over from summer, now is the time to drink it, and you'll be glad you did. I particularly like rosés made of Pinot Noir, Grenache, Syrah, or Cabernet Sauvignon (here's a good place for Cab Sauv!). Rosés from the Sancerre region of France's Loire Valley are exceptionally good, as are the famous rosés of the Rhone Valley's Tavel region. I just tried a rosé from Oregon--the Big Fire Rosé from R. Stuart that would be perfect.

White
The white wines I am particularly drawn to for Thanksgiving include Gewurztraminer, Riesling, and Grüner Veltliner, but there are many others that I find just as scintillating. Gewürztraminer is a mighty, intensely aromatic wine and it can be like a warm blanket for your palate. In my retail days, I sold more Gewurz at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year because it is so wonderful with the feast. As for Riesling, if you choose off-dry, I prefer Spätlese or Auslese in ripeness, but there are many Kabinett-level wines that can have just as much depth (this is where you'd ask your retailer). If you want a dry Riesling, a big serious wine from a great growing site works best, and usually these wines get better and better with aeration, so if you don't finish it, drink the rest the next day (there's hardly a more soul-stirring experience than this). Grüner Veltliner is glorious here, and you'll be happy you tried it, because it has the staying power to work with the food (surprisingly seamlessly across the table), and is qualitatively superior to it's peers at a similar price point.

Red
I'll also be drinking some Zinfandel. Skip the White Zinfandel, and go for Red. Some like to point out that this is "America's Grape" and what could be more appropriate than that for Thanksgiving? I like to point out that it is genetically identical to European grapes with names like Plavac Mali and Primitivo, so let's drink it for it's merit, shall we? And it has plenty of merit: this year I'll be drinking the Seghesio Home Ranch Zinfandel, and I drank the 2002 Ravenswood Dickerson Zinfandel last year and loved it. A well-made Red Zin has good balance of acidity and fruit and pulls so much of the food on your plate together that it is in the same league as the whites listed above for harmonious food:wine rapport. Another option--a sensational one at that--is Grenache. I like it in the form that is found in the Rhone Valley regions of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas. These velvety wines are so gratifying and emotive that they'll make you think of home, and what could be more appropriate than that for Thanksgiving?

For some other suggestions, go to the Wine Pairing Search and look under "Turkey"

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The obtuse reasoning at the end of this reminds me of "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV."

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