The Thanksgiving Wine Episode

The Thanksgiving Wine Episode – Episode #356

November 22, 2007

Today Gary unveils the Turkey 4 pack and walks you through the tasting, make sure to gather all your friends and family and enjoy the THUNDER SHOW!

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Comments on this episode(151) Leave a comment ›

“Happy Thanksgiving a year plus late! QOTD: No wine shipping to WA st…” by Dessert Wine Nerd
“But please, come to visit our cellar ; you will see that there is no d…” by Nicolas Marie
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Wines tasted in this episode:

2006 Premiado TorrontesArgentine Torrontes
2005 Cantina Dolianova Monica Di Sardegna ArenadaMonica di Cagliari
2004 Dubakella Pinot NoirOther California Pinot Noir
2004 Chateau Cambon La PelouseOther Red Bordeaux

Links mentioned in todays episode.

151 Responses

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December 30, 2008

Dessert Wine Nerd
Happy Thanksgiving a year plus late! QOTD: No wine shipping to WA state!!!! *cries*
February 7, 2008

Nicolas Marie
But please, come to visit our cellar ; you will see that there is no dry sausages and even less rats ,

See you,
Nicolas Marie.
P.S. : pix of our cellar on : http://www.cambon-la-pelouse.com
January 31, 2008

Nicolas Marie
Thanx Gary for this interesting & energetic review of the ChÃ¢teau Cambon la Pelouse 2004,
Best Regards,
Nicolas Marie.
Marketing Manager’s ChÃ¢teau Cambon la Pelouse.
January 10, 2008

angus
Your Jets best opportunity is to stick with as many Ducks as possible! Clemens, another in our legacy of qbs! GO DUCKS!…and Jets. Angus
December 3, 2007

Kristen
Ok so we finally did the tasting and it was great. I think you’ve got some new Vayniacs as well! You were spot on about the pinesol smell in the Torrentes. Though after the bottle had been opened for awhile I went back to it and on the nose I got one of those gummy Japanese candies that come in a little tub. I really liked that one. We were all surprised with the pinot- 14.5%! And for the Haut Medoc we had a little test. We kept half in the bottle to decant and used a Vinturi wine aerator to “decant” the other half. It was really interesting- the bottle half was definitely more tannic at the midpalette than the other Vinturi one.
December 1, 2007

Lyn S
QOTD: Hubby, Mom, Daughter and my Brother and his GF watched with me. Everyone enjoyed the show. Everyone had a few laughs . My brother is a new fan. My hubby thinks your nuts. My Mom thinks I’M nuts for watching. We talked about decanting and other stuff I’ve learned from watching. Thanks for being with us on Thanksgiving Day Gary.
November 30, 2007

Marc
Really enjoyed the bordeaux, liked the Monica di Cagliari, will open the Torrontes tonight. I hate to be a party pooper, but the Pinot sucked beyond belief! First, the cork shattered which made me think “uh oh”. Then it smelled like it had already been open for days. And then we tasted it and after one sip, both of us said “ewwwwwwwwwwwww”. So, we let it sit a few hours and tried again…ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww again!!! The rest found its way down the drain. Bummer.
November 29, 2007

yowens
Everyone loved the pinot
November 29, 2007

SoCal
Sorry No thanksgiving 4 pack.
November 28, 2007

Pamela
PS the dubakella and Cambon were brilliant the next day
November 28, 2007

Pamela
One out of my three thanks guests joined me for the viewing and totally enjoyed it. The coolest thing that happened today, and maybe you won’t find it so cool but since I have only been “studing” wine for 11 months it is cool to me…ok it is this – the wine glasses got confused and I picked up one gave it a sniffy _ _ _ _ _ and knew it was pinot noir, without really paying attention to what I was doing! it was just a perfect moment, right there on thanksgivings!
November 27, 2007

scc
My gf, mom, and grandma sat with me (and a plate of assorted cheeses) to watch the episode while we tasted along before the rest of our family showed up for dinner. My mom was proud to declare she tasted red currant (although, she has never eaten currant of any sort) and my grandma looked at us all slightly askew as we laughed along as you talked about grabbing your pee-pee in the outfield (to her credit, it was 2:30PM and she hadn’t eaten all day, so it might have been the wine talkin’).
ANYWAY… it was great fun, and so was sharing the wines at dinner and enjoying the leftovers since. I hope you do more “packs” in the future.
(ps, after the tasting we tried the Ski Queen cheese, which i couldn’t pass up when i found it in the store… it was interesting…)
November 26, 2007

Mr. Ambassador
Thanks for another great show. I’ve viewed this episode several times (once on Thanksgiving and once after).

As we live in Washington State and share Thanksgiving with friends and family here we couldn’t receive shipping on the four-pack, though I’ll be the first in line if you’re ever able to ship to us again…

After listening to your tasting notes concerning the Torrontes and checking out some of the user posts it sounds as though this variety is a winner; I’ll be looking to try some when I spot it here.

We assembled our own wines for Thanksgiving including:

McKinley Springs – Horse Heaven Hills Rose (some interesting vegetal notes I think you’d appreciate)
Dr. Loosen Riesling (one of the last bottles I had from a past Wine Library order)
Domaine La Garrigue
Rosenblum “Chateau LaPaws” Cote Du Bone Roan

Sorry about the Jets. It’s funny that the one thing we kept mentioning during the game was how upset it was going to make GV.
November 26, 2007

BrianS
Drunkin birds again
November 26, 2007

late-start
I wished I could have drank along with everyone else. Gary: I think you should do more of these prepackaged mystery boxes and then review them on a future episode.
November 26, 2007

Elliot Essman
I missed this excellent four-pack, but my own wines went over well.

Out of 16 people, however, one drank the white, the other 15 went for the reds.

I will adjust next year, but that leaves two unopened excellent whites for me.
November 26, 2007

Lb in KS
Looking for some confirmation….. Did I see LARS in an insurance company commericial this weekend…I believe during the KU/MU game.
November 26, 2007

Cliff A
QOTD: Gary the 4 pack was a big hit at my sister’s house in North Carolina. Gathered were Mom, sister Patti, sister Susan, brother-in-law Marty and nephew Jim (1st LT,USA). We tasted prior to watching you taste. Pretty much, we were all in the ball park with you. Jim really liked the Torrontes and sipped on it all the way up to dinner. Marty was partial to the Monica and my two sisters and Mom liked the Pinot best. I thought they were all interesting, but finish the Bordeaux. WOW as that guy evolved!! I had decanted the Pinot and Bordeaux 3 1/2 hours prior to tasting and that proved to be the right thing. So thanks for helping to create Thanksgiving memories with the 4 pack.

Oh, with the dinner I added a bottle of the 2005 Coume del Mas Collioure Schistes – DOUBLE WOW. This one is great and paired well with the T-Day dinner.
November 26, 2007

Susan
Susan-Glad to see that I am not the only one who wants a Christmas 4 pack!!!
November 26, 2007

Kodi
I am a long time lurker that finally has to come out after having a great time with the 4 pack. It was a lot of fun to share most of the day with you but my wife and I only made it through three of the four and found them all pretty interesting. The kids also enjoyed watching and wanted to know why you had a wristband just like mine!!!

We started at lunch (the first round of Turkey) moments before we started watching the show. The Torrentes nose was puzzling us until you nailed it with the lemon floor cleaner – this was a pretty interesting wine and paired well with our spicey deep fried turkey. After a nap we got ready for the pre dinner drink of the Monica with you. This was proabably our favorite but was better the next day. The Pinot did not bring a lot of thunder because I could not get past the alcohol on the nose and we had not let it breath very long (an hour). But after taking your advice we pumped it and reopened it the next day to let it breath for 6 hours on Black Friday and it was much, much nicer.

With the Bordeaux we cheated and watched the video first to see that we needed to let it decant for a while so we will have to put some thought into when to try it.

The one problem with the pack is that too many of the wines were not ready to drink… and we were… And as much fun as we had with it (and we really did)and all that we learned (thank you) the one suggestion for future packs would be to put just one ringer in there that you know most folks will like and is pretty ready to drink. Then I would feel a lot better about buying future packs for friends/relatives (that might not be so adventurous) to try out.

But thanks again for joining us for a great day!

BTW we had a 2005 Yorba Barbera (http://yorbawines.com/wines.html) that a friend gave us the other night and it was pretty awesome!! If you are doing a Barbera show it is a must!
November 26, 2007

jim
late post but I loved the show. How about an XMas 4 pack I would be in for that.
November 26, 2007

MtnCharlie
Happy (late) Thanksgiving.

QOTD: While we did not have the 4-pack, we did have a wonderful meal (my family, my wife’s parents and her grand mother) and a fantastic Sancerre.
November 26, 2007

JeffC
G-man, sorry about your Jets. If the Jets victory celebration offer was to be a good as the Thanksgiving 4-pak, I feel robbed also. My wife and I tried the 4-pak with all of our meals this past holiday weekend and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Thanksgiving dinner, we tried the Chateau Cambon and loved it. The Torrontes we tasted the following day with left-overs and thought it paired very well, another winner. The Pinot we had with beef stroganoff (sp), and loved how it paired with the rich flavors of the dish. I used a little to deglaze the pan so it was included in the dish also. Intial impression was it tasted more like a Zin than a Pinot. Very delicous wine. The last but not least, Cantina Dolianova Monica , we enjoyed with a simple pizza and salad. We enjoyed all of your selections. My favorite of the Chateau Cambon, my wifes was the Torrentes. Many thanks. I liked the comments left by someone else, how about a xmas sampler? Keep up the great work, love what you are doing.
November 26, 2007

mattyO
didn’t get the 4-pack but i watched on t-day and was wishing i had! sounded fantastic! by the way, in a recent episode i watched, GV made a point that, to him, the best wines in America were coming out of the state of washington…true fact. i had an excellent riesling from washington and plan to try more from that great state. thanks for doing the show gary, we love ya!
November 25, 2007

Rico
QOTD: cant’ say anything about the 4pack it was sold out really quick and could not get one for me