This year, for a change, we decided to stay home and cook a Thanksgiving dinner. Not being particular fans of turkey, we decided to roast a goose and splurged on a D'Artagnan organic goose. With the goose, we had a corn bread-smoked andouille stuffing for my gluten-free spouse, cranberry chutney and goose gravy. The wines we opened were:
2012 Navarro Gewurztraminer Brut was a fun wine to start with. A touch of RS added some richness but it had the acidity to match and kept the aromatics well in check. I haven't had enough Cremant d'Alsace to know if it's an apt comparison. It went surprisingly well with the sides.1995 Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er was a fairly recent purchase from Envoyer. It started off quite young despite my having given it a hard decant, but showed fairly deep red fruit in the raspberry-cranberry side of the spectrum. The goose overwhelmed it, alas. After a couple of hours, this had really fleshed out and taken on a pronounced earthy character and it went far better with the goose.
1990 Ch. Beaucastel was initially a tad jammy but had the blueberry notes I associate with the high-Mourvedre cepage and took on increasing amounts of horseblanket character as time went on. Not as overtly Bretty as some people's have been, but certainly too Brett-inflected for a couple of friends more attuned to New World wines.1989 Ch. Lynch-Bages didn't scream Bordeaux to me at any point, but could almost have been a quality CalCab. Very cedary with pencil lead and cassis, it really didn't move either Jean or me, sad to say. The cork on this wine was as pristine as could be, looking for all appearances to be brand new, which was a nice testament to our passively cooled cellar where it had lain for the past 22 years.
It was a very fun evening in our unseasonably warm November, with a few friends who needed to blow off steam after their rather drama-filled Thanksgivings. Our son Andrew had a blast gorging himself on the roast goose and trying all of the various wines. He even began to shed his picky eater status by trying (and liking) the cranberry chutney and some berry pie for dessert. I still had no luck trying to get him to try stuffing (which I know he would love).
Happy Thanksgiving to all at afw who celebrate it! Mark Lipton