Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday especially since my birthday is always close to it. The menu is frozen in time as my family does not want any changes but...
This year
23 pound turkey
gravy
chestnut stuffing
baked potatoes and sweet potatoes
Spinach souffle
Cranberry relish
New this year-- stir fried Kale
Apple tart
Pecan pie
Chocolate
Italian pastries from Ferraras
Wine -- Chalone 2006 Pinot Noir magnum Everyone loved this wine last year so I bought some magnums. Wine was great.

I have been under the weather lately so my wine tasting has slowed down.
November is the time for Nouveau Beaujolais. It is not great wine but it is a tradition. Some years it is not drinkable. This year it was. It comes by air for the week before Thanksgiving and then it comes by boat. I bought the Dubeouf 2012 Nouveau for $7.98, which was a great price by air.


Pre- Thanksgiving dinner

Friends over for dinner. Menu of cheeses, scallops with fried rice, duck breast with roasted fingerling potatoes, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, citrus sorbet and chocolate truffles that I made. Wines
2004 Bodegas El Nido Jumilla Clio A darling of the critics but not my type of wine. Light in color,nice bouquet, no real mouth feel, it opened up slowly, good initial taste, no middle and not a great finish. Not sure if I had an off day but this is not the quality of wine that people are proclaiming it. Do not be intimidated by Parker who gave it a great score. Finished my meal with a 1966 Warre's port which was wonderful. The Clio is somewhere between a port and wine and it is neither.15.5% alcohol for a wine is goofy. I am curious to try this wine again but I think that the emperor has no clothes.
 Prosecco  A generic sparkler that we had with the cheese
Chalone 07 chardonnay - Love this wine as always.
1966 and 77 Warres ports. My friends gave me the 66 as a wedding present. 26 years in my cellar and the port was awesome. It had a light color but a beautiful nose. The taste was intense but not overpowering. The 77 is a good port but when we drank it with the 66 it did not compare. These ports were a real treat. I had never had wine or port like these.

2010 Bordeaux

Critics are calling this a good year. I have not tried one yet. They are on my short list to try. I am still seeing a number of 2009 Bordeaux's available at great prices.

My Birthday

For my birthday we went to the Borgata in Atlantic City. I was still somewhat under the weather. We had dinner at the bar in SeaBlue, Michael Mina's restaurant. We had eaten there before and had good food. Ate mussels in broth, naan, onion rings and mini lobster rolls. The wine was a Pascal Jolivet 2010 Puilly Fume. We had a 1/2 bottle for $30. We had profiteroles stuffed with ice cream for dessert. Everything was very good and it was not expensive.

They have wonderful wine lists at the  restaurants at the Borgata. They are available online to check out before you go. Some of the pricier wines are especially good values. They had a Grand Cru Chablis for $100 which was a great price in a restaurant for that wine. I was tempted but did not feel like drinking much wine that night. I will need to return.

Enjoy the holiday season. Let me know if you find any interesting food or wines for holiday gifts.