Sips: Beyond Champagne, Bubbly from Alsace -- Lucien Albrecht’s Blanc de Blancs

In these persistently challenging economic times, Champagne may be prohibitive or seem extravagant this holiday season. Fortunately, there is no shortage of moderately priced sparkling wines from which to choose. Do they offer the cachet or  unmistakable elegance of good Champagne? Not quite. But they can indeed provide a pleasing and festive experience at much  more affordable prices.  I’ll be sampling a number of them in coming weeks, but one early standout is from France’s Alsace region, Lucien Albrecht’s Crémant d’Alsace Brut Blanc de Blancs. In Champagne, of course, blanc de blancs refers to wines made entirely from chardonnay. Albrecht’s blanc de blancs, by contrast is is from pinot blanc, one of Alsace’s signature varieties, which is highly successful in this crisp yet fruity wine. With its fine bubbles and aromas and tastes that suggest green apple, herbs and freshly baked bread, enjoy it with a variety of hors d’oeuvres, sushi and fish dishes. The suggested price is $20. Imported by Pasternak Wine Imports, Harrison, New York. Received as a press sample.

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Thanksgiving wine lists: what Randall Grahm and others in the business are thankful for

There is no shortage of Thanksgiving wine advice out there, so instead of joining the pack, as I have for most of the last decade with my own pronouncements about Thanksgiving wine pairings, I decided to do something different this year. What were some of my friends and colleagues in the wine business planning to serve or recommend – from wine styles to regions to individual bottles? A set of email queries prompted a quick response and a broad range of possibilities, which included wines from California, Oregon, Washington, many parts of France as well as Italy, Austria, Germany and Chile. If one theme emerged, it is this: when it comes to Thanksgiving, there are very few rules about wine. Like the stuffing or the gravy, everyone’s tastes and preferences are going to be different. I would add (and the responses largely bear this out) that the wines, whether red or white, will work best when they are on the leaner and less  alcoholic side. Beyond that, my friends seemed to gravitate toward wines with finesse and individuality, as you’re about to see.

The most enviable response came from Joshua Greene, editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits Magazine, for which I occasionally serve on tasting panels. Josh said he would raise a glass, in absentia, from Spain, where he will be meeting on Thursday with the owner of one of the great Rioja producers, R. López de Heredia. “Will think of turkey, native Americans and pilgrims,” he said, “as I toast with a 1981 Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia.”

Randall Grahm, the founder and self-proclaimed president-for-life of California’s Bonny Doon Vineyard, put Thanksgiving in the context of his own wine evolution (or is it revolution?). He wrote: “These days – and I’m more or less counting on this being a semi-permanent state of affairs – I’m pretty much only interested in wines that might be called vins de terroir: wines that express a sense of place, but also wines that exhibit a quality of minerality or life-force (two sides of the same coin). As it turns out, I do think that these sorts of dynamic ‘vital’ wines are in fact a great foil to turkey, which is itself, shall we say, somewhat static.” Among whites, Randall is thinking about a dry riesling from France’s Alsace, perhaps an older example from Fréderic Emile, or one from Austria’s Wachau, or a grüner veltliner, perhaps a Prager Grüner Alte Reben. For reds, he said, “it will most likely be infanticide of an ’05 red Burgundy,” perhaps from Fourier, definitely decanted, or maybe a Cornas from the northern Rhône. As an apéritif, he’s going to try to get his hands on some of Eric Bordelet’s Poire “Granit,” a pear cider from Normandy.

The Daily Sip: a notable dry riesling from Alsace

As I’ve noted here recently, there’s still a good deal of confusion among wine drinkers about riesling; many still don’t realize that riesling is not just a “sweet” wine, but is made in a full range of  styles, depending on the region and the winemaker. For crisp, dry  rieslings, France’s Alsace  stands out, and Helfrich’s 2009 Riesling shows just why. This superb wine has beautiful fruit, including notes of mandarin, lime and green apple skin punctuated by a burst of mouth-tingling minerality. It’s Helfrich’s basic riesling and sells for about $12-$15, a real value and an excellent introduction to what dry riesling is all about. Serve with seafood, Asian dishes or as an aperitif. Imported by Underdog Wine Merchants, Livermore, California. Received as a press sample.

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Sips: a lucky find on the wine list – a gewürztraminer with a little age

Gewurztraminer, the highly aromatic variety found in Alsace, Germany, northern Italy and beyond, deserves far more attention that it gets. When you hit the right example, almost nothing beats it in terms of interest and complexity. It can also be a problem solver – for example, when four people order very different appetizers, as we did not long ago at The Chanticleer, the venerable restaurant on Nantucket. That’s because gewürztraminer is one of the ultimate food wines, able to match well with any number of dishes, especially highly seasoned and spicy foods. And so, when the four of us ordered everything from tuna tartare to various salads, I was pleased to see a gewürztraminer or two on the list and chose Domaines Schlumberger’s 2004 “Fleur” Gewurztraminer from France’s Alsace.

Now this is one of Schlumberger’s basic offerings, a wine that retails for about $22 or so (I think we paid about double that in the restaurant), and I knew from the start that it would not be the profound wine that I might expect with a grand cru offering. But I appreciated the fact that the wine had a few years or so of bottle age, and I tip my hat to the restaurant both for including the variety and offering a wine that has benefited from some time. That benefit was clear in the lovely fruit, which included ripe pear, peach and dried apricot. But that was only half the story. The fruit was accompanied by the floral and herbal notes that are gewürztraminer's signature and, at this point in the wine’s life, they were in just the right proportion, accenting instead of dominating, which can be the case with very young gewürztraminer. The match was splendid with my tuna tartare and its piquant chili mayo sauce. One cautionary note: we should have stuck with gewürz for our main courses; after the powerful tastes of the Schlumberger, a white Burgundy (a Montlouis) was just too delicate.

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2009 Thanksgiving wines

In case you hadn’t noticed, Thanksgiving wine advice is coming in fast and furiously, and I thought I’d share my own take on the subject with my annual MSNBC Thanksgiving wine column.  As

you’ll see, there are any number of ways to go. I’d also like to know what you think. Do you have a favorite red or white Thanksgiving wine? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

Gewürztraminer

I started out, as I do on many evenings, by grabbing a few bottles of white that might work with our meal and shoving them into the freezer. Yes, I confess that I chill my wines quickly in the freezer when I’m in a rush. Sometimes I’ll even douse them with cold water beforehand to speed up the process. No, it’s not a terribly elegant picture – pushing aside the containers of half-eaten Hä agen-Dazs, the frozen tomatoes and leftover sausages, to make way for the wine bottles. But it does work, unless, of course, you forget to take them out. Twenty minutes or so is all it takes.

The centerpiece of tonight’s dinner was flounder fillets roasted with a simple coating of coarse Dijon mustard and a splash of white wine. The wine possibilities were a simple Vin de Pays from the south of France made from the ugni blanc and colombard grapes; an insolia from Sicily, and a gewürztraminer from France’s Alsace region. Turns out the gewürz did the trick – Hugel’s 2007 Gewürztraminer “Hugel,” a lovely $24 wine that has great balance and complexity with signature gewürz floral and herbal notes, along with pear, apricot and honey, and a good deal of spice on the finish.  This would also be a superb white for all the tastes of Thanksgiving as Gewürztraminer won’t easily be bullied by food. Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York.