Written by Alexandria Hilton
This November, gratitude is the word here at ATI.
Mindful consumption is one way I often practice gratitude. As long as I remember to do it (this remembering is the key!), I’ll take just one brief moment at meal time to think of the land that grew my food, the soil and the nutrients and even the machines or hands that harvested the crops, the packaging and processing facilities, the trucks and their drivers and the grocery workers who stock the aisles each and every day — for those of us green-thumbed home-growers whose windowsill herb gardens are not exactly thriving, a meal only lands itself on the dining room table after passage through many hands and myriad processes.
And is a meal even a meal without wine???
When you start talking wine, there are countless more mechanical processes and magical sugars and memory-triggering phenolics and just…. endless opportunities to be grateful!
Just after my 21st birthday (okay… maybe just before!), I fell in love with wine as a study of the world, each varietal a way to more deeply understand the land of a new place, its climate and soil, the tastes of its people and popular dishes. For the first time in my entire time as a student, reading my textbook felt like traveling — a method of acquiring knowledge I’ve always seemed to prefer to classroom learning. . .
In 2022, I spent 2 months in Cape Town learning from and serving alongside Tatenda, a knowledgeable and jolly Zimbabwean, the lead Sommelier in the Delaire Graff Restaurant at the time.
With Thanksgiving sure to arrive before we know it, now is as good a time as ever to start planning your menu! Perhaps you are thinking of sprinkling in some foreign flavors you encountered this year or maybe you’ve already begun ordering wines for the holiday, shipping them in from some faraway winery. As you sit and sip and laugh with loved ones, take a mindful moment to relish in the mini journey offered up to you right there in your glass!
And if you need some inspiration, that’s obviously what I’m here for! Here are the wines I’m dreaming of this month:
1. Beaujolais Nouveau
Thanksgiving and Beaujolais Nouveau will forever go hand-in-hand for me. The glass that kicked off my quest for my first (only) wine certification swirled with Gamay, banana laffy taffy and bubblegum jumped from within the rim of expensive, polished glassware. I was in Napa Valley but it tasted like I was just-south-of-Burgundy, apparently.
Every third Thursday of November, the first harvest of the Northern Hemisphere is celebrated with the release of a youthful, vibrant, and wonderfully unserious style of wine in the region of Beaujolais on a day known as Beaujolais Nouveau Day. This wine, unlike so many others, has a sense of humor! And pairs really well with Thanksgiving foods, as if the two late-November holidays were destined to nestle up next to one another, fit snugly like two pieces of a puzzle.
The woman who taught me everything I know about wine reiterated over and over that paramount to all other measures in tasting is the degree to which the taster actually likes the wine. I enjoy the silly, immature nature of a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau and what it means because French wines can be so…French sometimes! You know?! If you’re after something easy-going, have a look for a bottle as soon as it drops or even look into pre-order options!
2. Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2021
In an effort to counter the misconception that New Zealand is only good for Sauvignon Blanc and sheep, I’d like to include a little bit about my time there. While the country’s white wine and the wool have certainly earned every ounce of their global acclaim, the Otago region of Aotearoa’s South Island is producing pinot noir like you’ve never tasted and serving scenes fit for fantasy at every step.
I hiked quite a bit of the South Island at the start of this year. Otago for me went something like this: Queenstown was crowded and expensive and I was pleasantly surprised by Lake Hāwea, although it rained for two days and I pulled one of my most strenuous days to get to Highland Creek Hut, where I’d stay the night before heading into Wānaka, the place I’d rent a room and give my hair a proper wash for the first time in two (or maybe three) weeks. I have a deep appreciation for this land, having walked a good chunk of it with my own two feet, having seen a decent bit with my own two eyes.
An enigma, tamed with little human intervention, this wine region deserves your attention in more ways than one. Wild cherry and wild thyme characterize the Otago red I’m stuck on these days. Like the rivers that led the way for me on-trail, The 2021 Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir flows gracefully like silk and, at the risk of mis-translating for the wine herself, would love nothing more than to stand up to the depth, warmth, richness of an American Thanksgiving.
So, yes! If you are a traditional celebrator, these two energetic reds will pair nicely with sliced turkey and herbed stuffing.
3. Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2021
If your family, like mine, celebrates a bit differently, I have great news! We can stay south of the equator and still celebrate with chardonnay! Margaret River is one of Australia’s most noteworthy wine regions and well-worth the visit. Leeuwin Estate, as one of the pioneers of wine in this region of Western Australia, has expertly positioned themselves at the cross-section of culture and wine, the winery itself a microcosm of our human world’s elegant dance between art and science.
Their 2021 Art Series Chardonnay undoubtedly drinks best at a table on the Estate’s verandah or on a walk through the gallery below but if you can get your hands on a bottle before Thanksgiving, the vintage is a lovely expression of a rather misunderstood varietal. Instead of nosing around for the heavy vanilla notes characteristic of a typical California Chardonnay, get curious about the white nectarine or nashi pear in this wine. Maybe upon a second or third sip, you’ll find nutmeg or even wet stone.
It’s stone crab season here in Sarasota! If shellfish is more your jam than cranberry sauce, find something understated and well-balanced that won’t attack your palate!
Whatever you drink at Thanksgiving dinner, make sure that it takes you some place lovely, somewhere you feel like you’re properly on holiday. And wherever you choose to go for the holiday, go safely, hug your people hard and hold them close and tell them all the ways they fill you with gratitude.
