Food Friendly Wines For The Holidays At Mellow

Tuesday night was a special Thanksgiving tasting at Mellow. I've written about going to Mellow before and I enjoy the place. I went with my friend Elbert to taste what looked like a good line up of wines (if you saw my basic wines for Thanksgiving list it matched up pretty well). Unfortunately, though the company was enjoyable overall the wines were unimpressive:

Veuve du Vernay Sparkling Brut. It's interesting hearing people talk about this champagne but alas, it's technically a sparkling wine. Although it is from France, it is not from the Champagne district. A very pretty sparkling wine, beautiful bubbles, a little yeasty on the nose but it had no taste at all to either of us.

Willm Gewurztraminer 2007. Another offering from France, this one was more to my liking. Touches of apricot, honey, and spice. Although it is a dry wine we both detected a touch of sweetness. Not a lot of acidity, seemed a little thin but not bad, would make a good simple introduction to Gewurztraminer but not a showcase example of what you can do with the grape.

Morton Estate Pinot Noir 2004. We move from France to New Zealand here, Hawkes Bay to be more precise. This Pinot was rather dark in color and reminded me of a chocolate-flavored brandy. It seemed a bit "hot" in the mouth and it just didn't do much for me. I'd like to try this again, but it really didn't excite me like I thought it would.

Ventana Pinot Noir 2006. This one suited me more. This U. S. offering from the Arroyo Secco AV around Monterey was lighter in color, more the traditional cherry color, delivering milk-chocolate and cherries with a touch of earthiness I like in my reds.

La Tunella Verduzzo 2006. We finish up with a Friulano (Italy), amber in color, honey and apricots, sweet but not too sweet. Not a bad wine but the nose dissipated very quickly. I think it would go well with pate de foie gras.

If I had to make any recommendations out of this list I would suggest first the Ventana Pinot Noir and then the Willm Gewurztraminer and the La Tunella would be an adequate dessert wine.