When it comes to Thanksgiving wine, the best candidates fit a fairly consistent mould:
- Lower alcohol – Below 14%
- Approximately medium body – nothing too extreme from a light or heavy perspective
- Good acidity
Hitting these key points will help keep your guests and food from being overwhelmed by the wine. The acidity is a critical element that will help tie the flavors and textures of the table together. A great choice to help strike the balance of acidity, alcohol, and body, while imparting tons of flavor is Rioja. These tempranillo based wines are typically good value, and have a nice amount of oak and fruits ranging from sour cherry to dried berries. A few weeks back, Wine Library offered Aldonia Rioja 2011 on sale for under $10. They’ve since sold, out, but is it worth it if you can track down a bottle?
Sight: A moderate purple core with a hot pink magenta edge. Hints of brick.
Smell: The smell of a forest floor is immediately apparent, with hints of barnyard. Beyond that, there’s a huge amount of black cherry, smoke, and tar. The earthiness add mushrooms, dark chocolate powder, a certain acidic and jammy tangy red fruit note.
Sip: A medium body, with a good amount of acidity from the get go. The wine builds in acidity, and it a little angular, not quite every smoothing out. There’s a huge amount of black cherry, plums, vanilla, smoke, and burnt oak. The earthy flavors are all still present, but fruit attempts to balance.
Savor: The ending is very earthy with notes of farm, chocolate, and hints of black cherries. Mildly tannic on the finish, and ready for food.
Aldonia Rioja 2011 is incredibly earthy, perhaps too much so. While there are some super awesome and deep fruit flavors of black cherry and plum, there’s also an overwhelming hit of smoke and earthy barnyard. As thanksgiving goes, Aldonia Rioja 2011 might be a little intense, but fans of earthy reds could appreciate this.
Verdict: Barnyard, Smoke, Black Cherry, Oak
Price: $10 on sale ($14.99 normally)
Rioja, Spain
Looking for a less intense alternative? Try Mano a Mano Tempranillo 2011 or Kirkland Rioja Reserva 2009