The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

From last Thursday's Thanksgiving feast, all I can say is... Turkey with Pinot Noir. For me - from Burgundy, of course. Robert Chevillon's 2006 Nuits-Saint-Georges "Les Bousselots" 1er Cru is so seductively perfumey, it undresses you with one whiff! No need to get overly creative, my friends. Perfection is perfect!

If you've never had an Austrian sparkling wine (called "Sekt" in Austria and Germany), then you are like me. Or more precisely like I used to be until today's Thanksgiving dinner when I tried my first bottle. And boy, what a wine! For years, I've been searching for a wine that goes with Russian cold appetizers (salads, cured meats and fish, all kinds of salty, vinegary, and savory goodies), and this most excellent sparkler fit the bill perfectly. Perhaps it's the relative similarity of Russian, German, and Austrian cuisines that makes Austria's wines suit the Russian table? My family were impressed (not an easy feat for a gang used to drinking everything from Shaoxing rice wine to tequila to vodka). Wiener Gemischter Satz Sekt is not the type you are likely to see even in the most esoteric wine shops (but check wine-searcher.com, this wine costs ~$30-35), and is yet another fabulous find in my recent chain of Austrian revelations ! Vienna is the only cap...

This was the second year in a row that my wife and I hosted the "day-after-Thanksgiving" party for our friends at our historic home in Palo Alto - hopefully two years in a row means "tradition". This time we focused on making the juiciest turkey possible (free-range willie bird from AG Ferrari that we brined for 24 hours in salt-herb-and-spice solution), stuffed with oranges, lemons and herbs from our garden, accompanied by home-made gravy (infused with Pinot Grigio) and oven- and grill-roasted autumn vegetables (beets, carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, shallots, brussels sprouts with sea-salt and dressing drizzled on top). Our friends brought various appetizers and desserts: home-made cheese spreads (zesty!), marinated cooked grapes (tasty!), crab cakes (always satisfying!), pickled veggy salads (interesting), bean & walnut salad (yum!), stuffing (of course), pumpkin cheesecake (delicous), pecan pie (sweet), and more things I can't remember. So it...