It’s 7 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and you’re about to push your grocery-laden shopping cart through the checkout line, eager to get home. And that’s when you suddenly realize you don’t have any wine for your holiday dinner. What’s the harried shopper to do, especially since it’s probably too late to get to the liquor store?
Just wheel the cart out of line and head back to the wine aisle. The selection at neighborhood groceries may not be as complete as that at a fine wine shop, but it has improved dramatically over the past couple of the years. Most of the national chains, and not just Whole Foods and Central Market, have beefed up their offerings, realizing their customers want one place to buy everything from disposable diapers to floral bouquets. You can find plenty of more than serviceable wines for less than $15.
So, if you’re stuck for time or in any other kind of pinch, consider these wines:
• The old reliables: Kendall-Jackson, Gallo of Sonoma, Turning Leaf, Fetzer Vineyards and Glen Ellyn won’t impress a wine snob, but they’re reasonably priced (especially for the 1.5-liter bottle) and food friendly. Also, most are made with this sort of event in mind, where you get a lot of people with different tastes who just want some wine with dinner and don’t need to hold a panel discussion on food pairings.
• Something sweeter: Thanksgiving is the holiday that even the most jaded of us let white zinfandel take its place at the table. But if you want something more sophisticated, look for white wines from Alsace’s Hugel, which specializes in light, off-dry wines. Hugel Gentil is especially white zinfandel-friendly.
• Imports, imports and more imports: The Australians, and especially Black Swan (around $7), do a decent job, as do the Chileans. I recently tasted several Santa Carolina varieties (each around $7) and was impressed. They’re a little thinner than their $10 cousins from Los Vascos and Montes, but when time is of the essence, they’re more than adequate.
Merlin’s cornbread-chicken dressing
There is no actual recipe for this dish. Merlin Kleinpeter, one of the best cooks I ever knew, did it all from feel and never wrote it down. But this is pretty close, and one year. I’ll get it exactly right. This makes enough to stuff a 12-pound turkey, plus extra to bake by itself.
Makes 8-10 cups; takes about an hour
8 cups day-old cornbread
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery
2 cloves chopped garlic
1-2 cups cooked chicken, torn into pieces
1-2 cups chicken stock
2 eggs
Salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
1. Saute the onions, peppers and celery in 4 tablespoons olive oil until soft. Add the garlic, and saute for 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
2. Put the corn bread and cooked chicken in a large bowl. Add the sautéed vegetables, the salt, cayenne and black pepper, and mix well.
3. Add one egg and ¼ cup of stock. Mix well. The stuffing should be very moist. If not’s not, add the second egg and enough stock until it is — about the consistency of thick oatmeal.
4. Stuff the turkey, and cook until the turkey is done. Or bake covered in a greased casserole dish at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until almost firm. Remove the cover, and bake 5-10 minutes until the top is brown.
Ask the wine guy
What does méthode champenoise mean? I see it on champagne bottles all the time.
Méthode champenoise is the centuries-old method for making Champagne and sparkling wine. It means the wine was fermented a second time in the bottle, which produces those small, tight streams of bubbles in quality sparkling wine (among other things).
Méthode champenoise (also called method traditionelle) wines are not necessarily better (Italy’s proseccos and astis don’t use it, for example), but it is one difference between some cheaper sparklers and more expensive, complex ones.
